Could you elaborate on this?
- trying to open channels with ASIC/AUSTRAC,
I have no knowledge of what this consists of and what is being done to adhere.
ASIC and AUSTRAC would be Australia's equivalent to the SEC and FinCEN. For the most part it is far too early, but Overstock and a number of others (NASDAQ news too) show us the technology is being increasingly realised for its potential.
I am currently applying what I can as a system to the NOXT services (can't to a platform - yet), including AML/KYC, standards and licensing. But these are taken from current regulation and don't deal specifically with blockchains themselves. If I can get a foot in the door and work with government and corporate clients in blockchain technology (anything from conceptualisation, working on a regulatory framework, new digital currency department) then the business and coin is off to a good start.
In order to achieve this I am gearing up to release the papers, an analysis and response to their enquiry into digital currency, and asking a bunch of questions from those 'on the ground' (What do we need here? How do we handle this? How do we solve this problem? Do you think this particular feature in its current state is legal? etc.) Getting the interest of others in this area and trying to work together in turning Australia/Sydney/Canberra into a nice hotbed of digital currency activity. Ripple Labs placing their first international base of operations here for the Asia region is another good sign.
It's getting harder with the old money and bigwigs of the current financial system stepping in. But we still have grass-roots, history and 'real experience' in the digital currency world. Enough so I think that a business of at least medium size can be built.
That's the business/gov. side of things. The other is the ability to
legally back the digital currency with gold (with transparent and redeemable at any time claims) and allow it to be used as money. The three concerns here are 1. using a token to represent gold in storage that only you can redeem and allowing that token to be traded in a decentralized manner and spent as a currency are treated very differently. 2. pegging it already enters a digital currency into regulation under ASIC laws and 3. being an
administrator of a digital currency makes the entire process even more complicated for now.
In short all this is much smoother if I can open a channel with ASIC/AUSTRAC as a small but experimental step, ideally a case study, of what things might look like in a regulated future. They already allow for many exceptions for small transactions and businesses, but being an administrator and including gold can change things. Worst case it goes nowhere but the experience aids with contracts and I can apply other features to NOXT in the future.
Dark and anonymity coins are already in good hands, so I'm interested in this side.
I personally think BTC is a testbed and we will see our own corporate/private/government chains in 5 - 10 years instead (more control, less decentralization required). Another reason why all the companies getting big investment have diverged from having Bitcoin in their name, and all cover
blockchain-related services. Easy to switch from BTC and accommodate other chains/colored coins in the future, perhaps presented by their core investors? Just random food for thought.
There's a bunch of the reasoning/why behind the coming update. I hope it has made my angle slightly clearer rather than seem too convoluted.