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LAMike

What will the SEC do when 0x decentralized exchanges pop up?

There are already a dozen in development... pure p2p trading from a hardware wallet...

https://0xproject.com/

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You have to convert USD to some cryptocurrency at some point, and vice-versa, so that's what they'll regulate.

Yup. It's really quite simple - focus on the USD on-ramps and off-ramps.

It's effectively the only way to do it but the way around it is fairly simple: use a bank account on another country, one that is OK with crypto along with non-US based exchanges.

Most non-US banks are really, really, really disinterested in dealing with US citizens, because of the regulatory burdens.

Unless you're pushing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars around, they'll probably tell you to go pound sand.

I see, I was unaware of that.

> the way around it is fairly simple: use a bank account on another country

Willful money laundering isn't a "simple" risk-reward decision.

I wasn't describing that with the intent of laundering money, I mean simply having money in a different jurisdiction and using it locally. I can use my cards from different countries (I've lived in a bunch of different places) pretty much anywhere around the world, the money I have there in those currencies is subject first and foremost to local laws.

Of course it won't stop trade completely, but it could tank the price and cause interest to drop off as that's significantly higher effort than "sign up here, use your credit card or bank account directly".

Yea and the IRS will be quite curious about your transaction history when you do.

The IRS and SEC have remarkably different goals. They likely interact very little with one another with regards to enforcement.

Who said they have to interact?

The SEC will be interested in the exchange and its staff. The IRS will be interested in individual users' bank transfers.

Well, currently you have to convert cryptocurrency into hard currency to use it, but the former isn't true. I have mined all of my cryptocurrency and that's pretty common among my peers.

Money changed hands for me to get that currency -- money paid to the power company and to a few eBay sellers for video cards -- but nothing requiring an exchange fit-for-purpose.

If purchasing with cryptocurrency ever truly becomes a thing (yeah, I know it exists, but it's rare and becoming more rare these days), that will affect the other side, as well.

There are numerous solid systems-theoretic, information-theoretic, psychological (not unrelated to the two above), and sociological reasons to not expect decentralisation to be a major force.

Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Twitter haven't exactly decentralised their respective areas of operation. Despite no intrinsic barriers (other than the four mentioned above) to decentralised systems developing.

Even Mastodon has largely settled on a small number of very large nodes.

You either end up with useless imaginary currency, or you have to launder it to turn it into currency you can actually spend.

You think the government won't notice if you buy a lambo and you can't afford it with valid income?

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