in early stages of bitcoin era, the war on exchanges has started doing victims

[EuroTrash]

# Bitfloor just got their bank account closed
# Bitcoin-24 got both their German and Polish bank accounts frozen
# CaVirtEx got their Royal Bank account closed, not sure how to fund them right now
# MtGox survives and thrives although some users claim to be waiting since 2 weeks for SEPA withdrawals while for some others it works fine. And Bank of America has disabled transfers to their Japan account. BoA also claims the block is at Gox's Japanese bank.
# BTC-E rejects many claims of accounts being hacked - I wouldn't trust a Russian exchange run by unknown people anyway sorry.
# BitStamp survives and thrives so far thanks to lax legislation in Slovenia.
# BTCChina - no info at all about these?
# TradeHill - back from the dead - good for companies maybe. 10000$ minimum to get in and trade 1000$ at a time
# CampBX - this seems to be working although with very low daily limits

Did I forget anyone? Also pls correct anything inexact above.

[kokjo]

if current system is too bad, go use person-2-person transactions.

[MOB]

BTCChina is fine, but good luck getting your CNY out of there in any other form than BTC.  Of course if you are actually Chinese then it shouldn't be a problem.

[glendall]

Really? Geez.... I didn't know about these things happening...

Sucks most about RBC. Was going to open an account there because of that ability to transfer money to CaVirtEx.

[wobber]

Close the bank accounts and price WILL skyrocket.

[kokjo]

Close the bank accounts and price WILL skyrocket.

wrong. people will panic, and lose faith in bitcoin.

[Chalkbot]

Close the bank accounts and price WILL skyrocket.

wrong. people will panic, and lose faith in bitcoin.

How could you lose faith in bitcoin when it's entire purpose is to protect against a governing entity severing you from your cash... and that is exactly what is happening here. Bitcoin withdrawls still functioning normally!

[wobber]

Close the bank accounts and price WILL skyrocket.

wrong. people will panic, and lose faith in bitcoin.

Or start using it, not speculating.

[kokjo]

I CAN'T GET MY MONEY BACK! SELL SELL SELL! ARRRHRHRHRH!!!

[BTC Books]

Camp BX should start to do pretty well...

[Frozenlock]

Did CaVirtEx close their RBC account themselves, or was it the bank's decision?

[dbanga85]

you don't need Exchanges to get Cash or BTC..

[BitcoinAshley]

Well, you forgot a lot, since exchanges are popping up left and right these days, with numerous funding options.

However, OTC is ALWAYS an option unless you're a day-trader or a speculator trying to make short-term gains by getting in at the perfect price. For most folks going long on BTC and using it for online purchases, OTC is a great option. I'm mainly referring to OTC - cash in person, but there is also online OTC for those who know how WoT works.
Sooner rather than later we're going to start to see coin shops buying and selling btc  

[glendall]

I guess that may be a plus side: if banks shutter there doors to BTC then they'll likely be less speculators because it is too much of a hassle transferring funds in and out, and that it turn I'd expect would lead to more price stabilization .

[600watt]

I guess that may be a plus side: if banks shutter there doors to BTC then they'll likely be less speculators because it is too much of a hassle transferring funds in and out, and that it turn I'd expect would lead to more price stabilization .

the opposite is true. the harder it is to particitpate for the average person the lesser will those people pour into the btc system. the only way for btc to get recognized more is its usage among ordinary people. if that fails, btc will fail. we need to get people INTO the system. as soon as one has some btc in a wallet, he or she starts taking care of it, gets informed, gets involved. and that is what we need. user friendliness.

[uMMcQxCWELNzkt]

None of my BTC have come from exchanges, or even from buying or mining as of yet, as it is complicated in the UK I have been improvising lol .

[hlynur]

bought most of my bitcoins via bitcoin.de.
it's a relatively small exchange with direct money transfers between user's bank accounts. (ca. 50.000 user accounts so far)
(prices compared to mt. gox suck big time, but i still wait for finishing of my sepa transfer and right now I'm not too sure how long the gox account in poland will stay as it's mentioned others there are already shut down)
today that exchange anounced a planned collaboration with some partner from financial sector (perhaps in germany?) which could lead to some bigger exchange in europe.
we'll see if it's just bragging but it definitively sounds like some good developement for european exchanges.
And somewhere on the forums i read that there's some exchange soon to open in london.
I'm curious how governments will start reacting to the fast expansion of this sector.

[Luis_GT]

You haven't been here long since you failed to mention tradehill 

[BTC Books]

You haven't been here long since you failed to mention tradehill 

Indeed.  There's a reason why most of the old-timers won't use Dwolla, and never will.

[Luis_GT]

I almost forgot... bitcoinica... for those of us who where Zhou tongued