Self Regulation Or Else ... Govt Intervention

[Armis]

When things are all rosy and profits are flowing everyone wants govt to go away, but as soon as markets fall, profits turn to losses, business leaders get irresponsible, and customers service is nowhere to be found suddenly govt is speed dial 1.

2014 is the time when the various facets of the cryptocurrency industry must start forming alliances to monitor, certify, verify, or otherwise regulate the industry. sector by sector.  


Yesterday's pump and dump hurt tomorrows promising CC start-ups.  Security must be increased on every level.    The cryptocurrency community must prove to the world that it can be trusted with the world currency even if it has 300 different faces.

[sharkin]

It will be self regulated soon enough by one of these people:
Either A. someone wealthy who lost a lot of money due to Mt Scam, hires someone
or      B. someone not so wealthy lost all their money do to Mt Scam, is going to go crazy

The end result will be the same, someone murders the criminals at Mt Scam.
Gov't regulation - guy goes to minimum security prison for a year or gets off on a technicality





 

[ZephramC]

There should be possibility of more security on the expense of less freedom and self-responsibility.
There should also remain possibility of unregulated trading without regulation or assurances where everyone have to do his own research and act responsibly.

(By "should" I mean "obstacles shall not be put in way", no one should hinder it. I do not mean "It ought to be done and someone should enforce it.")

[DooMAD]

It doesn't need regulation of any kind.  Regulation will kill the currency.  It needs less reliance on shitty, centralised, third-party exchanges like Gox.

[silversurfer1958]

Regulation may come, but it's not needed, the idea of Bitcoin is that it is free of Human intervention and Laws, if ever it 'needs' regulation and laws to keep it running smoothly, then it's no better than the corrupt fiat system we already have.
what happened to Dark Wallet.

[kkaspar]

Nooo, self-regulation is evil because it needs work... let's just hide our heads in sand and wish we can get rich quick by buying low and selling high.. the free market will sort out everything!


Now, with jokes aside, I have been trying to tell everyone that there needs to be self-regulation in the market system, but I have basically gotten zero interest on that idea.
I think that bitcoin is doomed, because most in the community are lazy, uneducated and have a vision of an mole. They are the same people who listen to motivational speakers and buy self-help books, so they can be millionaires. No real work or development is needed for those people, you only have to believe really hard that you are awesome, and red carpets will roll and champagne will fall from the sky!
When most of the community consists of people like that, then it's foolish to hope that anything gets done. Everyone will just wish really hard that bitcoin will cost quad-zillions in the future and they will be the new wealthy l33t.

[rat]

It doesn't need regulation of any kind.  Regulation will kill the currency.  It needs less reliance on shitty, centralised, third-party exchanges like Gox.

which won't happen w/o regulation. stop being a child.

[DooMAD]

Nooo, self-regulation is evil because it needs work... let's just hide our heads in sand and wish we can get rich quick by buying low and selling high.. the free market will sort out everything!


Now, with jokes aside, I have been trying to tell everyone that there needs to be self-regulation in the market system, but I have basically gotten zero interest on that idea.
I think that bitcoin is doomed, because most in the community are lazy, uneducated and have a vision of an mole. They are the same people who listen to motivational speakers and buy self-help books, so they can be millionaires. No real work or development is needed for those people, you only have to believe really hard that you are awesome, and red carpets will roll and champagne will fall from the sky!
When most of the community consists of people like that, then it's foolish to hope that anything gets done. Everyone will just wish really hard that bitcoin will cost quad-zillions in the future and they will be the new wealthy l33t.

I know it's tempting to dismiss counter arguments by portraying the people making those arguments as stupid or lazy, but I assure you it's not doing your argument any favours.  If you want to change people's minds, you have to come up with something a little more substantial than ridicule.

The argument against you is that Bitcoin's current implementation is a pure transaction between two parties.  Any attempt to regulate or legislate automatically adds more parties to the mix and therefore breaks the "pure" system we currently enjoy.  It's neither lazy nor stupid to argue against the point you're trying to make.  It leads in a direction that the vast majority of us do not want to go.

