It's a real currency market, it's just at the Bonnie and Clyde stage of its evolution. Consider how lax bank security was in the 1930s that a single couple could rob banks for years with a fraction of the sophistication of modern day bank robbers.
You couldn't get away with it today, not for that long, but it was possible with "real" money, "real" banks, all government backed, at one time. And that had centralization and identity built into it. The bitcoin community isn't big enough to have serious security professionals yet, but that doesn't disqualify it as a currency market.
Which is why my comment has said, from the beginning, "as it stands today". Those interested in Bitcoin should seriously learn from those very mistakes that you're discussing, rather than re-learning them all over again.
The difference here is that no one carries around the amount necessary to tip the balance of the economy, which is very much the case with Bitcoin sites such as Bitconica
Actually just 18.5K were stolen and it didn't affect bitcoin's valuation. We are enjoying very good stability at this moment there are very few people leverage-trading.
You couldn't get away with it today, not for that long, but it was possible with "real" money, "real" banks, all government backed, at one time. And that had centralization and identity built into it. The bitcoin community isn't big enough to have serious security professionals yet, but that doesn't disqualify it as a currency market.