I support this as a decentralized version that operates in whatever jurisdiction in the world is most advantageous to the purposes of the DAC. If you tell me you want to spend DAC money on licenses in the US, something has gone horribly awry and we are not appreciating the flexibility a DAC grants you for things like this.
Think Bitstamp - Huge US customer base, in Slovenia
This is something I had talked about with Daniel. To make this clear for everyone:
This project will not be a DAC per se (at least not for the next 12 - 18 months). As of now, I (and others) do not know how to handle this in a decentralized way that will allow us to comply with the law and get everything that is required for us to operate.
The biggest issue with all this will be to obtain banking (for deposits/withdrawals) within the US. The licenses can by acquired through partnerships with businesses who are already licensed (Look at Kraken for example) or by directly obtaining them. Obviously that is very long process and not even Coinbase has their MTB license as of now (they do have an MSB license though) - but they are working on it. And lastly, our resources are focused on building up the platform and work on legality/expansion.
All this would not be possible if we start out operating as a DAC. Getting a bank or partnering with another company (or obtaining the licenses) requires security and assurance. The grey legality of DAC's currently will make attempting to get a bank account nearly impossible as banks are scarcely allowing crypto-currency services to open accounts as is. The added risk that they may run in to major legal problems between our company being a DAC and dealing in crypto-currencies will hardly seem worth the risk for any bank.
To be clear, I am not against DAC - I am an advocate and want to support the project with as much as I can. I just don't think that we will be able to handle this project in a decentralized manner that accomplishes our goal of creating an easy to use and fast trading platform that complies with the law. Once we have some clarity we can definitely transform this into a proper DAC.
My concession to the community was it to set-up a 20% DAC Development Fund instead of honoring them with a 20% stake in the operation. That is the best I can offer to help support the community and award developers of DAC's with the required funding to start launch their operation. So we help DAC's get funded, and additionally help them with the adoption/promotion internally (through our platform) and externally through other medium.
If we proceed and simply say "Fuck you USA" a la MtGox and don't comply with regulations we will soon see our accounts seized and operations halted. That is why I am for conducting this all within legal borders and try to acquire the licenses as soon as possible.
Bitstamp right now simply works with international wire transfers to their accounts in the UK. (They are actually registered in the UK, but I think they operate from Slovenia). We intend to take a similar approach but are focusing on getting US Banking set-up and acquire the licenses as soon as possible. A huge problem could arise in which the US requests all trading platforms to be incorporated in the US, work with a US bank and get the required licenses. If we work on getting all this done prior such a hypothetical, but very likely, regulation, we will be ahead and trading would continue without any difficulties.
And I need to emphasize this again:
Initially we will be able to operate WITHOUT these licenses