On April 29, blockchain took over the Cyberlaw Podcast once again with Alan Cohn, Gary Goldsholle, Will Turner, and guest speaker, Jeff Bandman, covering all things blockchain and cryptocurrency. We dove right into the recent activity from the SEC, namely, the Framework for “Investment Contract” Analysis of Digital Assets and the No-Action Letter issued to TurnKey Jet, Inc. (TurnKey) for a digital token. The framework focuses primarily on the reasonable expectation of profits and efforts of others prongs of the Howey test. The TurnKey No-Action Letter was most useful for parties interested in structuring a private, permissioned, centralized blockchain, but the guidance in the Framework would allow for alternative structures. We also discuss the importance of network functionality and the tension between the need for centralization to achieve functionality, and the need for decentralization as a means to avoid meeting the “derived from the efforts of others” prong of the Howey test.
After touching on Blockstack’s Regulation A filing and the recently reintroduced Token Taxonomy Act of 2019, we turn to the interview with Jeff, who describes how he co-founded Global Digital Finance (GDF). GDF has a number of working groups focused on developing high-level principles and standards on a range of topics, including stablecoins, custody, tax, and security tokens. Jeff is also in the process of launching a new transfer agent service, Block Agent, focused on enabling and supporting SEC-regulated issuances.
You can read the full summary and listen to the podcast here.