I had an idea -- over Memorial Day weekend when there was a tremendous arbitrage opportunity -- to use Eth as the transfer vehicle between exchanges for a much quicker settlement period -- the problem was the Eth offset at the time and the Chinese exchange I was planning to arb made me uncomfortable. I was planning on using bots for this which would have required some programming. So -- I only made it 3/4 of the way through the thought process, and I was a making a killing in btc (trading the swings) and just gave up on the idea...
Obviously, Eth is no longer an option for this -- unless things settle down and they somehow address their current problem with the DAO without destroying the underlying Eth -- but -- just an idea for whatever future "quick settlement" coins might exist...
Arbitrage SHOULD be LOW risk -- and requires speed which the btc network doesn't provide -- if you ever choose to go that route...
I'd be curious to have you experts poke holes at my half thought out plan -- since I might actually pursue it at some time in the future (I am by NO MEANS even CLOSE to as smart as most of the posters here on the forum)...