Regulators have failed us in every industry,
I don't agree - there must be many examples of where a regulatory framework protects the consumer.
One example that springs to mind is the Civil Aviation Authority - the airline operaters employ actuaries to balance risk against cost - profit margins are very tight. A lack of sufficient regulation
could lead to a real danger of safety standards being
compromised.
Here is an article about the dangers (and fatalities) that occurred in hot air ballooning accidents in Egypt - where regulations are either not as stringent (as those in the UK for eg.), or not enforced to a sufficient standard.
In finance, in the UK, my understanding is that a firm must comply with the
Conduct of Business Sourcebook as specified by the Financial Conduct Authority. Having had a quick skim through, the sourcebook seems to lay a lot of store by transparency; acting fairly,honestly and professionaly;disclosure of information;etc etc
The principles of the regulation are laid out
here. Please read them and explain to me how the application of these principles would have been counterproductive for the customers of Mt.Gox - or indeed any of us in our BTC dealings with third parties. Especially since it is the case that where a firm has complied with the regulations (and still gone bust) the customer maybe entitled to compensation.
Everything you said could be done and done better by an organization that is forced to respond to market demand, not by a monopolized organization. Organizations who extract funds through violence provide little to no service at all unless it benefits them to do so. Why should you care what you customers say if they are forced to pay you and you don't have to work for their money? Why should you work to improve your product or service when people are forced to buy it? Monopolized regulations will not solve these problems, just like they didn't solve them anywhere else. The state loves to run infront of social progress and say: "look, look what we did, we passed a law and see!! see!! now its fixed", but the truth is that throughout most of history the people have changed and worked for changes and society has changed and thats why the world changed, not because a politician wrote something down on paper.
Regulation should not be monopolized, it should be distributed, examples; bbb, consumer reports, etc. Businesses should compete to provide you the best regulation service, otherwise they don't care what kind of service they provide.
Essentially what your saying is: Without government who would build the roads? Without government who would regulate the bitcoins? People and businesses voluntarily working together for mutual benefit can. Blockchain technology makes this exceedingly easy, given the public nature of it. It needs only to be implemented, customers should demand this transparency from exchanges and if not provided, go elsewhere.
I have one word with regard to UK banking/finance: Libor.
Regulations have created corporations. Entities which are immune and disconnected from the results of their actions. A free market would never allow such concentration of wealth to exist given the ease of entry into a market without barriers.
I don't have time to invest in learning about hot air balooning in Egypt or other places except to say that there are many factors which could influence such a reduction in fatalities; less people doing it in one area than another, poor quality materials, poor training, etc. The list goes on, to nail it down and say "BECAUSE OF THIS ONE THING" makes no sense to me. I am not an expert in hot air balloning and do not have time to be one. However, market forces are the same no matter what market you are in and if the organization doing the inspecting is monopolized and coercive in nature their incentives will be completely backward-and that does not change no matter the situation.