Topic: MtGox and sources of fiat. (Read 781 times)

Oh, yes, I worded that incorrectly.

It is difficult to move dollars from your personal bank account to a bitcoin exchange. At least, this was the case in December. The point was this statement's truth would imply a constant shortage of dollars and would lead to the depreciation of the value of all cryptocurrencies.

Sorry to clarify, do you mean USD cash into MtGOX is restricted in some sense?
If so, the clients cannot convert USD to BTC and no fiat issue there. Am I missing something?

How do dollars get injected into the cryptographic currency exchange? I know of the following sources:

1. Hand-to-hand transactions (in-person transactions).
2. Tokenization of currency (selling pre-allocated currency, like pre-paid debit cards and just as thieving, i.e. circassius coins/roman coins).
3. Exchange through a broker (e.g. bitcoin-brokers -- are they still around? Possibly the second-fastest way to transact).
4. Private vendor (eBay will implement this soon, and large vendors show up here and there on craigslist; also sale of coin miners, to a limited extent, though there is no guarantee the dollars end up in the exchange).
5. Direct deposit (intra-bank, inter-bank, international).

Of these, #5 seems to be the biggest source of fiat exiting the system. Some very large entities utilize #3, though this is only a tiny slice of the pie that is up for sale. #2 seems to be scam-heaven. #1 is an obvious thing, though I presume this is limited to small buyers and extremely large buyers. I have yet to see #4 presented in any fair and sensible manner, even though it ought to be an easy thing to do. Did I miss anything?

Concerning #5, the sleepy-me has come up with a strange bit of confusion. MtGox is a big mover and shaker (just look at the past couple of days). It is clear that only the owners and their friends are able to withdraw fiat/USD. (It is also clear that they do not bother performing arbitrage corrections to other places, possibly to capture more USD.) If I recall correctly, it is difficult to transfer dollars in there from the bank. Whatever the case, are dollars scarce on MtGox and certain other exchanges relative to possibly more-important exchanges, and does this stunt the growth of the currency's market capitalization?