Topic: Use counterparty / mastercoin / ethereum as a "side-chain" for fiat currencies? (Read 690 times)

After listening to the side-chain and tree-chain podcast on letstalkbitcoin I had the idea of creating a side-chain .... not for bitcoin ... but for the current banking system. Maybe based on Ethereum, Mastercoin, OT or Counterparty.

Has this been discussed before? Is that a new or an old idea?

I don't know, but I did a little experiment and did create a digital asset using counterparty.

I've chosen fiat currency "asset": 20 Swiss Franc bill with the serial number 08L5222570 (because that was what was available. But of course you can use Greenbacks or Euros or Yuan ...

http://orderbook.info/CHF:20:08L5222570
CHF: underlying fiat currency
20: amount in fiat currency
20:08L5222570: serial number of the CHF bill
A: (not yet in URL) generation of CHF bills

This bill should then be withdrawn from the fiat currency banking system and (paper-) cash economy ... because it move into a "sidechain" of that respective fiat currency system ;-)

I used counterparty https://counterwallet.co/ to create an asset in crypto-currency space that represents that 20 Swiss Franc bill.
edit: screenshot: https://twitter.com/romanix/status/461801792892719104


After roughly 30min the asset was created and ready to use. Then I transfered the possession of fiat currency the asset through counterparty and bitcoin blockchain (instead of using banks or paypal) to another address.

An approach like that might be much more natural for non-geek people to start with crypto-currencies. This among others because it is backed by "real" cash and the user interface can show the picture of the actual bill that represents the value. http://orderbook.info/CHF:20:08L5222570 and transferring from one wallet to another would look like handing out bills.

Question to the community:
Is there a project that is working on something like that?