It doesn't need regulation of any kind.  Regulation will kill the currency.  It needs less reliance on shitty, centralised, third-party exchanges like Gox.

which won't happen w/o regulation. stop being a child.

Ditto for you.  You're not making a case, you're just throwing words around.

[kkaspar]

Nooo, self-regulation is evil because it needs work... let's just hide our heads in sand and wish we can get rich quick by buying low and selling high.. the free market will sort out everything!


Now, with jokes aside, I have been trying to tell everyone that there needs to be self-regulation in the market system, but I have basically gotten zero interest on that idea.
I think that bitcoin is doomed, because most in the community are lazy, uneducated and have a vision of an mole. They are the same people who listen to motivational speakers and buy self-help books, so they can be millionaires. No real work or development is needed for those people, you only have to believe really hard that you are awesome, and red carpets will roll and champagne will fall from the sky!
When most of the community consists of people like that, then it's foolish to hope that anything gets done. Everyone will just wish really hard that bitcoin will cost quad-zillions in the future and they will be the new wealthy l33t.

I know it's tempting to dismiss counter arguments by portraying the people making those arguments as stupid or lazy, but I assure you it's not doing your argument any favours.  If you want to change people's minds, you have to come up with something a little more substantial than ridicule.

The argument against you is that Bitcoin's current implementation is a pure transaction between two parties.  Any attempt to regulate or legislate automatically adds more parties to the mix and therefore breaks the "pure" system we currently enjoy.  It's neither lazy nor stupid to argue against the point you're trying to make.  It leads in a direction that the vast majority of us do not want to go.

It doesn't need regulation of any kind.  Regulation will kill the currency.  It needs less reliance on shitty, centralised, third-party exchanges like Gox.

which won't happen w/o regulation. stop being a child.

Ditto for you.  You're not making a case, you're just throwing words around.

Well, I tried as you can see from this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=452586.msg5001943#msg5001943

But when only "counter-arguments" I got, were "but..but.. government regulations are bad!" or "but.. but... the banks are also bad!"... Then I lost all hope... No one is interesting in creating a self-regulatory system that would build integrity and trust around the bitcoin market system. No one got worried that if MtGox falls, then people will think "how can I trust any of those exchanges?".. All I got were silly excuses on why we should just keep burying our heads in sand and hope that the problems will solve itself.

So, you may see the reason on why I'm not showing much respect towards this community.

[DooMAD]

Nooo, self-regulation is evil because it needs work... let's just hide our heads in sand and wish we can get rich quick by buying low and selling high.. the free market will sort out everything!


Now, with jokes aside, I have been trying to tell everyone that there needs to be self-regulation in the market system, but I have basically gotten zero interest on that idea.
I think that bitcoin is doomed, because most in the community are lazy, uneducated and have a vision of an mole. They are the same people who listen to motivational speakers and buy self-help books, so they can be millionaires. No real work or development is needed for those people, you only have to believe really hard that you are awesome, and red carpets will roll and champagne will fall from the sky!
When most of the community consists of people like that, then it's foolish to hope that anything gets done. Everyone will just wish really hard that bitcoin will cost quad-zillions in the future and they will be the new wealthy l33t.

I know it's tempting to dismiss counter arguments by portraying the people making those arguments as stupid or lazy, but I assure you it's not doing your argument any favours.  If you want to change people's minds, you have to come up with something a little more substantial than ridicule.

The argument against you is that Bitcoin's current implementation is a pure transaction between two parties.  Any attempt to regulate or legislate automatically adds more parties to the mix and therefore breaks the "pure" system we currently enjoy.  It's neither lazy nor stupid to argue against the point you're trying to make.  It leads in a direction that the vast majority of us do not want to go.

It doesn't need regulation of any kind.  Regulation will kill the currency.  It needs less reliance on shitty, centralised, third-party exchanges like Gox.

which won't happen w/o regulation. stop being a child.

Ditto for you.  You're not making a case, you're just throwing words around.

