Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I think I'm at fault for using the wrong word, leading to a misperception on your part. When I commented about an "altcoin clearinghouse" all I meant was an informational website, nothing more.
Okay, no worries. I did misunderstand you because my experience with the stock market has 'gifted' me with the expertitis that leads to using technical jargon as if it were defined in the pocket dictionary.
This is what I thought you meant, courtesy of La Wik:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_house_(finance)
As I envision it, information would be collected either wikipedia-style or with a staff of some sort (with some method of vetting the information, and the integrity of the leadership would be key) on each coin. The goal of the site would be to share information on the characteristics of the coin, details on scams/thefts/fraud related to the coin, technical issues/major bugs, missed milestones/broken promises from devs, and so forth. Links/citations would be provided for all the information. The idea would be to provide a sort of overall risk assessment related to investing in the coin, so far as non-market factors are concerned.
People could do what they want with the information, the site would simply be for reference and hopefully make it a little harder for scammers to operate successfully and save some people from them. Optionally the site could also have a section devoted to exchanges, how they operate, thefts and scams on each one, and so forth. That would help encourage them to clean up their act, be more transparent, stop shady practices that burn customers while profiting the exchange and so forth.
It's hard for me to see how such a website could lead directly to government control, instead I would hope it could be used to head things off. "See, we don't need increased regulation because scams have fallen 40% since the Crypto Clearinghouse started operation, and they have more projects on the way to get the word out on the latest scams so we expect that trend to continue..."
I've started drafting my ideas for this project; I'm about to head out on vacation but when I get back I may start a thread on it and try to get the ball rolling, if people see the value in it.
The more I hear about it, the more I like it! It's a great idea, and one that at the very least will make you a real pillar of our hardscrabble society.
But I still stand on my hope that you can make an honest living with it...