i agree here.   mt gox will eventually be attacked by many governments. it has been attacked already by having its bank accounts shut down, getting hacked(which could be government spooks) etc etc.
we could even see a mega upload type of take down. this is big money interests, once "they"  realize what bitcoin is doing to the banks control "they" will stop at nothing to take down mtgox. once this happens it will be a major hit because mtgox had such a high percentage of market share.

Is this an anti-MtGox thread?
Like a protest?
Then I'd rather take no side - just my own.
The truth is, they are winning the market, because so far there have been the smartest one in this game.
If you were smarter - you could have beaten them.
Obviously none of you was - sorry

The exchange problem is chicken & egg. Traders want to use the exchange with the most liquidity, so they avoid new exchanges.

The completely-distributed model is ideal, but there is probably an in-between solution that ties together many of the smaller exchanges.

Alternatively, new exchanges (or existing ones) could boost their apparent liquidity by creating bots similar to those on MtGox. It's a tough proposition for a trader to stare at an almost-empty order book. Filling out the book and reacting to the other exchanges' prices automatically with your bots is a step in the right direction.

Another angle is the feature offering and fee structure. MtGox is launching new features all the time, and the other exchanges aren't really competing on the fees. Most charge the horrendous 0.6% each way. So, again, what's my incentive to switch away from the liquid order book when all I have to look forward to is the same high fees, an empty book, and fewer features.

I guess that's 0.08 BTC (4 random thoughts*0.02 BTC).

It's a free market so it's up to us as adopters to choose. Mt. Gox is not the only option either for exchanging or merchant services. For example Bitpay is expanding to Europe with their merchant services right now and their service is gargantually more convenient for European merchants than the Mt. Gox solution.

Using Mt. Gox services requires having a Gox account and SEPA transfers at Gox require notary/apostille documents to be sent. With Bitpay the merchant can handle the money in their own way by either taking in bitcoins directly or fiat directly, it's much more convenient overall.

I like the fact that Mt. Gox is providing services but at the same time it's up to us to make sure we don't have all our eggs in one basket. Bitcoin users, merchants and services should make sure that they're not entirely dependent on Mt. Gox. Mt. Gox doesn't have an enforced monopoly on anything, they simply provide a good service that is very well known. Their position will get smaller (relatively) once the Bitcoin economy gets bigger and competition gets tougher.

It's voluntary centralization so I don't care. If they screw us over, we are all free to go somewhere else. Until this choice exists I don't really mind their share of the market.

Doesn't mean that our situation can be improved. The point of decentralization is resilience, after all.

+

Seems like as time goes on, bitcoin looks more and more like the dragon it was meant to slay.

No, it doesn't. It looks more and more like the knight who can slay the dragon after all.

Again, there is all the difference in the world between "forced, coercive centralization" and "voluntary, market-based centralization." There should probably be different terms for each, because it leads to terrible confusion. So long as Bitcoin isn't heading toward the former, it is nothing like the dragon we're trying to slay.

Such market centralization often trade convenience for resiliency. I prefer to err a little bit on the safe side, but that's not what the market decide.

Anyway, I think resiliency will come from having a stronger market. Right now, we're still peanuts.

Well, MtGox was beaten when the first bitcoin exchange appears. MtGox won by being more convenient than others. They're also one of the first to implement mutli-factor authentication. Now they're competing with bitpay, which provide competition.

Not exactly original, but winners are often decided on execution, not the most original idea.