It's not the same argument... I can buy food and cars and real-estate properties with USD. I can also buy BTC with USD which I can use to order stuff online or

It's not the same argument... I can buy food and cars and real-estate properties with USD. I can also buy BTC with USD which I can use to order stuff online or which I can use to convert back to USD... To buy food, cars and real-estate properties. The point GP is making is that once things make it into Gox, they can't get out: your USD become "Goxdollars" and your BTC become "Goxcoins". I don't know if Gox is going to resolve the issue but, in any case, it's certainly not the same argument. As of now you can't buy anything else than Goxdollars/Goxcoins with Goxcoins/Goxdollars. Hence the "fantasy trades".