Thoughts on Decentralized P2P Exchanges

[mooncake]

Today, we have a number of exchanges offering basically money-changing services between fiat and cryptocurrencies. I have read about ideas to develop decentralized P2P exchanges which essentially play the same role, though making it technically more difficult to regulate and control.

In the P2P exchanges, without the exchange owners, fiat will inevitably be transferred between individuals directly. However, will this be safer? Will there be cases of cheating where coins are not released after fund is released? For that matter, can escrow services be built on top of the P2P network? Can regulation be imposed on these escrow service providers then? Will this defeat the purpose of P2P exchanges?

[Gervais]

I don't see how this will work. Any more info on the idea?

[mooncake]

Hoping some genuis will see this and make intelligent comments.