Yes, that's the primary difference and it's an important one. Unfortunately BitShares doesn't have much volume. If it did, I would never use a centralized exchange again. When you own the private key, you own the cryptocurrency. When you trust a centralized exchange, historically, you get screwed.
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Exactly, and that's kinda why I initially thought "well I better get wallets of all these different coins so I hold the keys, not what is essentially just another bank." So if I've got this right (as is coming clear while I create my BitShares account and reading your reply) a centralized exchange holds the keys to your funds (and just lets you access them with a password), that's why they can rip you off or when they go down your coins go with them. A decentralized exchange lets you hold the keys, just rather than a simple wallet, it lets you use multiple coins and exchange them on an open market. And here I thought you only held the keys with designated wallets.
Yep, that's the idea. Your BitShares keys are like your Steemit keys (created by the same guy, Dan Larimer). If Steemit.com went away you could still use Busy.org, ChainBB.com, or even your own cli_wallet. You control the keys, so you own the cryptocurrency.
Forgive me for re-visiting an old comment, but I thought I'd solicit your wisdom once more. I'm excited about BitShares but have had a hard time with its system to deposit fiat USD. I ended up creating a Kraken account to buy some BTC with my USD, then it'll be much easier to deposit funds (other than Steem) into BitShares.
I made a blog post a little about my experience. If you had a moment to give a read and leave a reply, I'd be grateful.
As a side note question as well, is the lower volume on BitShares the reason for the lower trade prices? I've found it curious how ETH/USD and BTC/USD prices on the market are a noticeable amount lower than other markets.
Volume / liquidity is a key to getting good trades. However, I'll likely trade on BitShares for the independent (of government) and decentralized security.