[alanctgardner2]

As far as I can tell it also helps avoid bank runs. If you can only withdraw a small amount of your balance every day, it may prevent the price from tumbling precipitously when people get spooked - they would have to consciously cash out over many days. It might also allow the exchange to operate with money it doesn't actually have, but that's just speculation on my part.

[wsxcde]

> As far as I can tell it also helps avoid bank runs.

Sounds plausible but it puts the exchanges in a major position of power in the bitcoin economy. If they're actively managing liquidity of the BTC economy in this manner I have a hard time understanding why they're any better than the central banks that bitcoiners are attempting to disrupt.

> It might also allow the exchange to operate with money it doesn't actually have, but that's just speculation on my part.

Let's hope not, because that is literally a ponzi scheme.

[tedunangst]

An exchange shouldn't be vulnerable to bank runs. All of the money (USD, BTC) should be there all the time. They're not loaning it out. For that matter, the exchange shouldn't care what the price is. It's all just shiny beads to them.