couldn't this be done via privatized bitassets? they would create their own btiUSD
I was thinking the same, thier own usd pegged asset.
Fyi they deal in 60 countries and need to settle in more than one currency.
As for chicken and the egg, I didnt consider that problem, though my thought on it is they wouldnt need to immediately put 500 mil into bitusd, but would sort of put it in as they go every month. They would have as much exposure then, right?
You folks are much smarter than I am, thanks for your perspective.
And presumably much of the payment flow will come back out of the pipeline and into fiat every month, so this is mostly going to generate nice liquidity for bitAssets. That means there probably only needs to be steady-state about $50M worth of bitUSD in the pipeline. Acquiring a "mere" $1M worth of BTS while its cheap might be all it takes to prime this particular payment pipeline so that could translate into a cost of money in the neighborhood of $50K, easily recovered from the gains in value of the initial BTS purchase caused by the sustained demand it would contribute.
Not to mention that having their own asset with this much liquidity would make it the go-to currency for many others. Suddenly they have a new revenue stream as a byproduct. There's also the referral fees from their huge number of new users who, having BitAssets in their paychecks will become good candidates using other services, like selling BitShares Bonds that earn more than any bank currently pays. That could mean several more revenue streams. This payment system could quickly pay for itself and even turn a profit - always a good business proposition.
Essentially, there is huge energy in the flow of this much money that can be harnessed to make all kinds of other revenue generation models viable.
I haven't spent any time on refining these numbers, but I'm sure someone will.