I only have a vague memory/understanding the subject, but I believe the Bitcoin protocol supports the concept of multi-signature contracts. That could be used t

I only have a vague memory/understanding the subject, but I believe the Bitcoin protocol supports the concept of multi-signature contracts. That could be used to create decentralized escrow/trading/exchanges, which means that you would never have to let a single entity control your private keys. (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts) I don't think there is a working implementation of the multisig contracts in the wild yet, but the protocol does support a way to solve these problems.