The challenge is simple integration across many disparate components, which seems like a rich company's game. The only chance for a open protocol is if it's so

The challenge is simple integration across many disparate components, which seems like a rich company's game. The only chance for a open protocol is if it's so cool and immediately useful that people adopt it en masse, a la Snapchat/Whatsapp. Or the market gets regulated. But either of those face a chicken/egg situation because the current market is too small to bother.