As for DEX trading, I think it is probably useful for exchanging not in real-time. For serious traders, they need a system that can't give any party any leverage. I haven't analyzed Dan's decentralized market place tech recently to see where he ended up and what are the strengths and weaknesses.
The whales probably want to trade on a centralized exchange where they can get preferred access such as for HFT.
Where the whales trade, the minnows will follow.
Seems a bit depressing, but apparently reality.
However, my response to the Popsicle is that he is living in the Old Industrial (fixed capital investment) World where stored monetary capital was King. We are moving to a new Knowledge Age, wherein networking is the most important. He response is WoT (Web-of-Trust) and I agree. But I think he is incorrect to presume the masses don't matter. I think he doesn't understand Knowledge creation:
http://unheresy.com/Information%20Is%20Alive.html#Algorithm_!=_EntropyI still believe in people. I love people (even though they frustrate the fuck out of me if I have to talk to 1000s of them in a forum and that is because it isn't a WoT so we frustrate each other due to not being well matched).
He seems to be focused on trading. I believe the future is about investment, but more saliently about investment of knowledge and community interaction, not about money. My redesign of what a DAO should be, will reflect my insight.