Once achieved it cant be copied.
I think that tripped off your tongue a bit to easily there
As far as I can see it most certainly can be copied and will be if it looks like having the slightest chance of adoption. By "adoption" what I mean is this type of scenario:
Lets say retailers get interested (due to an attractive package of low volatility of Bit-USD combined with the advantages of blockchain approach - low cost, speed etc). We are the "David" and the challenge for the Goliath is to match that package - low volatility combined with blockchain approach.
Because Bit-USD is a financial derivative (unlike Bitcoin) it's within the capacity of the big payment processors to reproduce it. We've basically come full circle. I'm not saying that the Bitshares network is copyable but the service / incentive it provides to the market to trade and hold the collateralised assets is as far as I can see.
I realise I'm painting a slightly negative scenario. It could also be a great success - the market is so huge that Bitshares could become absolutely massive and still only capture a small portion of the USD market. There are also other scenarios I see involving collapse of the dollar etc. There are lots of ways this could go.
But I'd be interested to know how far the adoption scenario has been thought through. We're talking about taking market share away from some of the most powerful and commercially aggressive co-orporations in the world. That fact isn't adequately addressed by simply saying "Once achieved it cant be copied".
P.S. The reason the "retail adoption" part is important I think is that initially I could see where the incentive is for traders to take short positions against the dollar in the BTS / BitUSD market, but I couldn't see where the long positions would come from. Then I suddenly realised that the whole commercial world ALREADY IS long the dollar of course. They need to be for commercial trade.
So that group only needs to be convinced to switch from trading / holding commercial bank USD to BitUSD which is within the realms of possibility given that it has a huge USP in removing the counterparty from the transaction and therefore most of the fees and clearing time.
So the business model is very compelling. However the implications of that is that is that it will engender competition and outright hostile action if it develops into the slightest threat. Bit USD is a brand that can be reproduced many times - that's my problem with it (and without the collateralised assets being created and adopted widespread, BTS looses its value).