Yes I know it is not easy. Inter-Crypto (IOU, Ripple,...) seems easier, but that does not solve the interface problem to the Fiat world.
One of the very few feasible solutions I found here:
http://pauv.org/ - Interesting whitepaper.
https://nashx.com/ is also a project in a similar direction but not p2p.
I think the exchanges are really the highest risk at the moment. How many useful (professional, trade volume, political risk) exchanges we have? Not more then 5-10 I would say. Most are in countries which have already clearly said that they dont welcome BTC (USA, China, India).
At the end only the EU, Japan, Russia, Hongkong and Singapore are (yet) not aggressively against BTC. Canada, Australia, GB and NZL I see as close partners of the USA, so they will follow their policies (otherwise they would not get all these nice NSA data anymore)...
Of course there are many more countries, but if the G8 define the global framework these other countries will follow to not get to a black list (tax heavens, money laundering,....).
Here a small overview about exchanges which with I have more or less experience (You are welcome to add some more)
MtGox: Japan; Political low risk. Very bad experience with services, customer care and security.
Kraken: USA; Political high risk. Very professional.
BTC-e: Bulgaria (or Russia); Political low risk. Pretty bad reputation with customer care, not very professional, unkown operators. Probably high to medium criminal and security risks.
ANXBTC: Hongkong; Political low risk. Seems professional but low volume yet.
Justcoin: Norway; Political low risk. Seems professional but low volume yet.
CampBX: USA; Political high risk. Seems very professional
Coinbase: USA; Political high risk. No personal experience as for people in US only. Seems very professional
BTCChina: China; Political high risk.
BitStamp: Slovenia; Political low risk. Seems professional no personal experience as verification process is more then a pain in the a**.
LocalBTC: Iceland, global; Political low risk. Professional
Bitcoin.de: Germany; Political low risk. Professional
BTC OTC: US?, global; Political low risk. No personal experience, low volume.
So if US and China will attack BTC harder (forbid all banks/money transmitter to operate with BTC related companies) then there are left a handful of exchanges. BTC-e opertes with a czech bank so its partly inside EU influence. If EU follows US policies then we nearly dont have any possibility to change BTC/Fiat anymore. Thats a scenario not very unrealistic! China is already nearly at that point.
If you look at the richest 500 Bitcoiners (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=321265.0) it seems really crazy that there is not more investment in that area. There are people out there with a few hundred thousends BTC.
Are they not worried about that inmature state of BTC?
And its not only the exchanges, there is so much more that needs to be addressed before the state attacks BTC harder or before BTC really become global money.
-The whole security is based on one version of the software running at all of the miners (btclib/sx, bitcoinJ would be an alternative).
- Anonymisation
- Security audits
- Improvements of POW/Security of the crypto algos (make it post quantum safe -see NSA threats)
- Improve scalability
- Mining Pools power concentration
....
Many difficult problems. At the moment there are working a bunch of core devs, mostly voluntarily without payments and with limited resources (I guess most are not fulltime BTC devs).
Alternative implementations could help to improve the stability and make it less risky for attacks.
But investors prefer to put money in a new cool startup rather then help to mature the overall system (does not provide direct ROI).... at least until it will hurt too much....
