Is there a way to do a public offering of tokens? Or does it necessitate all the same reporting that a publicly listed company has?
Could still be worth it! Because the investors control even less of your board than in Snapchat IPO.
Answer (if you don't need USA investors): http://cryptovalley.swiss/
There are the Howey test on the Federal level, and then there is also the Risk Capital Test in several states.
Precedent can very easily go towards the direction that people have a reasonable expectation of the tokens going up in value, making them securities in the eyes of at least the Risk Capital Test. In fact club memberships became securities under this test!
http://www.theselc.org/which_states_apply_the_risk_capital_t...
Are Nike shoes therefore securities? It is an open ended question and yes where we are in this country a future court could rope something like that in too before Congress gets around to forcing regulatory clarity.
Tokens can be products. It is what you sell them for and how you sell them and how you interact with that market, and how others interact with that market, that determines if something is a security. But is isn't a single one of those factors in isolation that makes it a security.