Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk

An academic study published earlier this year by Tyler Moore at Southern Methodist University and Nicolas Cristin at Carnegie Mellon about the risks associated with Bitcoin exchanges reported that 18 of 40 services they studied over three years closed "with customer account balances often wiped out." In that study, less popular services were more likely to just disappear than popular exchanges -- but popular exchanges were more likely to suffer security breaches, which have also been blamed for disappearing bitcoins.


A key reading for the Bitcoin enthusiast on .pdf format
Beware the Middleman:Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk