Speaking of locking the price of your crypto for $, I followed a very interesting AMA on Reddit that was held earlier today about an innovative crypto based Digital Autonomous Corporation (DAC) called BitShares X. All of the utility of Bitcoin, but it also has a distributed on-blockchain exchange AND has assets pegged to the $ AND also pays interest if you hold those pegged assets. I’ve been following what these guys have been up to for a while (i.e. more than a year). Seriously, if it works, I think this is truly novel stuff that rises well above the usual copycat alt coins:

http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/2ftfti/bitsh...

Bitshares X only launched a couple of weeks ago, it’s really only at an alpha stage at the moment and it has already hit the number 4 spot for market cap at http://coinmarketcap.com. It has had days in the last week where volume has surpassed that of Litecoin. The on-chain exchange built in to the wallet client cannot be shut down or manipulated/debased (like Mt Gox), I think this is one of the first things that grabs peoples attention. Especially Chinese investors or those burnt by Mt. Gox.

The most interesting thing is that on this distributed on-blockchain exchange you can trade your Bitshares (BTSX) for BitAssets pegged to real world assets such as the $ or BTC or even gold. I think I understand how it all works and if the market pegs work, which it seems to be at the moment for BitUSD, then it’ll provide great utility. It’ll promote the ability to actually hold you wealth securely in crypto in a less volatile way rather than cashing out in to real fiat for its relative security like many crypto traders do. BitShares X is an experimental DAC, like Bitcoin, but if it works then it avoiding the issue of having to cash out to real fiat gives it a significant plus point over Bitcoin in my opinion.

Citi bank recently pointed out that news often touted as being ‘great news’ for Bitcoin (e.g. Dell accepting Bitcoin) actually puts downward pressure on the price if they immediately cash out to $ using a services such as BitPay. Dell use this service to protect themselves from Bitcoin's price volatility, but this is liquidity that leaves the Bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. This is not good. It’s only if these companies such as Dell hold their crypto or at least part of it (i.e. like Overstock does) that the liquidity in the Bitcoin ecosystem grows and so does Bitcoin with it. Read up on the details about what Citi had to say here:

http://www.coindesk.com/citi-miners-merchants-keeping-bitcoi...

If the BitShares derived BitUSD actually tracks the $, and it seems to be doing so, then you, or Dell, would have no reason to move money out of the crypto ecosystem. This is of huge benefit for the crypto currency/equity ecosystem because it means that wealth stays within the system and does not leak back out to fiat. Holders of BitUSD also get paid a yield/interest for holding BitUSD and some have speculated that the amount may be as much as 10%. Add to this that the guys behind Bitshares are actively talking to the guys at Ethereum an the future look really bright I think,

I recommend reading the AMA above and follow some of the links to the FAQs about BitShares. I think they are on to something significant. Please feel free to shoot me down in flames if I’ve missed something or if you have a different view. Like I say I’ve been following the BitShares story for over a year now and it’s great to finally see the vision of the distributed exchange and BitAsset market peg make it from theory to reality.

Disclaimer : Very recently I moved a significant percentage of my BTC holdings (more than 50%) in to the BitShares X ecosystem with the intention of going long. Naturally I personally would like to see more people share my views. But do your own homework on this one and never invest more than you can afford to lose!