I'm inclining to agree with Adam that the biggest problem with bitcoin is the core devs, and that the best course of action for Counterparty is to expect nothing from them, except perhaps deliberate obstructiveness, and move to considering Litecoin, or some other faster blockchain without the baggage of these guys.  I don't see much constructive development from them over the last year in comparison to what the Counterparty devs have acheived in a few weeks anyway.  They seem a lot more like traffic cops than devs on any open source project I've come across.