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Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

nytimes.com

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Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#11

Post by gxs »

What's old is new again - this is why the SEC was created if I'm not mistaken.

People were losing their shirts investing in shady companies so the government stepped in to protect people from themselves.

For this reason it won't be surprising at all when we start seeing some attempts to enact regulation.

Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#12

Post by phkahler »

ybrah wrote: post #3

Anyone who buys into ICOs tend to not do much research

Most ICOs look like fairly blatant fraud. We have laws to protect people from even subtler forms of fraud. The fact that they allow this stuff to continue is as amazing to me as some of the scams going on.

Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#13

Post by brndnmtthws »

giacaglia wrote: post #9

How would you differentiate fraud from a legit ICO? What makes a ICO not fraudulent? It's hard to determine

The same can be said for a lot of investments, there's nothing about ICOs that makes this unique aside from the fact that most people don't understand computers.

Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#17

Post by mrwong »

sschueller wrote: post #10

I am horrified by what was/is allowed legally at wall street. Not that ICO's are any better.

Wallstreet has a monopoly on IPOs, they are clearly threatened by the ICO boom. Its just the internet all over again. Candlemakers wanted to ban light bulbs. Newspaper wanted to regulate online media. They all failed. So will wallstreet. Its just a matter of time, the forcing function is way to strong.

Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#18

Post by narrator »

The funny thing about ICOs is that anyone in the world can invest anonymously AND GET PAID BACK anonymously even if they have no money, don't have a bank account, are a fugitive, in Iran or North Korea, are in prison, have unpaid child support obligations, have large unpaid IRS tax liabilities, or government fines and penalties or are using stolen funds. All the little knobs and levers that governments use to financially control people are rendered useless. The guys taking the money don't know who their investors are, so they can't discriminate. This is probably why they are so popular even though the risks are ludicrous.

Re: Initial Coin Offerings Horrify a Former S.E.C. Regulator

#20

Post by MBCook »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #13
giacaglia wrote: post #9

How would you differentiate fraud from a legit ICO? What makes a ICO not fraudulent? It's hard to determine

The same can be said for a lot of investments, there's nothing about ICOs that makes this unique aside from the fact that most people don't understand computers.

Except we have entire sets of laws and systems to try to control and expose the risk of other investments.

ICOs are the Wild West, with the added benefit that they’re totally intangible so you can’t even be stuck holding the bag.

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