Well, I tried as you can see from this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=452586.msg5001943#msg5001943

But when only "counter-arguments" I got, were "but..but.. government regulations are bad!" or "but.. but... the banks are also bad!"... Then I lost all hope... No one is interesting in creating a self-regulatory system that would build integrity and trust around the bitcoin market system. No one got worried that if MtGox falls, then people will think "how can I trust any of those exchanges?".. All I got were silly excuses on why we should just keep burying our heads in sand and hope that the problems will solve itself.

So, you may see the reason on why I'm not showing much respect towards this community.

No, you got some counter-arguments which explained why they're happy to continue on this path and why they didn't agree with you.  If you don't accept their arguments, by all means lose respect for them, but it doesn't change the fact that they disagree with you.

Also, your suggestion for handing extra powers and controls over to the people who hold the most Bitcoins would be a recipe for disaster.  I'm glad everyone disagrees, because that would be a completely biased and corrupt system.  If Gox have cocked up their system, it's down to them to fix it and hope that people are stupid enough to trust them with any future investments. 

What you're suggesting would basically mirror our fiat "too big to fail" system, where the wealthy collude to maintain the status quo.  Gox doesn't deserve any help to carry on failing.  If it's too weak and broken to carry on, allow it to die.

[kkaspar]

No, you got some counter-arguments which explained why they're happy to continue on this path and why they didn't agree with you.  If you don't accept their arguments, by all means lose respect for them, but it doesn't change the fact that they disagree with you.

Yes, I understood it very well that they are happy with burying their heads in sand. But there were no arguments on how this method is the best way in the survival and development of bitcoin.

Also, your suggestion for handing extra powers and controls over to the people who hold the most Bitcoins would be a recipe for disaster.  I'm glad everyone disagrees, because that would be a completely biased and corrupt system.  If Gox have cocked up their system, it's down to them to fix it and hope that people are stupid enough to trust them with any future investments.  

People have been burying their heads in sand with MtGox for too long, for there to be any other solutions then a bail-out. Global finance used bail-outs in the same manner. If there wouldn't have been bail-outs then the system would have collapsed. They also did a lot of burying their heads in sand in the past to ignore the growing problems.
Now the bitcoin market system is in the same situation, to issue an bail-out and create a more secure system, so fraudulent exchanges like MtGox won't flourish in the future, or accept the total collapse of the bitcoin market system.
With creating a self-regulatory organization, that does auditing on exchanges, you don't need the richest bitcoin holders. This organization should consists of people who have the most trust among others. The size of their wallets don't mean much in that plan.

What you're suggesting would basically mirror our fiat "too big to fail" system, where the wealthy collude to maintain the status quo.  Gox doesn't deserve any help to carry on failing.  

I'm telling you that the MtGox situation has gone too far. It should have been dealt with a long time ago. Now it's so far, that it will hurt the integrity of the entire bitcoin market. When it goes public that MtGox was a scam, then people can't trust any of the exchanges. There just isn't a reason to trust that the exchange that should hold your money, isn't using your money to gamble on the stock market for instance.

Gox doesn't deserve any help to carry on failing.  If it's too weak and broken to carry on, allow it to die.

When Gox has been skimming their clients for over a year, then I doubt that they are weak. They only want to be shown weak, so that all the emus will continue to keep their heads under sand. Gox will probably last as long as bitcoin, because soon some BTC withdrawals will return, and newcomers will still continue to use MtGox because well-know sites like bitcoin.org are recommending it.
But I think more and more every day, that bitcoin is too weak and broken to carry on and I should allow it to die, without trying to do anything. I have a some energy still left in me, but I won't last long when I have to read replies like this.

[DooMAD]

No, you got some counter-arguments which explained why they're happy to continue on this path and why they didn't agree with you.  If you don't accept their arguments, by all means lose respect for them, but it doesn't change the fact that they disagree with you.

Yes, I understood it very well that they are happy with burying their heads in sand. But there were no arguments on how this method is the best way in the survival and development of bitcoin.

