Is anyone else worried that before BitShares becomes profitable, Ethereum might just copy BitAssets completely? Of course they would need the surrounding infrastructure to make it usable such as a tradeable web wallet, but they do have a much larger developer base.
Is anyone worried that before Ethereum becomes profitable, BitShares might copy any innovation it provides completely?
Assuming that any BitAsset structure can be replicated in a Turing complete system, we have to assume it will be. The critical question then becomes what competitive advantage does bitUSD retain in that context? Is it transaction speed? Confidence in BTS versus competing forms of collateral? Better transparency on collateral? Veracity of price feeds? Better incentives and tools for arbitragers and market-makers? Utility of bitUSD within a broader ecosystem, such as under-pinning a fully decentralised trading exchange? I don't know the answer, but we need to ponder that, and solidify and leverage that advantage.
As far as the EUSD proposal, I think the role of Maker as a market-maker would be better to sit outside the collateral pool like market-makers in BitShares. Why risk the security of the collateral pool with a risky enterprise using those funds? The risk for a market-maker is the same as for EUSD holders - if ETH falls substantially, then the market-maker ends up getting loaded with ETH in a falling market. And the "liquidity" and collateral just as rapidly disappears.
The fallback safety measure proposed is that Maker can force calls on the issuers, particularly in a collateral crisis or approaching black swan event. Well, if that's a feature that has merit, we can also do that in bitAssets. So variations on features like this are not sustainable competitive advantages to anyone.
My point is that everybody can do (at least conceptually) what everybody else can do. We just have to accept that, and be clear on what competitive advantage we can build on by doing it in our special environment versus theirs.
[Edit: Putting this another way - the best design will migrate to the platform best suited to its implementation, so we'd better make sure we have the best platform for implementing the best design.]