[lenazegher]

>but unless this type of smash-and-grab situation can be traced/avoided/insured (whatever the right mechanism is) it is going to be extremely hard to make ordinary businesses and people use it

The solution is probably some kind of secure hardware device/ecosystem run by a third party that the user trusts. The third party can then take legal responsibility for breaches of the hardware using existing market mechanisms.

Running bitcoin on general purpose hardware and software is a security nightmare for anyone who isn't a paranoid geek.

But this isn't a bug, it's a feature. Instant, uncancellable transactions. The problem is just that the feature is nowhere near ready for public use because there hasn't been time for an ecosystem of secure, easy-to-use transaction methods to evolve on top of it.