Only now I learn that The Reggie Middleton has joined this board. You are definitely on top of all major techno waves out there.
I admit I haven't tried Ultracoin yet but the question I keep asking myself is how real world assets are tied to the concept of Ultracoin. It's easy to exchange one electronic asset (e.g. a Litecoin) for some other electronic assets (e.g. Mooncoins). Lock the assets up and exchange. No trust needed, its all decentralised.
Now enter a USD / EUR swap. I cannot throw 100 dollars into Ultracoin through my CDROM tray. Even electronic dollars cannot be tied to Ultacoin just like that. The same goes for the Euro part of the swap transaction.
Will Ultracoin just tie these 2 promises together: promises to pay fiat?
Obviously, Ultracoin will not lock in the fiat dollars and euros. Can't be done with centralised systems for fiat currency. Presumably there is and will not be a 'central' point of trust being Reggie's wife's USD and EUR bank accounts to accommodate this swap.
So what remains: locking in the equivalent of USD and EUR in Bitcoins? Then, parties are just exchanging Bitcoins. And how to deal with Bitcoin variations in price in USD vs EUR
EUR) ?
I'm not sure how it's done in ultracoin, but I'm guessing settlement and such is purely in crypto? Otherwise it'd not be 0-trust as advertised.
Maybe we can hook-in the Bitcoin blockchain so we can settle in something "established" (sorry, didn't take a look at ultracoin)