Re: Unlawful Unregistered Securities, DID and VC

Thank you Chaals, Manu and Christopher,

I was feeling very uncomfortable following this thread as well, but the recent messages have eased my concerns a bit.
The W3C taking proactive action at this point in the legal process would send the catastrophic message! Can Standardization efforts be influenced by just starting a lawsuit (in whatever jurisdiction)? Maybe next time, just threatening one might already do the job. Also note, that I specifically don’t see any difference if that suit is brought by a government or private entity.

I’m happy with the group discussing the implications and “having it on the radar”, but I’d strongly advice against any shots from the hip.

Best,
Martin Riedel

> On Jun 14, 2023, at 11:53, Christopher Allen <ChristopherA@lifewithalacrity.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 5:19 PM Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com <mailto:melvincarvalho@gmail.com>> wrote:
>> For a more comprehensive understanding, I recommend reading the original SEC guidance, which you can find at this non paywalled link: 
>> 
>> https://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2023/comp-pr2023-102.pdf
>> 
>> This document provides thorough case studies, including insights from blog posts, Twitter posts, and transcripts. For an illustrative and relevant example, you might find the Filecoin / Protocol Labs case study particularly informative, which is covered in parts 163-189.
> 
> I'm very uncomfortable with this discussion by our community (ccg) and standards (did). We are not qualified. 
> 
> I read through the Filecoin/IPFS portion of this doc, and it is very biased and is based on unsettled law. They did not mention the utility use of the tokens, which in some jurisdictions (Wyoming and a few other states) should be considered a factor.
> 
> The key point is that these topics are unsettled. There are many congressmen and senators that are very unhappy with how the SEC is handling these matters and are working on bipartisan bills. There are also cases before judges where they appear to be critical of the SEC approach even before making judgment. Other parts of the Federal Government are also critical of the SEC here.
> 
> Though I'm not a big fan of Filecoin for other reasons, they went to a lot of effort to do the best practices of the time and avoided many bad practices that were common. I, too, want us to avoid scams and bad practices, but I don't know where the line is.
> 
> So to say that we need to remove, for instance, Filecoin-related DID methods because they are included in an SEC document feels to me to be very premature. I suspect that this may not be settled law in the US for a few years. In addition, this will likely only be US — it feels like the UK is going the other way. This is the WORLD-wide-web consortium. What if a token used in a blockchain becomes illegal in the US, but is legal in the UK? What to do then?
> 
> -- Christopher Allen