Living outside America

The key IMO to all of this is separating out software development from server operations from financially backing a currency from applications of the system from auditors from users. Banks suck at software development; developers suck at finance. By separating the concerns, you can do regulatory arbitrage as well as focus on your strengths. (this isn't my idea; I think Ian Grigg of Systemics came up with it in the early 1990s, if not earlier). Fully separate arms-length entities, different people, not the e-gold "offshore, really" approach. You could create a fully anonymous bearer blinded token infrastructure as software, and then have servers for it, where some of the currencies were entirely non-financial and thus non-regulated (distributed locking mechanism for distributed software systems, resource allocation, anti-spam credibility systems, game currencies), and others which were financial currencies issued by real, established financial institutions with KYC (a dollar currency, shares, futures, ...). Same software, so the developers have no legal risks themselves.

Luxembourg also works, if you have $3-5mm or so to meet the requirements to issue (at least, that's what it would have cost in the late 1990s when I last looked; you need some connections, but they come with having money and hiring people from the industry). Switzerland and possibly Liechtenstein may work. I'd skip dodgy ee or south pacific places (e.g. Vanuatu, Narau) since correspondent banking relationships would be trivial to sever.

If you were totally focused on gambling ("gaming"), some crown colonies (IoM, Gibraltar) might work, or Panama.

You could do it in the USA if you met KYC and also treated it as a commodities trading system, regulated under CFTC. You can become a CFTC exchange (like Chicago) for $5-10mm. I'd probably actually do the operations for that in Chicago just to be totally known to all the local regulators, although NYC or SF would also be possible.

The thing I absolutely wouldn't do is try to run a payment system which is at all anonymous in the US, and if I did a payment system in the US, it would meet all KYC and MTB requirements. That puts your capitalization required at a few million dollars more than otherwise, but it's not a big deal.

If you go to Africa, >90% of the people love the US, and would consider the US by far the best country in the world. We were never a colonial power there (well, basically), and have done huge amounts of good for them. The exceptions are a few people in Angola (who may feel we betrayed them), Libya (most of whom are now dead), Somalia (well, whatever, I'll accept that), and Egypt (where pan-Arab anti-US sentiments over Israel, also largely due to the cold war, predominate over Africa).

Countries like France, Australia, etc. might dislike the US due to arrogance, but that's more like relatives fighting -- the US and France have a lot in common, and are ultimately allies, and aligned on most issues. It's not open opposition.

The big areas which have substantial anti-US sentiment are Islamic or Arab countries (largely due effects of US+Israel and US v USSR, and US actions to secure oil), and Central/South America (where we were colonialists, and where the drug war is causing huge problems). Venezuela is the only new anti-US place there (Cuba is a legacy of communism), and that's mostly due to us being allied with the previous regime and with Chavez's populism -- basically the same as US+Shah leading to US v Iran now).

Speaking as somebody from the UK I can guess one reason. In this country, and the other European countries I've visited, religious views are generally part of people's private, rather than public, lives. I no idea of the religious views of most of my friends. It's not part of the public persona of whether somebody is "good" or not. Their actions define that.

So in this context the only people who are public and outspoken in their religious views tend to be the extreme ends of the religious spectrum. Either in viewpoint (the gays are evil nutjobs) or because their religion encourages them to get out there and convert folk.

These tend to be folk that you don't want to hang out with - whether you are religious or not.

It one of those odd internal dials that I have to turn in my mental model when I visit the US - that people within the "normal" range of religious views will come up to you and talk religion.

Religious people commit less crime, get and stay married more, use less illegal drugs, donate and volunteer more

References? By that logic more secular countries and areas would have higher crime/drug rates and lower volunteer rates... and the opposite seems to be true if anything. In the US anyway the percentage of atheists in prison is way lower than the percentage in the general population.. but maybe that meets atheists tend to be smarter criminals :-)

Think of cultures like the Sioux, Iriquois, Navajo, Mayans, Incas, Aztec, etc etc.