Wouldn't be nice to have crypto-currency where the focus is simply as a robust and secure medium in which to exchange goods and services? Am I missing something fundamental about currency in wishing this?
Their perspective is not the only one, but definitely the sexy one that media can profit from.
As for the exchange of services, that is the basis of ethereum. Instead of computing Sha(Sha()) over and over again, the mining network is a global turing-complete computer designed around arbiterless smart-contracts.
Regardless, the smart contract computing is still removed from the consensus mechanism.
One great idea that never materialized was anonymous services could be insured finally, so you could bootstrap your hobby exchange with an insurance guarantee held by semi-trusted people in the scene. For example a small instant exchange requiring no sign up, with a $10k multi-sig insurance fund and since the blockchain is open you can at all times verify that said instant exchange is not exceeding their insurance.