Eh... this one confused me. How do you propose using someone else's email address and still achieving two way communication? Either you receive mail at the address (rendering it yours, whether you stole it or not) or you do not.
MPEx doesn't need or really use two-way email communication. It's one way, you send your public key.
Ahhh. Why not a web based form submit then?
Bottom line is that with MPEx if your desktop is owned, you're owned.
Depending on the exact configuration, this may be true. If it's a concern the solution obviously is not to use your desktop for signing. This is something that one can do on MPEx but can't do on a plain website, which is why the plain website NEEDS some form of 2FA: to try and replicate what MPEx does natively.
What MPEx does natively seems to discourage use of 2FA because it is unnecessarily difficult.
Would it be possible to reasonably combine gpg + 2fa?
Yes, as described in the MPEx faq: get an offline computer, sign there.
How do you get the signed order to/from the offline computer? USB stick? Is this the process? Format key on offline computer, create file on usb stick, sign file, remove usb stick, put usb stick in networked computer, post file to MPEx? (...virus installs on usb stick, put it back in offline computer for the next order. oops...) Or ... Print it out using offline computer, then type it back into online computer? How big are the signed files?
And if you have to use the offline computer in place of a yubikey device or google auth app, which do you expect is going to be more user-friendly?
To be clear, I have no qualms with MPEx or anyone at MPEx. I expect that we can and will all get along nicely, and I very much appreciate the opportunity to discuss design decisions with someone that "gets it". Thank you for that.
One problem with the signature of coins system proposed is that it breaks anonymity: all transactions become visible from the outside (X deposits m-by-n BTC to exchange, THOSE BTC are used to pay for share Y, etc).
Are you referring to the colored coin proposal? It is definitely interesting, and you're right, would break anonymity. The database truly becomes public.
Re the auto-payout etc: one thing that may be worth your while is hooking in with smpake.com (it's a service that allows insta-payments).
smpake.com looks like a great idea. I'll read up on it.
Cheers.