This may be tangential, but it's been on my mind for awhile, so I was hoping to get your thoughts. If it's slightly offtopic, I apologize.
It doesn't seem like you can regulate BTC, and the reason is because of something unexpected: arbitrage.
(To be clear, you can create a regulated exchange, but that doesn't really help you. I'll explain why.)
When exchange A's price is different from exchange B's, that represents an opportunity. As the difference grows, that opportunity becomes more lucrative. That's why, at any given time, all exchanges are at roughly the same price.
But that means if one exchange is playing by some bad rules, or is acting in a shady way, like the behavior described in https://willyreport.wordpress.com/, then that directly affects every other exchange.
So unless all exchanges are playing by the same rules, having a single "safe" exchange won't save you. One exchange's shadiness will always affect every other exchange.
Whether this is a fatal flaw is a separate question. I don't think it is, but it seems hard to know.
What do you think? It seems true, but perhaps I'm overlooking something obvious.
Also, this is strictly about price manipulation. It's probably true that no amount of bad behavior at exchange A can result in a catastrophic failure of exchange B. But one question I've been trying to figure out the answer to is: does price manipulation even matter?
It doesn't seem like you can regulate BTC, and the reason is because of something unexpected: arbitrage.
(To be clear, you can create a regulated exchange, but that doesn't really help you. I'll explain why.)
When exchange A's price is different from exchange B's, that represents an opportunity. As the difference grows, that opportunity becomes more lucrative. That's why, at any given time, all exchanges are at roughly the same price.
But that means if one exchange is playing by some bad rules, or is acting in a shady way, like the behavior described in https://willyreport.wordpress.com/, then that directly affects every other exchange.
So unless all exchanges are playing by the same rules, having a single "safe" exchange won't save you. One exchange's shadiness will always affect every other exchange.
Whether this is a fatal flaw is a separate question. I don't think it is, but it seems hard to know.
What do you think? It seems true, but perhaps I'm overlooking something obvious.
Also, this is strictly about price manipulation. It's probably true that no amount of bad behavior at exchange A can result in a catastrophic failure of exchange B. But one question I've been trying to figure out the answer to is: does price manipulation even matter?