Following my previous article, I am looking into starting my own BitShares Gateway which accepts Australian Dollars and issues a User Issued Asset which represents it 1:1.

After talking to a lawyer it's not immediately obvious where a BitShares UIA representing the Australian dollar fits into current financial and Cryptocurrency regulations, so as of now I'm engaging further legal advice.

Why create a BitShares Gateway?

It's important we have a BitShares Gateway because as the name suggests, it's a Gateway into the decentralised Exchange 'BitShares'.
Because of BitShares decentralised, autonomous and blockchain nature, I think it's the best place for people to trade and buy whatever cryptocurrency or asset freely.

Platform

I'm currently building a website which can facilitate KYC and deposit/withdrawal of Australian $ requests.
This is aimed to provide transaction history between the Gateway and user during each incoming and outgoing bank transfer of Australian dollars, same way traditional exchanges offer today.

The backend is being written in NodeJS & frontend likely to be React.
The code will be open source for anyone who wants it, this is to encourage other people to create their own Gateway, unlike Crypto exchanges, I believe the more Gateways available the better, as this will create more competition for fees and more choice for people to pick who to trust.

Marketing

It's hard enough to explain what Bitcoin is, let alone a decentralised Exchange and User Issued Assets. Still considering the best approach for marketing and what message to push out to the world.

Vision

My vision is to lower the barrier of entry into the crypto space for Australians and onboard their trading volume onto a decentralised Exchange solution to reinforce their security and freedom.