[kylebrown]

> Smart contracts are pointless since you need trust anyway to deal with real-world assets.

jgarzik (bitcoin core dev) disagrees with you, he tweeted recently that he's excited about their potential (he calls them "active addresses"). Also, Nick Szabo disagrees with you.

> Nobody would rather trade in a p2p system instead of "real" exchange either.

Lots of people would rather. There are many projects attempting to do decentralized/p2p exchange. For example, atomic cross-chain transactions have been on the horizon for a while now. And startups like tether.to, so that USD-tied assets can circulate in a decentralized manner (I won't mention ripple, but it is the same idea).

It is a natural evolution, the demand for an alternative to centralized exchanges comes from the same motivation to have an alternative to PayPal. Oh, and people also want a decentralized Silk Road (once they realize that its possible).