Also, your suggestion for handing extra powers and controls over to the people who hold the most Bitcoins would be a recipe for disaster.  I'm glad everyone disagrees, because that would be a completely biased and corrupt system.  If Gox have cocked up their system, it's down to them to fix it and hope that people are stupid enough to trust them with any future investments.  

People have been burying their heads in sand with MtGox for too long, for there to be any other solutions then a bail-out. Global finance used bail-out in the same manner, if there wouldn't have been bail-outs then the system would have collapsed. They also did a lot of burying their heads in sand in the past to ignore the growing problems.
Now the bitcoin market system is in the same situation, to issue an bail-out and create a more secure system, so fraudulent exchanges like MtGox won't flourish in the future, or accept the total collapse of the bitcoin market system.
With creating a self-regulatory organization, that does auditing on exchanges, you don't need the richest bitcoin holders. This organization should consists of people who have the most trust among others. The size of their wallets don't mean much in that plan.

What you're suggesting would basically mirror our fiat "too big to fail" system, where the wealthy collude to maintain the status quo.  Gox doesn't deserve any help to carry on failing.  

I'm telling you that the MtGox situation has gone too far. It should have been dealt with a long time ago. Now it's so far, that it will hurt the integrity of the entire bitcoin market. When it goes public that MtGox was a scam, then people can't trust any of the exchanges. There just isn't a reason to trust that the exchange that should hold your money, isn't using your money to gamble on the stock market for instance.

Gox doesn't deserve any help to carry on failing.  If it's too weak and broken to carry on, allow it to die.

When Gox has been skimming their clients for over a year, then I doubt that they are weak. They only want to be shown weak, so that all the emus will continue to keep their heads under sand. Gox will probably last as long as bitcoin, because soon some BTC withdrawals will return, and newcomers will still continue to use MtGox because well-know sites like bitcoin.org are recommending it.
But I think more and more every day, that bitcoin is too weak and broken to carry on and I should allow it to die, without trying to do anything. I have a some energy still left in me, but I won't last long when I have to read replies like this.

Your solution is terrible.  Wealthy people buying up Gox so that they can continue the fraud for themselves is not a valid solution.  Also, you seem to have missed the fundamental flaw in your plan, which is, you can't force the people who run gox to sell it.  Until you can address those fatal flaws, no one is going to pay any attention to you.  Accept it. 

The best solution is to create a mass campaign telling people not to use gox and to let them die. 

[kkaspar]

Your solution is terrible.  Wealthy people buying up Gox so that they can continue the fraud for themselves is not a valid solution.  Also, you seem to have missed the fundamental flaw in your plan, which is, you can't force the people who run gox to sell it.  Until you can address those fatal flaws, no one is going to pay any attention to you.  Accept it. 

The best solution is to create a mass campaign telling people not to use gox and to let them die. 

I agree that they probably won't sell it. If they would be incompetent then they would sell it to throw away their troublems. But they are probably fraudalent, and they will keep their little scam project.
But still it would be worth the try.. just maybe we are lucky and they are just incompetent.
Luckly you are paying some attention to me, but sadly sand feels too good around your face while it's buried. You are a naive person who things that people will stay honest when there are no consequences of dis-honesty. When I was a child and under the loving protection of my mother, then I used to think like that also.

Mass campaigns coming from unknown names mean nothing. People won't be sure if the information is truth or is it just dis-information created by the competitors. Information on this forum about MtGox problems mean absolutely nothing to the wider audience.
What needs to be done is that known names, who have been talking behalf of bitcoin through the media have to do it. And they have to offer an solution that will guarantee that these exchange scams won't happen in the future. That is the only way to gain back the trust of the wider audience. But.. as we see, the "community leaders" are just like the regular folks here in this forum.. Too afraid to touch these subjects, keeping their heads safely under warm sand.

The bitcoin market system will face the same kind of problem as global finance did... Too much of problem ignoring accumulated and there had to be harsh decisions or face the collapse of the entire system. It currently seems that the ones that run global finance have more balls and brains then this community.

