What happens if Mt. Gox or Coinbase (etc) go down forever?

[McPhereson]

It doesn't seem completely impossible, does it? How many of you would panic and sell whatever you had in your wallets? What would you do?

...maybe this isn't a problem for you. why/why not?
Obviously "Hurr I don't use mt.gox or coinbase"/"I only have BTC in these places immediately before a transaction takes place" is a given, but I was hoping for some more in-depth discussion on this.

[peepee]

It doesn't seem completely impossible, does it? How many of you would panic and sell whatever you had in your wallets? What would you do?

...maybe this isn't a problem for you. why/why not?
Obviously "Hurr I don't use mt.gox or coinbase"/"I only have BTC in these places immediately before a transaction takes place" is a given, but I was hoping for some more in-depth discussion on this.

I would laugh at you panic sell while staring at my beautiful coins in my encrypted qt wallet.

Keep your coins off exchanges while not trading. Period.

It's PEER TO PEER for a reason. Fuck centralized exchanges.

[Chet]

 This entire market is on the move. As fast as one head gets cut off two more will grow to replace it.

Fear not, fear is the little death.

[McPhereson]

I don't need reassurance, but not everyone thinks like this. My solution was selling BTC enough to pay for my initial investment. For all purposes, I'm just playing with funny money now. Does anyone just see btc solely as an investment rather than a currency? I'd be happy to see people buying more tangible goods with it, but I feel like it has to "mature" a bit before it reaches that point.

[canada]

I'm going to put away 10BTC for my daughter's uni fund for 15 years from now 

[darkmule]

It doesn't seem completely impossible, does it? How many of you would panic and sell whatever you had in your wallets? What would you do?

I'd be buying from the people panic selling.

[AMuppInTime]

I'm going to put away 10BTC for my daughter's uni fund for 15 years from now 

LOL @ canada. Everyone is doing that, plus saving 10 BTC for MY retirement

[empoweoqwj]

It doesn't seem completely impossible, does it? How many of you would panic and sell whatever you had in your wallets? What would you do?

...maybe this isn't a problem for you. why/why not?
Obviously "Hurr I don't use mt.gox or coinbase"/"I only have BTC in these places immediately before a transaction takes place" is a given, but I was hoping for some more in-depth discussion on this.

If they were going to go down forever they probably wouldn't tell you ahead of the event.

Not sure what sort of in-depth discussion you are looking for beyond (a) only keep a "trading" amount in these exchanges, and (b) don't use an exchange if you think they are on the verge of disappearing.