Eventually it could be possible to see a sort of consumer union of people who buy things through a trusted address that has enough of a reputation that businesses are willing to accept these escrowed funds and abide by the agreed upon policies.
at the moment there are a few multicoin exchanges that due to the fact they manage different alts, they also offer escrow services.
EG
Person A wants litecoin, person B wants bitcoin
(A) puts their bitcoin into a bitcoin escrow address held by the exchange
(B) puts their litecoin into a litecoin escrow address held by the exchange.
when both sides are confirmed the funds move to designated recipients.
when exchanges climb out of their basements and start getting liability insurance, you will see people use escrow alot more (no regulation needed). and if they default and try shouting bankrupcy, consumers can still use CURRENT consumer laws and insurance claims against these companies. if not insured then consumers become part of the bankruptcy debt (research mtgox saga).
no laws need to change. just a strengthening of consumers perceptions.. most consumers blindly trust basement dwelling scammers, simply because they have a glamorous website.
its consumer rights training that is needed, not new laws
It would be a long time from now though. We're still in the merchant adoption stage and this I think is something that would happen post-merchant adoption. When the advantage merchants have over consumers is too great and the consumers can leverage their buying power as a group to effectively buy protection from unethical business practices.
It will be interesting to see if this happens or not. Since something like this is precisely what consumers should be doing when operating in a free market economy.
exactly. with consumer training about their rights they already have, they can 'vote with their feet' and stay away from businesses that are not insured, that hide behind proxies/whois guards. and show no insurance reference numbers on their exchanges., as for merchants, insurance is less needed (BFL for instance) as all consumers need to do is call upon consumer law agencies. (BBB)
