It should be mentioned, that Bitcoin "technically" can live without exchanges...
Technically.
Imagine economy, based on golden coins.
Imagine, that someone regulates gold coins exchange to the degree when it becomes of no use.
Will economy work on direct coins-to-goods exchange?
Well, actually, that is the idea in the end (or slowly along the way). Before we can get to a place where
BTC is used independently of other currencies (exchanging in and out) we need wider acceptance.
If the banks keep printing money like there is no tomorrow, they are just hastening our adoption.