Vsak kripto projekt mora upoštevati Howeyjev test SEC

Nearly five years ago, SEC official Bill Himan stood on stage at a Yahoo Finance crypto summit in San Francisco and delivered a prepared speech that concluded that Ethereum (ETH) is not a security. A footnote on the SEC’s website clarified that the speech “expresses the author’s views and does not necessarily reflect those of the Commission,” but it was nonetheless taken exactly that way.

Hinman’s speech came just one week after then-SEC chair Jay Clayton said that the SEC does not view Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies kot vrednostni papirji, v nasprotju s žetone, Clayton je rekel: "kjer ti dam svoj denar, ti pa greš in narediš podvig, jaz pa v zameno za to, da ti dam svoj denar, rečem, 'lahko dobiš vračilo' - to je varščina."

But Gary Gensler, the current SEC chair and scourge of crypto builders, has made clear that he does not share Hinman’s view. He views “vse razen Bitcoina” as a security. Last fall, just one day after Ethereum končan its merge to become a proof-of-stake network, Gensler said that the native tokens of networks that use staking also look like securities, since “the investing public is anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.”

In Gensler kot svojo severnico uporablja isti test, kot sta ga uporabila Hinman in Clayton: 77 let staro tožbo, ki je vključevala nasad citrusov na Floridi.

"Howeyjev test" je postal zloglasni bauk za vse v kriptovaluti, in čeprav bi si industrija želela, da izgine, je jasno, da se to ne bo zgodilo tako kmalu.

Hinman and Clayton are both long gone from the SEC and have moved on to svetuje kripto podjetja (naturally). But Howey remains, and Gensler has cited it to make the case that all of crypto falls under SEC jurisdiction—even though just last month, his counterpart at the CFTC said ETH is a commodity.

(Ironically, Hinman’s speech in June 2018 was called “When Gary Met Howey,” but he was referencing a 1985 case involving Gary Plastic Packaging that showed a non-security can become a security depending on how it’s marketed; Hinman couldn’t know that in a few years, a different Gary would wield Howey as a hammer against an entire trillion-dollar industry.)

Poudarek Howeya je, da sredstvo postane naložbena pogodba, ko se trži ali proda s pričakovanjem dobička zahvaljujoč delu prodajalca ali tretje osebe. Sam nasad agrumov ni bil vrednostni papir, so bile pa delnice v nasadu agrumov. Hinman je trdil, da je omrežje od takrat postalo dovolj decentralizirano, da izključi trenutno prodajo ETH kot ponudbe vrednostnih papirjev, če odmislimo začetno zbiranje sredstev za Ethereum leta 2014, ki je prineslo 18 milijonov dolarjev. Zdi se, da se Gensler s tem ne strinja, toda kar je še pomembneje – in bolj škodljivo za večino novih kripto projektov – je, da so vse druge prodaje žetonov, zgrajene na Ethereumu, precej jasno videti kot vrednostni papirji po Howeyjevi definiciji. Špekulanti jih kupujejo v upanju, da se bo žeton podražil na podlagi zaznanega uspeha projekta.

Ampak počakaj! Kaj pa, če se žeton resnično uporablja v ekosistemu projekta in ima resnično uporabnost, ki presega špekulacije o cenah? Ni pomembno, kot je dejal Hinman leta 2018, še preden se je pojavil Gensler: »Enostavno označevanje digitalnega sredstva kot 'uporabni žeton' ne spremeni sredstva v nekaj, kar ni vrednostni papir.« Z drugimi besedami: poimenujte svoj žeton kakor želite, SEC še vedno misli, da je vrednostni papir.

People in crypto like to say that the SEC has not given “clear guidelines” for crypto projects, but the truth is that it has. Its guiding light is the Howey Test—the industry just doesn’t like it. Gensler said in front of Congress just last week: No new rules are coming, because “the regulations actually already exist.”

Another problem people raise with Howey is that it’s too damn old to be applied fairly anymore, but even Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal, a former California magistrate judge, said recently on our gm podcast that the issue with Howey is not its age: “I love legal precedents, even if they are decades old. So I have no problem with Howey or any other precedent simply because of its age.”

Težava s Howeyjem je, kako se uporablja za novo tehnologijo.

»Ko gre za delovanje tehnologije, ki temelji na verigi blokov in je podlaga za večino digitalnih sredstev, mislim, da je pogosto zmeda glede vloge promotorja, zmeda o tem, kaj poganja morebitne donose, ki bi lahko pripadli imetniku žetone in zmedo o tem, kako v osnovi delujejo ta sredstva in kakšno resnično korist prinašajo omrežjem,« je dejal Grewal. »Ko gre za omrežja, ki temeljijo na mehanizmu soglasja o dokazu o vložku, imajo ti žetoni zelo pomembno vlogo, to je zagotoviti, da so omrežja varna, da so transakcije, ki so potrjene v omrežju, natančen.”

Torej, ali je vedno pošteno, da dobiček žetona pripišemo izključno prizadevanjem projekta, ki stoji za njim? Kaj pa, ko so imetniki žetonov resnični udeleženci pri uspehu projekta? To je razlika, za katero mnogi novi projekti upajo, da bo njihov žeton izločila iz krempljev SEC, vendar Gensler za zdaj ni nakazal, da mu to kaj pomeni.

That approach certainly didn’t work for LBRY, which argued that its token “functioned as an essential part of the LBRY blockchain” and still lost its case against the SEC, and lost bad—as University of Kentucky law professor Brian Frye Rekel Dešifriraj, "Okrožno sodišče je skoraj v celoti prepustilo SEC ... Odločil je za SEC o dobesedno vsem, brez zadržkov."

Most people you ask believe Gary Gensler is angling for a bigger job in government. But there’s no guarantee Gensler’s successor as SEC chair won’t also happily apply Howey to crypto. (Remember: when Gensler first took the job, people in crypto were initially optimistic because he had taught a blockchain course at MIT; don’t assume the next chair will be any friendlier.)

The entire crypto industry must reckon with Howey, rather than hope it just goes away. Some projects are doing that by calling their coin a governance token, emphasizing holder participation; others, like Coinbase, are promising to fight the SEC head on, which should be applauded by the industry; many others are only offering their token zunaj ZDA.

For now, it’s clear the current regulatory environment in the U.S. is pushing crypto projects overseas. What happens next with regulation will be the most important determinant for the future of Web3 innovation in America. For the time being, Howey is alive and kicking.

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• vir: https://decrypt.co/125761/crypto-projects-must-reckon-with-sec-howey-test-for-securities