Has everyone already forgotten the LIBOR and FX price fixing scandals?
Markets are inherently shady, and there is no such thing as a 'fair price.'
If you can fix a market, you will. That goes double if you can fix it even more effectively with a price-fixing cartel - especially a state-sponsored one.
(Arguably this is what QE really does, only QE is quasi-legal.)
The only protection is good regulation. Markets on their own tend naturally to criminality and/or instability.
Karpeles was typical in that he was playing a variation on the usual games. But he wasn't professional enough to play them well.
Also, I'm not quite seeing the logic of promoting a currency system that has been proven to be trivially hackable.
(Although I suppose if you can get enough people to believe that next time will be different and your exchange will be the exception, there's certainly money to be made.)
> The only protection is good regulation. Markets on their own tend naturally to criminality and/or instability.
Regulation like how Argentina's government mismanages their peso to disastrous effect (people have to trade currency on the black market to get by)? Or how some governments have pulled the "print money" lever until the currency is hyperinflated to zero value?
> Also, I'm not quite seeing the logic of promoting a currency system that has been proven to be trivially hackable.
That's false. An exchange going down due to criminal activity is in no way Bitcoin being hackable. Bitcoin was not hacked, and MtGox criminal activities are a reflection on them, not on Bitcoin.
Markets are inherently shady, and there is no such thing as a 'fair price.'
If you can fix a market, you will. That goes double if you can fix it even more effectively with a price-fixing cartel - especially a state-sponsored one.
(Arguably this is what QE really does, only QE is quasi-legal.)
The only protection is good regulation. Markets on their own tend naturally to criminality and/or instability.
Karpeles was typical in that he was playing a variation on the usual games. But he wasn't professional enough to play them well.
Also, I'm not quite seeing the logic of promoting a currency system that has been proven to be trivially hackable.
(Although I suppose if you can get enough people to believe that next time will be different and your exchange will be the exception, there's certainly money to be made.)