Well to put my cards on the table right off:
1: I am heavily invested in GAW miners Hashlets
2: I have been banned from hashtalk (for pointing out that one of their largest customers was engaging in what I believe to an illeagal acitvity on their site)
I think Garza has some very good and innovative ideas about moving crypto to the mainstream. He is young and makes some rookie blunders. His ego and temper are both a bit larger than average.
I have to admire his marketing genius. Say what you want, but he has changed the rules on his customers and instead of complaining they (by and large) are thanking him for the opportunity.
Now THAT is marketing.
I have yet to see any evidence of any securities violations, and I have spent nearly my entire career in the investment industry.
In my opinion hashlets and the new paycoin have a somewhat better than 50/50 chance of actually working.
I believe it largely depends on enough advertising and media coverage to get non-early adopters and non-technically minded people interested enough to give it a try.
In six months all of the haranguing and teeth gnashing will be moot.
Just my 2 Satoshis.
Thanks for the reasonable post. I know I get too heated in here sometimes. I shouldn't let Josh's scummy personality get to me.
This is definitely an unregistered security. Josh has stated, unequivocally, that Zenpool profits are paid out on: 1. private rentals, 2. mining, 3. day-trading, 4. undisclosed other activities. This means that a 1MH share of Zenpool is profit-sharing of a diversified fund with several different income streams. Josh's admission to day-trading
guarantees that this is an unregistered security. You are not receiving the profits of a 1MH scrypt miner.
Can we all agree on that? That a fund that day-trades with your money by buying and selling currencies must be a security?
Josh appears to admit this in the latest "Troll/FUD" that Suchmoon linked. Notice that Josh does not focus on denying allegation of running an unregistered security, but instead stresses that the SEC only steps in when "losses occur."
I imagine he means that to be pacifying, but it should be a gigantic red flag that Josh feels no need to pass on information as to the risk that his buyer's are shouldering. It is illegal not because risk is illegal (obviously), but because people have no idea they are buying something that can literally be worth $0.00/MH tomorrow. No other "miner" has such a risk profile.
If the SEC steps into GAW's office, then in that instant everything that one "owns" will be untradeable and unsellable with no value of any kind as the SEC pulls the plug on their server.