The only advantage I see is that Dwolla and Paxum can accept ACH. Why can't an exchange set this up directly?
Fraud. ACH transactions can be reversed weeks later with a claim that the owner of the account didn't authorize the transaction. The middle man confirms that the transaction is authorized by the account holder, handles the ACH disputes, and eats the cost if it turns out the transfer was fraudulent.
That does make sense. However, if Paxum is able to handle the added verification costs + insurance in their given fee structure, then surely an exchange could as well. It may be that for the time being nascent bitcoin business don't have the expertise and connections of a Paxum to handle all of this, so they need to 3rd party that.
But what bitcoin needs is a one stop bitcoin buy, because if average users are ever going to adopt it, the process has to be just as easy as setting up a paypal account. I get that bitcoin has a ton of advantages to paypal, but the average user is going to prioritize convenience.
Bitcoin was a significant part of Dwolla's business, and apart from the fraud Dwolla was turning a nice profit. So this should be good incentive for someone else to roll the whole thing into one?
