Whereas, even Monero looks precariously close to skirting the risks of being an investment security. I don't know for sure, but I would be careful on these "pink sheet altcoins".
It obviously a difficult space to define, because no company owns any of these coins. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that inappropriate behaviors aren't possible. For example, if I were the sole developer of a coin I could announce that I quit shortly before shorting the coin - I would obviously make money (for example if this John Conner person shorted his VanillaCoin). As well, someone like gmaxwell could do the reverse: he could slowly buy up a ton of BBQCoin and then announce he is starting a big initiative to add features to it (not that he would do that). The price would skyrocket and he could cash in on his reputation at the expense of investors.
So potential for abuse is there, and that's what the SEC is for - to babysit and ensure the free market doesn't actually reign over the U.S. Securities market.
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I suggest you review the thread I did on investment securities. I don't think UNREGISTERED disclosure protects you from creating an implicit investment contract with prospective investors for an UNREGISTERED investment security.
Please link it; I can't seem to find it. As well, there's no way to register ownership of any of these assets at the moment because they are in a quasi-legal status. I suppose they would technically float between being defined as a commodity (gold) or a currency (dollars). Does the SEC regulate the gold market? I don't think so. If I owned 1% of all gold in the world, and was online singing the praises of gold, would that be against the law? If I owned 1% of all Romanian currency, and I was singing what an economic resurgence that Romania was about to have - would I be in violation of any law?
It's important to remember that unless new legislation is passed in the US, these are commodities. Unless new legislation is passed in the EU, these are currencies. These are not securities. In fact, if you try to claim your cryptocurrency represents a company or another entity, you can expect the SEC to shut you down quick, because you don't have the authority to do that (assuming you are subject to US law - I'm sure someone from Antarctica could claim whatever they want). So no one has to worry about violating a securities law just because they are speculating on a commodity.
(even in the case of actual securities, the internet is filled with message boards where people are free to speculate about their future prices - and do).
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I am not aware of that. Can you point me to some details or elaborate? What sort of harrassment? This concerns me significantly and was one of the reasons I originally wanted to be anonymous,
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/finney-swat/
Buy a gun. Then buy another. If/once your worth exceeds 8-figures in USD, hire actual security. If your net worth exceeds 9-figures in USD, hire the best security money can buy.
The police are not there to protect you; they are there to report on the bad things that happened to you, and occasionally abuse their authority.
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P.S. I wasn't trying to killjoy the thread. Please don't everyone go silent, I feel guilty.
The illustrious history of TPTB. Rumor has it he made major contributions to economics and computer science back in the 1990's, wrote a 2 million word treatise on money in the 2000's, and in the 2010's ruined innocent speculation topics.
