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Comment by WheelsAtLarge | Hacker News Reader

This sounds like bad news but I see it as good news. The only way the SEC can go after fraudsters is to have jurisdiction over what they have done. The SEC can now go after the frauds against Ethereum users no matter where the fraud was committed.

Crypto will never be a legitimate investment class if people can't trust that they will get their investment back. It's also impossible for it grow to fill a need without trust. Crypto-Land should be jumping with joy at hearing this news.

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How about the US not fucking around in other countries jurisdictions? I for one have no association with the US and don't plan on having one just because I may own ETH

As long as the SEC (and the rest of the US government) limits itself to going after solely fraud, that might be ok. But inherently falling under US law means being controlled by the US government and that is exactly the OPPOSITE of what crypto is meant to be about. If you have to do KYC, trade only with approved counter-parties, pay fees and taxes not due in your actual location, and be subject to US sanctions and US decisions what is the point of any of this?

If you take that angle then crypto will still never be a legitimate investment class either way, because all of it (including BTC and ETH and everything else) is a giant fraud predicated on the falsehood that it is "decentralized" and somehow that makes it unregulated. There is no other reason for it to exist. This is just another nail in the coffin, they can't lie about it anymore.

If crypto-land really wants to follow through on their lawless anarchist fantasies, then they should be even happier if the SEC bans all of it outright. Then they can all go back to their roots when the only thing bitcoin was used for was illegal black market drug transactions...

It’s kind of bad if the SEC is making dumb arguments. They aren’t infinitely powerful; why erode their power this way?

ETH is operating and trading with the US. It falls under US jurisdiction. The line of "we are not registered anywhere therefore we don't have to follow laws in any jurisdiction" is pretty weak and farcical. And sorry to be cheeky but... Have you seen some of the absurd claims and arguments crypto people make about the "infinite power" of crypto to somehow evade all laws and solve all social problems, while simultaneously making everyone rich just for holding some tokens? I wish I was making this up, or maybe I was just getting trolled...

I take it you did not read the complaint.

I did read it and it is honestly not that complicated. The SEC is being generous here. They could make the argument even if there were no validators. But I hope this is the start of them shutting down the validators too.

They could make the argument the transaction took place in the US due to validator density even if there were no validators?

Regardless, that’s not the argument.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to legalize the market?

US gov has a way of keeping certain things illegal that would otherwise take away employment and purpose of their own agencies. Just look at the DEA/"war on drugs".

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