Coin Center may be one of the most important non profits representing the cryptocurrency space as a whole. Just recently they put forth an effort to educate the Blockchain Caucaus which is a part of congress. This is important because at the moment the battle for legitimacy is being squandered around the world as "greed motivated" ICOs ignore social norms in some instances whilst deliberately attracting regulation in other instances by structuring themselves to resemble corporations. In my opinion it can end bad if it plays out in court and the wrong precdents are set prior to updating the laws. The Blockchain Caucaus is the one group which we all should rally behind to put in sensible updates to the crowdfunding regulations so that for instance:
- We need a new definition (crypto-specific) for "sophisticated investor".
- We need a legal mechanism for investors to waive SEC protection if they determine they want to take their chances.
My opinion for why we need at least these two updates is because the culture in the cryptocurrency community is a risk taker culture and it would harm the ecosystem to punish risk taking. Risk takers in my opinion need a way to waive their protection on a case by case basis through a formal process in order to take risks. Perhaps they should be able to for instance file a written document which legally makes clear they waive the right to SEC protection for their participation in ICOs. This could be similar to conscientious objector status in the draft or similar.
And of course we need a better definition for "sophisticated investor". As a person with a background education far beyond what most millionaires have when it comes to information security, blockchain technology, etc, for someone such as myself or for many others with similar backgrounds the idea that we might not be considered a sophisticated investor while someone who can't read any code, has no background in cryptography or tech, can somehow secure that status merely because they have a big enough bank account? We need to in my opinion change this from bank account only to include or to be bank account or background.
Peter Van Valkenburgh laid out our thinking on a sensible approach to tokens for securities regulators. In short: lots of tokens are probably securities but there are is a small subset, those that are useful for purchasing distributed network goods and services, which are not. He was joined by Joel Monegro of Placeholder Capital, Ken Nguyen of CoinList, and Erik Kintner of Snell and Wilmer. Congressman Jared Polis, co-chair of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, gave remarks after the panel highlighting the importance of government approaching this technology smartly to preserve innovation in this space.
If a person has a degree in a field related to blockchain technology and smart contracts then they are obviously in my opinion more sophisticated at analyzing the nature of the investment than a real estate investor who may have millions but who knows absolutely nothing about peer to peer technology or code. An exemption for people who clearly have the background to be sophisticated and or an exemption for people who waive SEC protection should be available. If in my opinion we do this then regulators will be welcomed by many people in this space who otherwise would be critical.