Ultimately, judge someone based on their history. If MPOE-PR (popescu whatever) is an asshat MPEx is not a marketplace that should survive.
This is completely wrong, you absolutely need to know who a person is if they are selling something of considerable value, holding funds or running an exchange. The result of an anonymous person running an exchange will be depositors and "investors" losing their money when the exchange eventually disappears.
We saw this with mybitcoin.com and pirate, they build up a history of good trades, once they have everyones trust and enough BTC for it to be worth while they run off, it's called a confidence trick.
MPEx has the guy's name in the title. He goes by his name on IRC and elsewhere. You use a 1337 haxx0r nick that implies you're EEEEEVIL™. Why do you not lead with your real name and accept accountability?
Mircea is an arrogant, conceited, asshole (we know our own) that we can all track down. He's a hardass about his exchange in ways that you are not. He is not anonymous, but his mouthpiece (MPOE-PR) remains mostly so.
That said, neither of you is a real exchange operator. You have too much ability to fuck people out of their money. You did it with gigavps on his private bond offering. He acquiesced because his reputation is worth more than the 30-50 btc of your shakedown.
Nefario has his flaws. No single individual, with all of the bias that is introduced with unilateral thinking, should be running a big (in Bitcoin terms) capital market.
I completely agree that I'm not perfect, but there is nothing wrong with one person running a large (the largest) capital market, the problems only arise where there is a lack of clarity or absence or rules. On GLBSE this is the direct result from contracts that are very very short and lack any clause to handle issues that arise.
Right. You handle the long tail of smaller trades, offerings, etc. This is a great place for amateurs with no experience and no knowledge of capital markets. You admit all of this. This is why there is risk in having a single person with the ability to "seize" assets or otherwise control informal contracts.
This is something that I'm working to address, I've opened up another thread to get input on having a default contract to turn to when there are no clauses for events that come up. I also want to add the provision for the addition of a neutral third party to be selected to arbitrate and interpret these rules.
The only reason I'm doing this myself is because it's the first time we're dealing with it, once the process is set up I won't need to be involved, and can get back to actually running the market instead of dealing with this sort of thing.
This is where the person who can adequately assess their own level of competence would involve a more experienced partner. A "real world" exchange operator or participant or at the very least an attorney or other legal expert. Contracts written by laypeople are usually laughable.
If it's an asset with voting rights then usually contract changes require a vote, although if a change is proposed that is to the advantage of the asset holder then no vote is needed as the original contract is being met, and with the new terms exceeded (i.e. it's to the asset holders advantage).
So...who decides that the change benefits the asset holder? If I list that I will increase my dividends from 1%/week to 100%/week, can I push that through without a vote? Even if, as of course everyone knows, such returns are "unsustainable"?
These loopholes and arbitrary, informal, procedures are why smart money avoids the exchanges. It's like a random listing on the forum or -otc, but with a single bottleneck–a person represented by a silly nickname with no real background of trust or accountability.
There is no assurance that the capital exchanges won't be the next bitcoinica or whatever. You fight attacks to your reputation defensively. MP fights to keep his reputation clean (other than, well, you know who). Both groups have "fans". Either of you could just as easily be setting up a long con.
Remember, Trust No One.