[DooMAD]

I agree that they probably won't sell it. If they would be incompetent then they would sell it to throw away their troublems. But they are probably fraudalent, and they will keep their little scam project.
But still it would be worth the try.. just maybe we are lucky and they are just incompetent.
Luckly you are paying some attention to me, but sadly sand feels too good around your face while it's buried. You are a naive person who things that people will stay honest when there are no consequences of dis-honesty. When I was a child and under the loving protection of my mother, then I used to think like that also.

Mass campaigns coming from unknown names mean nothing. People won't be sure if the information is truth or is it just dis-information created by the competitors. Information on this forum about MtGox problems mean absolutely nothing to the wider audience.
What needs to be done is that known names, who have been talking behalf of bitcoin through the media have to do it. And they have to offer an solution that will guarantee that these exchange scams won't happen in the future. That is the only way to gain back the trust of the wider audience. But.. as we see, the "community leaders" are just like the regular folks here in this forum.. Too afraid to touch these subjects, keeping their heads safely under warm sand.

The bitcoin market system will face the same kind of problem as global finance did... Too much of problem ignoring accumulated and there had to be harsh decisions or face the collapse of the entire system. It currently seems that the ones that run global finance have more balls and brains then this community.

While it's true that there are going to be frauds along the way, it's not proven that regulation would prevent such frauds.  The only reason Gox became successful in the first place is because they were one of the earlier exchanges and people didn't have many options.  It's inevitable that some people will be quick to take advantage in a new and un-tested environment, or that people will make mistakes in their implementations and things will go wrong, as they've clearly done here.  I honestly don't believe a centralised group or any regulators could change what has happened here.  Just like regulators can't stop our fiat banks from all their misdeeds and failures.  But I do think any form of centralisation in what is designed to be a decentralised system would be a bad move for all involved.

It will take some trial and error, but the more trustworthy exchanges we get (or better yet, the more people that trade peer to peer, rather than relying on a small number of centralised exchanges), the better off we'll all be.  Any individuals or exchanges found to be untrustworthy or unreliable will fall by the wayside.  As with all services, the better your service is, the more customers you'll get. 

[kkaspar]

While it's true that there are going to be frauds along the way, it's not proven that regulation would prevent such frauds.  The only reason Gox became successful in the first place is because they were one of the earlier exchanges and people didn't have many options.  It's inevitable that some people will be quick to take advantage in a new and un-tested environment, or that people will make mistakes in their implementations and things will go wrong, as they've clearly done here.  I honestly don't believe a centralised group or any regulators could change what has happened here.  Just like regulators can't stop our fiat banks from all their misdeeds and failures.  But I do think any form of centralisation in what is designed to be a decentralised system would be a bad move for all involved.

It will take some trial and error, but the more trustworthy exchanges we get (or better yet, the more people that trade peer to peer, rather than relying on a small number of centralised exchanges), the better off we'll all be.  Any individuals or exchanges found to be untrustworthy or unreliable will fall by the wayside.  As with all services, the better your service is, the more customers you'll get. 

Only thing that has to be done at first is constant check-ups IF the exchange has the $ and BTC that their numbers show. That would be enough to build trust and integrity of the market system.
But, it's impossible.. it can't be done... it won't fix anything!!! Burying our heads in sand is the correct way.. it fixes all..!!!
Without regulations the situation with central banks would be 100 times worse. There are always possibilities for loopholes, but if you don't even have to find loopholes, you can just take other people money without any consequences, then it's a lot worse.
Please don't reply anymore. Reading your replies makes me want to cry...

[DooMAD]

While it's true that there are going to be frauds along the way, it's not proven that regulation would prevent such frauds.  The only reason Gox became successful in the first place is because they were one of the earlier exchanges and people didn't have many options.  It's inevitable that some people will be quick to take advantage in a new and un-tested environment, or that people will make mistakes in their implementations and things will go wrong, as they've clearly done here.  I honestly don't believe a centralised group or any regulators could change what has happened here.  Just like regulators can't stop our fiat banks from all their misdeeds and failures.  But I do think any form of centralisation in what is designed to be a decentralised system would be a bad move for all involved.

