Security law and Blockchains
The first thing is that blockchains do not fork in a manner that splits the chain.
ICO
Dematerialisation
PoS is a form of equity with no dividends
“The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), as amended and implemented by regulations passed by FinCEN [Financial Crime Enforcement Network], requires a wide-swath of otherwise unregulated financial institutions to register with the government, implement anti-money laundering procedures, keep data, and report certain transactions and other data,” wrote Reuben Grinberg, a lawyer for Davis Polk & Wardwell, in an academic paper on bitcoin in 2011. However, at this point monitoring of money transfers in bitcoin may be more trouble than it’s worth for the US government.
Sidelining the currency altogether might be simpler and more effective. ”Under the statute, FinCEN has power to prevent US financial institutions from dealing with institutions that deal with Bitcoin, which would essentially outlaw it in the US,” Grinberg told Quartz in an email. “Previously in interviews I have said that I think it’s unlikely that the US Government would just outright ban Bitcoin. But this action shows that its not impossible. “
Liberty Reserve was based in Costa Rica, which is not a member of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), the international organization that collaborates on anti-money money laundering (AML) rules. And yet, Costa Rican authorities cooperated with the US government (which is a member).
Therefore, “not being located or not operating out of the US is not going to save you unless you are ultra careful not to have any kind of connection to the US market, a tall order,” says Grinberg. For its part, Liberty Reserve allegedly encouraged criminal activity, and made no attempt to keep out US users. Even if it had warned criminal clients not to use its service, the company still could have been subject to US law, particularly if it suspected that its clients were laundering money.