This is why we need a decentralized exchange, owned by nobody. The Mastercoin Foundation is creating the first. And I am quite certain there are more in the pipeline.
Centralized exchanges will be a remnant of the beginning stages of Bitcoin.
I haven't read up much on the concept of decentralized exchanges yet. I'm curious, how would a decentralized exchange handle the process of moving the fiat cash among the users fast enough to act as an exchange?
decentralized exchanges don't operate with the actual underlying asset, rather debt denominated instruments. so you would buy "8 BobOwesMeOneDollar tokens" and then take them down to bob who lives down the street and trade them to bob for 8 dollars.
I'm not sure I see the difference between Mark Karapeles refusing to give me my $8 and Bob from the "decentralized exchange" refusing to give me my $8.
It sounds a bit like localbitcoins.com, which works well if you have someone nearby that is participating, but is completely useless if you live in a region that doesn't have a lot of participation in the "decentralized solution".