When you say consumer protection, you mean the SEC?
How does crypto make the SEC go away? If you want to live in the US, sure you could have a computer in your closet on a VPN running an exchange, but all of that needs to be on the books when you need to write a check to your kids private school.
I think it's more likely there will continue to be a black market and a white market. The black market will be bigger, and easier to use undetected. But you still will need to launder that money if you want to pay for your daughters ski trip. And not everybody has an appetite for felonies. The market of people who would prefer not to commit a felony is quite large actually.
What am I missing? How do you picture a world without an SEC?
The only way I can imagine is is if other muncipalities without as much regulation can show cryptocontracts can provide insurance that is so good and cheap the regulatory bodies are proved unnecessary, then that puts competitive pressure on more regulated economies. But... Fraud is a Hegelian arms race for the hearts and minds of naive investors. I just don't see how crypto contracts solve that, not in the next 100 years anyway. Maybe when teenagers are doing ICOs to pay for their lattes.