Bitstamp has the best liquidity of all exchanges. Its where most people actually enter and exit the ecosystem. If you have or want cash in a bank account its most likely going to be based on that price. Bitstamp is also a very important hub for nearly all of bitcoin's commercial integration and services. The trendy thing to do right now is to integrate your service with bit stamp to perform all btc to fiat conversions.
By the same note I also consider bitstamp to be btcs single point of failure (centralization). Any FUD involving bitstamp would be really bad - much worse than even huobi/china. This is probably not how satoshi envisioned bitcoin working.
Agree on the first half. For the second half, I think the failure is just on temporary price, not on BTC itself. Other exchanges will take its position quickly in case bitstamp collapses. As long as BTC system itself works, there's nothing to be worried for Satoshi. By the same note I also consider bitstamp to be btcs single point of failure (centralization). Any FUD involving bitstamp would be really bad - much worse than even huobi/china. This is probably not how satoshi envisioned bitcoin working.
