I don't see how any AE is going to really ever be properly "backed" by anything - you just end up with "centralised" Gateways a la Ripple or you end up with disasters like GLBSE.
Why do people think AE is so important when the only "decentralised" part is the "trading between IOU's and NXT" (anything else becomes reduced to having to "trust" whoever to actually respect the IOU)?
I;m sorry but any ASSET can be created in AE.....what is Bitcoin backed by? or the United States Dollar?
This would allow us to have a FIXED value e-currency which we can use for micro payments.
@ 10,000 TPS and above speeds.