Interesting read on CCN:
Why the SEC’s ‘ICO Guide’ Paints a Dark Picture for Cryptocurrency in 2019
Some items referenced:
According to the SEC, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a centralized, proprietary exchange, or a decentralized, autonomous piece of code – what matters is that unregistered buying and selling happens there:
“The activity that actually occurs between the buyers and sellers—and not the kind of technology or the terminology used by the entity operating or promoting the system—determines whether the system operates as a marketplace and meets the criteria of an exchange under Rule 3b-16(a).”
That explains the charges brought down on the EtherDelta exchange, and its creator, Zachary Coburn, last year. At the time, the SEC described Coburn’s crime as:
“[Providing] a marketplace for bringing together buyers and sellers for digital asset securities through the combined use of an order book, a website that displayed orders, and a smart contract run on the Ethereum blockchain.”
But according to the non-profit digital civil-rights group, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), prosecuting people who upload open-source bundles of code to Github would be clear violation of First Amendment rights.
Full article:
https://www.ccn.com/sec-ico-dark-cryptocurrency-2019
