creation of a new altcoin - legal requirements?

achillez

hero member

Activity: 874

Merit: 1000

Quote from: pawel7777 on July 02, 2017, 06:30:35 AM

Quote from: achillez on May 31, 2017, 01:27:37 AM

Curious if anyone has looked into this. Let's say hypothetically you create a new altcoin. You end up pre-mining X amount, and also mine Y amount. Then people start to get interested in it, and you sell your X for bitcoin, and later you mine Y for bitcoin. Does this fall under the "money transmitter" guidelines, and have to register with FinCEN (if you're in the states)? I don't think this is the case but wondered if anyone else encountered this.

Short answer is "No", but only as long as your altcoin is decentralised (you don't control it in any way and the network can function without you) and you haven't launched it as an ICO.

You're essentially creating tokens of zero start value (so it's neither money nor commodity at that point), then other people join the network, making it independent from yourself and then the market start giving it a value/price.

Why does launching it as an ICO matter? I thought the ICO was just another branch of a ethereum.

TrumpD

sr. member

Activity: 602

Merit: 265

Developing a coin and using it makes it possible to cross jurisdictional boundaries as the nodes on a blockchain can be located anywhere in the world. It could create some legal issues in the future, but for now it is all good, as different governments don't know what to do about it yet.

iamTom123

hero member

Activity: 490

Merit: 501

Just yesterday, I read an article in one of the reputable Bitcoin-related sites and it is talking about how easy it is to launch an altcoin and they even elaborated the step-by-step process. Now, having read that, i realized that it is really true that anybody can launch a coin and can make some money out of it...which is why we have a term like shitcoins. Shitcoins are coins that are introduced to the public with no concern if they are representing real value at all and when things can get tough they can just leave the coin in limbo. We have seen many altcoins gone to the cemetery already and many of them are gone with our memories...leaving many holders wondering what happened to the money they poured into them.

As to legal requirements to introduce an altcoin, the answer is that we are a deregulated industry so there is actually no legal papers to work with except if you think you are reputable enough and you will really establish a real business entity just like any legitimate business.

We are now swimming (and about to be drowning) in a sea of so many altcoins and more are coming our way.

countryfree

legendary

Activity: 3038

Merit: 1047

Your country may be your worst enemy

Quote from: achillez on May 31, 2017, 01:27:37 AM

... Then people start to get interested in it...

NO! There are hundreds of altcoins already. It's most likely that nobody would be interested if you create a new one.

pawel7777

legendary

Activity: 2436

Merit: 1561

Quote from: achillez on May 31, 2017, 01:27:37 AM

Curious if anyone has looked into this. Let's say hypothetically you create a new altcoin. You end up pre-mining X amount, and also mine Y amount. Then people start to get interested in it, and you sell your X for bitcoin, and later you mine Y for bitcoin. Does this fall under the "money transmitter" guidelines, and have to register with FinCEN (if you're in the states)? I don't think this is the case but wondered if anyone else encountered this.

Short answer is "No", but only as long as your altcoin is decentralised (you don't control it in any way and the network can function without you) and you haven't launched it as an ICO.

You're essentially creating tokens of zero start value (so it's neither money nor commodity at that point), then other people join the network, making it independent from yourself and then the market start giving it a value/price.

shohelalam

full member

Activity: 197

Merit: 100

Quote from: alexrose2699 on June 20, 2017, 05:04:50 PM

Love them or hate them, there’s a lot of altcoins in the crypto-economy. In fact, in 2017 there are roughly more than 700 different kinds of cryptocurrency. All of them claim to offer something unique. However, many people believe there is nothing innovative about these altcoins due to how easy it is to create them, the sketchy developers behind many such projects, and the significant pre-mines associated with altcoins.

700+ is just add coinmarketcap.. but there many of altacoin and token are waiting for launch. and also waiting to add in coinmarketcap. Every day create so many token by etherum and waves token and also by clone in github. now its so easy to create token without low investment. and it another to nothing have any legal procedure then every can make token and come to crypto market.

