by Cat
Wed Aug 2nd, 2017 at 03:08:54 PM EST
5. The Financial Action Task Force
Thirty-seven member and observer states constitute FATF. You may compare this cohort listing to the disjunctive table in Wikipedia's flawed article, "Legality of bitcoin by country or territory", wherein editors cite, for example, US Internal Revenue Service treatment of property. Hold that thought and ask yourself, "SELF, does my government tax this property yet?"
The Financial Action Task Force
defines "virtual currency" as : a digital representation of value that can be digitally traded and functions as: (1) a medium of exchange; and/or (2) a unit of account; and/or (3) a store of value,
such as "money". Money is a function. The money function colloquially expresses the exchange between of two or more independent variables and denotes combinations of tangible and intangible
values, stored or represented by the symbols, or tokens, exchanged. EUR or walnuts, "Wimmin" and children, yapstones and so forth.
but does not have legal tender status (i.e., when tendered to a creditor, is a valid and legal offer of payment) in any jurisdiction.
Herein this Release the SEC asserts, "virtual currency" is
(4) a form of recorded contract, or an "agreement between private parties creating mutual obligations enforceable by law" IF obligations specified by the contract satisfy uniform definition of executable terms (
1),
2-espec. Art.14) expressing all foregoing representations of exchange, account, and value ("currency" or "medium"), regardless of tender denomination.
Do all types of lawful contracts ("agreements") constitute a "property," or a possession?
Yes, a written or even contested verbal contract satisfies most definitions of personal property, or
personalty (arch.), according to English Common Law (
3) which has come to color
ius civile of ancient Rome with which peoples governed by western empire live today. A contract is a type of security in the subclass personal property in the class of properties in the universe of capital.
It is not issued or guaranteed by any jurisdiction, and fulfills the above functions only by agreement within the community of users of the virtual currency. Virtual currency is distinguished from fiat currency (a.k.a. "real currency," "real money," or "national currency"), which is the coin and paper money of a country that is designated as its legal tender; circulates; and is customarily used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the issuing country. It is distinct from e -money, which is a digital representation of fiat currency used to electronically transfer value denominated in fiat currency.
FATF Report, Virtual Currencies, Key Definitions and Potential AML/CFT Risks, FINANCIAL ACTION TASK FORCE (June 2014), www.fatfgafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Virtual-currency-key-definitions-and-potential-aml-cft
-risks.pdf.
6. Ethereum, developed by the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit organization, is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts on a blockchain known as the Ethereum Blockchain.
7. Christoph Jentzsch released the final draft of the White Paper on or around March 23, 2016. He introduced his concept of a DAO Entity as early as November 2015 at an Ethereum Developer Conference in London, as a medium to raise funds for Slock.it, a German start-up he co-founded in September 2015. Slock.it purports to create technology that embeds smart contracts that run on the Ethereum Blockchain into real-world devices and, as a result, for example, permits anyone to rent, sell or share physical objects in a decentralized way. See SLOCK.IT, https:/slock.it.
8. Christoph Jentzsch, Decentralized Autonomous Organization to Automate Governance Final Draft - Under Review, https://download.slock.it/public/DAO/WhitePaper.pdf.
9. Id.
10. Id. The White Paper contained the following statement: A word of caution, at the outset: the legal status of [DAO Entities ] remains the subject of active and vigorous debate and discussion. Not everyone shares the same definition. Some have said that [DAO Entities] are autonomous code and can operate independently of legal systems; other have said that [DAO Entities] must be owned or operate[d] by humans or human created entities. There will be many use cases, and the DAO [Entity] code will develop over time. Ultimately, how a DAO [Entity] functions and its legal status will depend on many factors, including how DAO [Entity ] code is used, where it is used, and who uses it. This paper does not speculate about the legal status of [DAO Entities] worldwide. This paper is not intended to offer legal advice or conclusions. Anyone who uses DAO [Entity] code will do so at their own risk.
source:
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, Release No. 8107/July 25, 2017, Report of Investigation Pursuant to Section 21(a) of the Securities Eschange Act of 1934: The DAO
[emphasis added]
Momentarily setting aside "the path" of cultural misappropriation by philosophical outlaws, tell us: Did you expect state agents to forego this opportunity to exercise their right to tax any form of "virtual currency"?
Nadie es libre.