It will take some trial and error, but the more trustworthy exchanges we get (or better yet, the more people that trade peer to peer, rather than relying on a small number of centralised exchanges), the better off we'll all be.  Any individuals or exchanges found to be untrustworthy or unreliable will fall by the wayside.  As with all services, the better your service is, the more customers you'll get.  

Only thing that has to be done at first is constant check-ups IF the exchange has the $ and BTC that their numbers show. That would be enough to build trust and integrity of the market system.
But, it's impossible.. it can't be done... it won't fix anything!!! Burying our heads in sand is the correct way.. it fixes all..!!!
Without regulations the situation with central banks would be 100 times worse. There are always possibilities for loopholes, but if you don't even have to find loopholes, you can just take other people money without any consequences, then it's a lot worse.
Please don't reply anymore. Reading your replies makes me want to cry...

No thanks, I'll keep replying until your suggestions could actually be implemented in some practical form.  Please tell me how you suggest to get accurate information from exchanges as to what their balance really is in various currencies?  Tell me how you're going to force an exchange to comply with rules set up by a third party "regulator" who by definition would have no real power to do anything.  

Tell you what, if you want regulation, launch your own regulated coin.  You'll then see unequivocal evidence that allowing the market to choose is the best method, because no one is going to choose your coin over Bitcoin.  It's unregulated by design and it's going to stay that way.

[benjyz]

as pointed out elsewhere exchanges should be forced to some kind public accounting mechanism. I can imagine contributing my exchange related work to a community owned exchange / "DAC" over the long haul. so we need self-regulation + smart legal tactics + protocol for exchanges. I'm going to start several projects in this area. over time there will be better solutions.

see
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=452586.msg5001943#msg5001943
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=449773.msg4947406

[kkaspar]

While it's true that there are going to be frauds along the way, it's not proven that regulation would prevent such frauds.  The only reason Gox became successful in the first place is because they were one of the earlier exchanges and people didn't have many options.  It's inevitable that some people will be quick to take advantage in a new and un-tested environment, or that people will make mistakes in their implementations and things will go wrong, as they've clearly done here.  I honestly don't believe a centralised group or any regulators could change what has happened here.  Just like regulators can't stop our fiat banks from all their misdeeds and failures.  But I do think any form of centralisation in what is designed to be a decentralised system would be a bad move for all involved.

It will take some trial and error, but the more trustworthy exchanges we get (or better yet, the more people that trade peer to peer, rather than relying on a small number of centralised exchanges), the better off we'll all be.  Any individuals or exchanges found to be untrustworthy or unreliable will fall by the wayside.  As with all services, the better your service is, the more customers you'll get.  

Only thing that has to be done at first is constant check-ups IF the exchange has the $ and BTC that their numbers show. That would be enough to build trust and integrity of the market system.
But, it's impossible.. it can't be done... it won't fix anything!!! Burying our heads in sand is the correct way.. it fixes all..!!!
Without regulations the situation with central banks would be 100 times worse. There are always possibilities for loopholes, but if you don't even have to find loopholes, you can just take other people money without any consequences, then it's a lot worse.
Please don't reply anymore. Reading your replies makes me want to cry...

No thanks, I'll keep replying until your suggestions could actually be implemented in some practical form.  Please tell me how you suggest to get accurate information from exchanges as to what their balance really is in various currencies?  Tell me how you're going to force an exchange to comply with rules set up by a third party "regulator" who by definition would have no real power to do anything.  

Tell you what, if you want regulation, launch your own regulated coin.  You'll then see unequivocal evidence that allowing the market to choose is the best method, because no one is going to choose your coin over Bitcoin.  It's unregulated by design and it's going to stay that way.

