Eric Hughes investigated digital money from a legal point of view [...]
Indeed. It's a mess. No matter how you do it, it seems, real corporations will have to be involved, which means business plans, etc. Not a low entry barrier, unfortunately. If you hold money for someone else, you'd better be a corporation in order to limit liability. And if you hold money for someone else, you're either entirely within the regulated bank environment or so close to its edge that your territory could be included at any time. It appears the easiest way to get digital money going is to be the bank--a fully legitimate, above board, fully qualified financial institution. Fortunately, one doesn't have to be exactly a bank, in the legal sense. Other institutions are available, such as credit unions, mutual savings banks, and S&L's--these are the so-called thrift institutions. These tend to have reduced regulatory burden in exchange for limited power to transact. Eric