Are you a US Citizen Excited About the Upcoming EOS Token Distribution? I Have Some Terrible News For You.

in #eos7 years ago

You cannot participate.

What a bummer! I've been doing a bit of reading up on EOS after seeing EOS related content around here and really love the ideas behind the platform. Vertical and horizontal scaling of blockchain based applications in an OS type construct? Plus, @dan on board? You've piqued my interest EOS!

So, this week I've been going through the whitepaper and educating myself on the specs. However this morning when browsing through some more, I saw something on the FAQ that made my heart sink like a stone:

Ugh!

I was so wrapped up in reading about the technology and the unique ICO token allocation structure that I lost sight of the fact I cannot even participate at all from the ground up like others from around the world. I'm not even mad at EOS, in fact, I completely get it. I am just really disappointed in the amount of regulatory hurdles we in my country.

Any other US based Steemians as disappointed as I am?

What are you planning on doing in the wake of this regulation? Just going all "yolo" and participating anyways?

Can we just buy off an exchange at some point and still be able to participate yet be compliant? I would still like to, and stay US compliant but it seems like that is not a possibility right now.

@teamleibinz

Sort:  

I know absolutely nothing about compliance. It seems to me that it is not illegal for a US citizen to purchase but may potentially be illegal for them to sell to a US citizen.

Yes VPN's will help and it looks like its just a matter of confirming via the check box form that you are not a US citizen.

Also when they hit the exchanges all bets are off and anyone can buy.

On another note it was interesting to see the CIVIC ICO did not have these restrictions. It could be because you needed to download there ID veritfication app to participate. The app did a light weight AML/KYC to every ICO investor. Maybe they figured that this was sufficient to stay compliant.

Interesting times ahead.

FTW I'm going YOLO!

Yep. Total KYC/AML stuff here, which is why I'm also thinking the language is being very careful to identify this is in no way a speculative investment.

Best to you in YOLO town!

I do not understand. Can they stop you from having EOS because you are American or because you are in the USA or both? How would they stop you? I am American from the USA and I am in Vietnam. When you buy Bitcoin, they do not know or do not have to know who you are.

From what I gather, you have to check off a form that indicates you are not a US citizen when participating in the Token Distribution. This is, I'm sure, put into place to keep EOS 100% compliant in US laws. Unsure though about the whole "being a US citizen in a different country" legal situation though. My guess is, its still probably a no go.

But are you required to show an ID? If there is no ID, then it is harder for them to know where you are from. They should not have the right to know. Cryptocurrency is not supposed to be centralized. If they require you to tell you who you are, then that is not really decentralized. It seems that they are trying to control money and centralize the money.

Checking up on more posts, like this one from @dawidrams , it looks like it is just a compliance checkbox:

I've hear that you can use VPNs.

Yeah, just looking for a more straightforward 100% compliant way, personally.

I understand what you mean. I'm like that with a lot of things. If it doesn't feel right then I'll have a hard time accepting it :)

I'm reading the white paper atm, can you explain this paragraph?

"Not for Speculation. Buyer acknowledges and agrees that Buyer is not purchasing EOS
Tokens for purposes of investment, speculation, as some type of arbitrage strategy, for
immediate resale or other financial purposes."

I'm not clear on what value the tokens hold. Such wording is common throughout.

From the technical whitepaper:

The EOS.IO software allows each account to consume a percentage of the available capacity proportional to the amount of tokens held in a 3-day staking contract. For example, if a blockchain based on the EOS.IO software is launched and if an account holds 1% of the total tokens distributable pursuant to that blockchain, then that account has the potential to utilize 1% of the state storage capacity.

So basically if you build an application, you get allocated x% of bandwidth, storage, and CPU power based on how many of the total EOS tokens you own.

Also in the technical whitepaper:

If a blockchain is launched using the EOS.IO software and tokens are held by a holder who may not have an immediate need to consume all or part of the available bandwidth, such holder can choose to give or rent the unconsumed bandwidth to others

So it sounds like they are including the part you mentioned to explain that that is not the purpose of the tokens

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

I can visualize some kind of value from that. Yet I still worry about the references that the EOS tokens are not redeemable for any future tokens created on the network.

Will the tokens created from the ICO be the backing currency on the platform like ETH or will they be transferable by the end of the 365 day ICO?

I ask because it states that tokens will be destroyed 2 days after ico ends and wil not be redeemable after for any other tokens

Good post!

Awesome post! Following you for more 😁

wow that sucks, thanks for letting us know, good post, followed