2bfree

sr. member

Activity: 686

Merit: 251

I'm investigating Crypto Projects

Quote from: alexrose2699 on June 20, 2017, 05:04:50 PM

Love them or hate them, there’s a lot of altcoins in the crypto-economy. In fact, in 2017 there are roughly more than 700 different kinds of cryptocurrency. All of them claim to offer something unique. However, many people believe there is nothing innovative about these altcoins due to how easy it is to create them, the sketchy developers behind many such projects, and the significant pre-mines associated with altcoins.

700? NO way! There is way way more then that! Think about it every day some scammer copies the code from Github or issues a token on ETH network to make a new coin and if he only tricks a few people to take a few Bitcoin from them in exchange for letting them hold the bag then the scammer is making thousends of Euros per day stealling from greedy investors who end up stuck with the worthless altcoin. This happens ever day say 3 years that's 1000 just 1 day and and there are more. I would say they must have created 5000 by now and most are just for the purpose of stealing bitccoin nothing else!

alexrose2699

newbie

Activity: 28

Merit: 0

Love them or hate them, there’s a lot of altcoins in the crypto-economy. In fact, in 2017 there are roughly more than 700 different kinds of cryptocurrency. All of them claim to offer something unique. However, many people believe there is nothing innovative about these altcoins due to how easy it is to create them, the sketchy developers behind many such projects, and the significant pre-mines associated with altcoins.

darkangel11

legendary

Activity: 2296

Merit: 1335

Defend Bitcoin and its PoW: bitcoincleanup.com

Quote from: 2bfree on June 03, 2017, 03:36:50 AM

If I created it in my country the way they hate freedom they make complicated regulations so the state prosecutor can put anyone in jail that he wants. So lets say they track me down the state atorney could be me in jail for money laundering, terorism (supporting it with the alt coin) and many other things. I heard of the fhe former parlement mebers say every citizen is a crimnal because we make the regulations that way. So in my country it's not legal i'm 100% sure!

Unfortunately the law in some countries, especially the USA is very vague because states and districts have their own pace of writing and modifying it. What's legal in one state can be illegal in another and sometimes they even ignore the rulings of other courts in similar cases.
The money transmitting law and the law about possible terrorist activity and money laundering are misinterpreted and used to pressure people into paying fines and financing the flawed system. If you look at from this angle it seems they can come at you at any point, and it won't matter if you're issuing your own altcoin or trading an existing one.

That said, in most countries the authorities ignore coins and don't require you to register them, as long as you pay the taxes.

2bfree

sr. member

Activity: 686

Merit: 251

I'm investigating Crypto Projects

If I created it in my country the way they hate freedom they make complicated regulations so the state prosecutor can put anyone in jail that he wants. So lets say they track me down the state atorney could be me in jail for money laundering, terorism (supporting it with the alt coin) and many other things. I heard of the fhe former parlement mebers say every citizen is a crimnal because we make the regulations that way. So in my country it's not legal i'm 100% sure!

zeze18

sr. member

Activity: 938

Merit: 256

I agree with you, if talk about legality may not be just a new altcoin, even some of previous altcoin many have no legality, maybe even today bitcoin has no clear legality. I think as long as coin has good potential and is accepted in market of course legality is not main factor to be able to compete with some big coin coins

Amph

legendary

Activity: 3206

Merit: 1069

i would not put me in much trouble if i was going to do this, i mean they can't even know what you are doing with this coin, there is no way to know

if you create this coin with ring signature feature like monero, will be even more impossible to know about, why bother taking in consideration the legallity of this?

it's not different than when the early adopted mine tons of bitcoin, do you thin they were aksing about the legallity of bitcoin back then? i think no, and it doesn't make sense

these altcoin all born without value, if someone is willing to pay for it, is no different than selling stuff at your home that you produced

achillez

hero member

Activity: 874

Merit: 1000

Curious if anyone has looked into this. Let's say hypothetically you create a new altcoin. You end up pre-mining X amount, and also mine Y amount. Then people start to get interested in it, and you sell your X for bitcoin, and later you mine Y for bitcoin. Does this fall under the "money transmitter" guidelines, and have to register with FinCEN (if you're in the states)? I don't think this is the case but wondered if anyone else encountered this.

Topic: creation of a new altcoin - legal requirements? (Read 1386 times)