Although this does not address liabilities, that is not a chief concern. By implementing an interim standard for publishing reserve balances, we can quickly placate the investor community on the health of major exchanges:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1z72wz/btce_et_al_should_publish_their_reserve_balance/LOCATION:
https:///dcx/balance.json
CONTENT:
{
"time" : "",
"nonce" : "",
"reserve" : [
{ "addr" : "1x.........",
"sig" : ""
},
{ "addr" : "1b.........",
"sig" : ""
},
....
]
}
Obviously this doesn't address:
These issues can only be properly addressed with audits, since most exchanges don't use BTC protocol internally.
However, following an audit, the ratio of average volume to liability can be expected to remain fairly stable, providing a public health metric that will give immediate relieve to the current climate of skepticism.