I hear too many conflicting reports, so can we set the record straight in this thread?
What is the deal with the US restrictions?
- Do I really have to worry about holding EOS tokens if I live in the US?
- What would really actually happen if I went ahead and got tokens anyway?
- Aren't EOS already on exchanges? What is to prevent me from getting them now as it is? EOS is on shapeshift too, right?
Please halp :D
This report (about the DAO) was published yesterday by the SEC, and is the clearest description I've seen so far:
https://www.sec.gov/litigation/investreport/34-81207.pdf
If you skip to section III (on page 10), they go through the reasoning in a fairly clear manner.
They also define a security as an "investment contract", saying:
A summary is here:
https://www.investor.gov/additional-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-bulletin-initial-coin-offerings
Thanks for sharing this. I don't have the available mental or emotional capacity to read further on government websites (as a voluntarist, I get depressed realizing most people accept the legitimacy of their control), but I really appreciate your TL:DRs. I and perhaps others may still read the sources you provided.
Another point I'd like to make is: Despite the "clarity" on ICOs or crytpo fundraising being applicable to the SECs jurisdiction (which is what they want), my follow up question is What power does the SEC have to actually persecute or keep track of ICO investment activity? As Vitalic said on Twitter recently -- (paraphrase) They can't stop us all. That's what makes crypto the honey badger.
If people ignore what the government says is required and buy altcoins, we're getting the best available form of decentralization available at this time.
great response man. this is valuable. I saw something about this on zerohedge the other day. and boy let me tell you....its about to get interesting.
Good questions...but I dont know dear..
Again, you with that dear stuff :D IDK man.
Pretty sure that because they are accepting money in return for tokens, this makes the tokens a security. U.S. Law says essentially that you have to have a license and being registered with the SEC.
I personally believe that it is dan and the team playing it safe and that people (especially little guys) will probably have no legal issues for buying in...but that they didn't want to spend all the money and resources they otherwise would spend to build on mountains of legal hurdles.
Now with that said though, cryptocurrency laws are still pretty vague (largely because people have no clue wth it is). I think though that we are going to all need lawyers someday when crypto at all takes off. No government is going to like being displaced. So...i think be careful if you like cryptocurrency...and as an extension, be careful investing in eos. But know that if you do its probably going to easily pay lawyer fees after the fact :D
Ok fuzzy. I think I still need to think. I'll probably catch a few tokens at some point. Thank you for the excellent reaponse!
just use a VPN to bypass. not that hard :)
my problem is i don't trust a vpn to really mask my activity -- are you certain this is a foolproof plan?
it doesn't matter if it masks you as long as you hide your US IP. Which is does.
I use a VPN on my mobile in open wifi by the way, much more secure
remember everyone fav is not living in the U.S. so take care to take this into account because he is right...BUT if you really are worried about getting in trouble for investing in an unregistered security, prob best to not touch it. Let your own taste for risk be your guide! ;D
Mh yeah, but what's the worst thing that could happen? The buyer can not know if the token they buy is a security or no... so there is only a risk of losing money, as usual?
In america where we now have one of the mpst lawless govs...ever...i honestly dont know fav. Worst case i think could be worse...but is that eos fault for innovating or govs for being corrupt? :/
I hope im wrong of course...but im one who likes to think about the risk too.
I don't like how some government try to "protect" their citizens from everything they deem unlawful.
This is an interesting article that addresses that topic (Look at item #7):
https://news.21.co/thoughts-on-tokens-436109aabcbe
If you don't want to click on some random link in a post, you can search for "@balajis" on medium and find the article as well. :)
There are three links at the bottom of section #7 that refer to some guidelines that have been worked on over the past couple years as well as a worksheet to help you determine how likely your token is to be considered a security.
To be clear, it helps to understand where the really gray areas are, but there's still a lot of uncertainty.
Be careful when using a VPN. There is many tunnels out there with malicious intent. I have used one that put every users on the same network with all there shared folders visible. I could access folders on other computers. When using a VPN make sure that your firewall is up and running and that you do not have any unnecessary ports open.