So if someone hangs me, that's bad...but if I hang myself, it's all good!  Got it.

No one coerced/forced anyone to use Visa/MC/AMEX/PayPal/etc. either.

PS: Bye Bye bitpay.  We'll miss you.

The big problem about a P2P exchange is neither the concept nor the BTC side - it's the problem that it's _really_ hard to "upload" USD, EUR + co. to a cheap (low/no fees), trustworthy (no chargebacks, no running away with the account) and accessible location.

Other cryptocurrencies like NMC or so would of course work, but in reality people want to enter their credit card numer on a nice looking website and spend 100 USD/EUR on BTC or at least have 100 USD/EUR in their "wallet" to be spent.

Maybe it might even be worthy to lobby at a bank for some "Chaum money" to have some digital bills to trade?

Understandably, MtGox tries to market their coupons like something similar, these are however far too integrated into a Bitcoin centered business. I'd love to see something completele independent of BTC to offer this digital fiat cash...

How much money, time, and effort have you spent setting the international legal precedents for how Bitcoin will be perceived by the globe? The legal work they are doing, and the legal attacks they'll inevitably encounter and deal with, are huge benefits to the rest of us. What they are pioneering is how Bitcoin integrates with establish payment networks and laws around the world. If Bitcoin succeeds in making that integration, then it's subsequent success is highly likely.

Besides, Gox is the first mega-successful Bitcoin exchange in the history of the universe. How much more pioneering can one be?  

Obviously you missed the point of this thread. The point was to provide discussion of the issue of CENTRALIZATION of bitcoin services.

Moreso this has nothing to do with how smart one is or isn't. By your post above you are showing us that you're more likely not smart given you couldn't read the original post.

Your input is still welcome. 

Gotcha! and about the legislation I absolutelly agree.

The importance of decentralization is that we can always withdraw from gox or in the future a bitcoin bank account and store the bitcoins in our own personal wallets where we can use them anonymously and safely secure them without anyone else having access to them. However, we lose a lot of convenience doing this so I would expect the majority of bitcoins to be held in some kind of centralized service in the future.

i have nothing against mtgox.  i think more active exchanges would be good.  i think multiple active exchanges, a p2p option, and a large amount of face to face (including retail) exchange would be optimal.

I would like to see selling directly from the mining pools.

This is why bitcoin should build up presence in New Hampshire! Concentrate bitcoin in one location, and you get a lot of face to face usage and stronger network effect that will begin to spread across NH's border!