[mrb]

This latency is not a pb inherent to Bitcoin. It happens whenever you hold currency X and need currency Y, for any value of X != Y. You are going to waste time exchanging one for the other. This is one of the reason why I expect Bitcoin's adoption to take off for international trade where the 2 parties of a transaction use different currencies to begin with.

Also I doubt you can sell stocks on Etrade and withdraw dollars to your bank in minutes. When I do this with my stockbroker (TD ameritrade) it takes at least 2-3 days because the transfer is made by ACH which takes a while to clear.

This latency is perfectly acceptable for stock market investors, therefore I see no reason why it would not be acceptable for Bitcoin investors...