[fragsworth]

The currency aspect has to remain, because mining would not exist without it. The devs know this, so they'll do their best to preserve this aspect. However, having the protocol support documents as well is pretty amazing:

Suppose it's 15 years from now. Many cars can drive themselves.

Suppose someone designs a mechanism that allows you to control your vehicle (remotely) only if you own a specific "ownership item" (colored coin, whatever people are calling it) on the bitcoin network. You prove this to the vehicle, and it goes to wherever you tell it to. The item on the bitcoin network means you "own" the vehicle.

Now you can tell your vehicle to go to a public place where someone might inspect it with the intent of purchasing it. That person tells you "OK, I'll buy it for 0.1BTC" and you perform an exchange of your ownership document for 0.1BTC over the bitcoin network.

You don't have to trust anyone with anything. The exchange happens atomically. You don't even have to go anywhere to perform the exchange.

[maxerickson]

The buyer has to trust that the mechanism is sufficiently tamper proof.

(and once you have that, escrow service anyway becomes cheap)