Ok, now we are getting somewhere.
This is the plan:

Create an organization out of trusted members of the cryptocurrency community. These members shouldn't have any financial connection with any of the existing exchanges and they should be known for publicly speaking in behalf of cryptos or they have made technical contribution to cryptos. For instance the creators of different coins, owners of different websites or support services or just any other public figure that likes to talk about bitcoin or cryptos in general.
Now this group starts quarterly audits on different exchanges and will post their findings on how transparent and cooperative were the particular exchange. The exchange has to prove that it is holding the amount of $ in bank accounts and the amount of cryptos in their crypto wallets. Specifics in doing this is a mater of accounting. The exchange has to cooperate voluntarily or the entire correspondence will be made public and they will be flagged as an untrustworthy exchange if they refuse.
Now, these findings have be as public as possible. When people type "bitcoin" into google, then this webpage has to be in top5. This can all be done with proper investments, investments that can be sponsored by everyone who wants for bitcoin to succeed. These contributions have to be anonymous and can be made through BTC.

With this project there can be certainty to newcomers on what exchange is dubious and which is not. The only way to bring some order into the market system without involving the government. And the only way to create regulations that would work on a global scale.
You can't threaten crooks with jail time, but you can hold up a constant threat of being exposed. And that would be enough for now.

[benjyz]

you can do all the accounting based on HD wallets and provable addresses. this can be done today automatically. cryptocurrencies changes principles of accounting. you can read my thread to get an idea how this can be done.

[DooMAD]

Ok, now we are getting somewhere.
This is the plan:

Create an organization out of trusted members of the cryptocurrency community. These members shouldn't have any financial connection with any of the existing exchanges and they should be known for publicly speaking in behalf of cryptos or they have made technical contribution to cryptos. For instance the creators of different coins, owners of different websites or support services or just any other public figure that likes to talk about bitcoin or cryptos in general.
Now this group starts quarterly audits on different exchanges and will post their findings on how transparent and cooperative were the particular exchange. The exchange has to prove that it is holding the amount of $ in bank accounts and the amount of cryptos in their crypto wallets. Specifics in doing this is a mater of accounting. The exchange has to cooperate voluntarily or the entire correspondence will be made public and they will be flagged as an untrustworthy exchange if they refuse.
Now, these findings have be as public as possible. When people type "bitcoin" into google, then this webpage has to be in top5. This can all be done with proper investments, investments that can be sponsored by everyone who wants for bitcoin to succeed. These contributions have to be anonymous and can be made through BTC.

With this project there can be certainty to newcomers on what exchange is dubious and which is not. The only way to bring some order into the market system without involving the government. And the only way to create regulations that would work on a global scale.
You can't threaten crooks with jail time, but you can hold up a constant threat of being exposed. And that would be enough for now.

Aside from the fact that a wealthy exchange could potentially pay off an inspector or group of inspectors and get them to say whatever the exchange wanted them to say.  What happens when the website gets hacked and modified to say Gox is the best exchange?  If you do manage to convince anyone to go along with that, then fine.  But if you've noticed, we've just exposed Gox without any "trusted body".  Everything we've seen on this forum in the last few hours is enough to show new users that gox isn't to be trusted.  In that sense we're already self-regulating.   Under your proposal, who regulates the regulators?  

Anyone who's been around longer than a week or two here will know that BTC stored in a web wallet could be compromised at any time.  They know the most secure place for large sums of money is a paper wallet stored in a safe or vault.  They know that money stored on Exchanges is no different to a web wallet and again could be compromised at any point.  The most secure way to transfer money is to and from individuals with a trusted reputation.  Each and every person is best placed to be responsible for their own dealings.  Each and every person here is already a regulator, saying who can be trusted and who can't.  Again, having a centralised body to make those decisions for us would only weaken that.  

The purest and safest transaction is that between two individuals.  The problem with exchanges and also web wallets is that they are a third party.  Any attempt to regulate or legislate automatically adds more parties.  People should only be putting as much money into Exchanges as they can afford to lose.  I only use exchanges for day-trading small amounts of PPC, NMC and other alts.  I'm not putting significant sums of money on there because I'm responsible enough to know that it's not safe.  I would rather see a system based on personal responsibility, rather than one relying on others to make the decisions.  Because when those "trusted" other become corrupt, as they have in our current fiat system, it's all going to turn to shit.