"Bitshares does the same thing: it's designed from ideology not pragmatism. That's a weakness imo."
If you read the Origin of Bitshares (https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=14019.0;topicseen) and take a look at what has been developed in the BTS domain I see nothing but ideology and pragmatism working together beautifully.........imo.
The author, who's billed as a securities attorney, makes a critical point worth repeating:
"It would be naïve to think the federal government will stand idly by when its control over currency and financial transactions is threatened."
Dan has certainly written a lot about the ideology behind bitshares. But there is little to no evidence of pragmatic thinking when it comes to the question of how bitshares will handle regulatory compliance when the time comes.
Just saying.
In today's coindesk article, Dan said, “I suspect that by the end of 2015, there’s going to be three major players, bitcoin, Ripple and us...,”
http://www.coindesk.com/bitshares-decentralized-exchange-crypto-2-0/
Bitcoin has the Bitcoin Foundation and lots of legal help dedicated to keeping bitcoin on the regulation reservation.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/bitcoin-foundation-seeks-more-time-to-address-virtual-currency-rules/?_r=0
Ripple bends over backwards for regulatory compliance.
https://wiki.ripple.com/Compliance_Resources
What is bitshares regulatory strategy?
Answer: there isn't one.
Really? No regulatory strategy?
https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=12050.msg161883#msg161883"Legal Compliance
Any company that takes deposits from customers and facilitates transfers among customers is heavily regulated in most countries. These regulations include license requirements, bonds, insurance, know your customer laws, and anti-money-laundering compliance among others. The BitShares block chain provides gateways with all of the tools necessary to comply with these regulations.
If you are in this business you are already maintaining a database tracking user deposits and your database is probably logging every single transaction and balance change. Your database knows exactly who is owed what at any point in time. You also have the power to seize or freeze user balances at the demand of law enforcement. BitShares provides you with all of these features as well including:
1) Ability to white list public keys that may control a balance of your asset.
2) Ability to freeze all funds and stop all trading of your assets
3) Ability to transfer any balance of your asset from any user to any other user
In other words, if you are operating a legally complaint crypto currency exchange, then you can easily expand your business to becoming a BitShares gateway. "