RE: I'm new to IOTA and am very excited! I want to know what you guys think. Let's have a conversation.

Yeah, I mentioned that in my post (probably not very clearly) in reference to the coordinator. From what I understand, true decentralization will occur when the coordinator is no longer in use. Here's a direct quote from The Tangler: "In practice, IOTA is decentralized and could run completely free, without the coordinator, but for now, this system is set up as a protection mechanism against 34% attacks, while the tangle ledger isn’t fully matured and big enough to catch such attacks." http://www.tangleblog.com/2017/01/25/the-tech-behind-iota-explained/
Again, from what I understand, once the Random Walk Monte Carlo-Methods are used IOTA will be decentralized in even the most criritcal sense.
If I'm missing something or I'm poorly informed, please let me know!
Thanks for the reply.