"There are some people who invest in Steem who profit primarily by the efforts of others. However, the bulk of Steemizens stand to profit primarily by our own efforts."
With respect, I think your analysis is wrong. The fact that you earn the tokens from your own effort isn't the point. The question is whether in owning the tokens you are making a profit.
Steem Power and Steem Dollars (under some circumstances) earn "interest"... ie you get Steem when you hold these tokens. I would say this is a perfect example of "profit that comes from the investment largely or wholly outside of the investor's control".
And for Steem, you said it yourself "There are some people who invest in Steem who profit primarily by the efforts of others". Profit in this case is in the price appreciation experienced to date for holders of Steem.
I would therefore argue that all 3 tokens pass the Howey test and therefore come under SEC purview.
well, the folk at Steemit Inc got a legal team to deal with all of that. I'm definitely not expert level securities analyst :D It's gonna take a couple years before we see how the SEC is ultimately going to treat crypto... atm they seem to be letting the blockchain sector grow a bit before tightening down too hard on us.
Yes, I wrote to their legal team asking them about it. One week later and no reply yet. Maybe they're too busy dealing with the SEC ;)
hah, I doubt it. I had a chat with Ned once about the SEC, and he was well thought out and confident about Steems position.
I'm not sure it matters, since steemit was not an ICO. They aren't selling anything, are they? I suppose that the SEC theoretically could go after Steemit Inc, but the blockchain is run by the community, not Steemit inc. I think securities laws have more of an impact on ICO, rather than crypto in general.
Tokens are bought and sold on the open market, so... thinking about it now.. i'm not entirely sure. don't they have to be selling something to apply to Howey?
https://www.sec.gov/news/public-statement/statement-clayton-2017-12-11
And yet, all of the exchanges that list Steem also require that listed tokens pass the Howey test (ie aren't securities).
whether they are treated as securities or not can only be answered ultimately by the SEC. Buuuuut, based on this recent speech by SEC official, steem is centralized enough to be in the running for consideration as a security.
https://www.sec.gov/news/speech/speech-hinman-061418
however, the sec is gonna go for the low hanging fruit first. Steemit Inc has a bunch of money, so the SEC is more likely to have a chat with them before just drawing charges.
I do, however, understand how they view crypto a lot better after reading the speech from Hinman.