agreed. but coinbase isn't a bank/authority. it's like letting some random company holding your money. meh.
“We’re in uncharted territory, so hard to say if this stuff falls under a particular state’s MTL [money transmitting license] statutes,” says co-founder Fred Ehrsam. “We’re still talking to states to figure out how each responds, but Coinbase is prepared to get licensed where a regulator deems it’s necessary.”
In the meantime, he is continuing to do business, relying on the fact that Coinbase has its AML and KYC processes established.
[1] http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-gmail-bitcoin/ (Oct 28 2013)
It's not much of a cryptocurrency if you hand the plaintext keys over.
Yes, that's a problem, and it's not even money. I don't use GMail, and it irks me that so many people willingly share our mutual correspondence with Google on my behalf.
Now, what if Google was holding my savings account and the only thing protecting me was ... what? A digital key, which they hold in escrow?