"Free"? They are literally funded with tax money. They work for citizens and companies. It's their literal job.
It's like saying "you can not ask a policeman about if you can use this kind of trailer on your car, he is not paid for that advice"
>Rather than initiate new rulemaking, Chair Gensler has repeatedly stated through speeches and testimony that the vast majority of digital tokens are securities, and has asked issuers and exchanges that offer, sell, and trade them to come in and register. We disagree that the majority of digital assets are securities. For those digital assets that are securities, registration under the current rules is, for many market participants, either not possible or not economically viable given the associated and unnecessary compliance burdens. Additionally, when existing regulations are unworkable, some market participants may be less willing to invest the resources necessary to follow the rules. Failure to resolve these shortcomings leaves investors unprotected due to a lack of regulatory clarity, prevents market participants from leveraging the efficiencies new technology can offer, and materially impairs capital formation in the blockchain technologies that underlie digital assets. This is wholly inconsistent with the SEC’s mission.
https://assets.ctfassets.net/c5bd0wqjc7v0/5NRidtW8lvwVEfSHpn...
The SEC has been clear that most cryptocurrencies are securities and must be registered. Coinbase was well aware of this. There is no confusion and no lack of clarity. Coinbase just doesn't like the rules.
This is all hypothetical, since the SEC has given clear guidance for years. Coinbase ignored this guidance because they didn't like it.
How should this "outside council" learn the rules, if they can not ask the ones making or ruling with them? You are just shifting the problem down one notch
>since the SEC has given clear guidance for years
So Coinbase is lying about no guidance?
I do agree that things should be this way. In some countries, it is much more clear. In the US, it is very much not like this. Nobody can list everything that is unlawful. You can only pay for opinions.
It sucks, but it's not some unique quirk or the SEC or whatever.
Whats the law book for then?
Coinbase hired expensive lawyers who told them "we think if you do it this way it's not a crime", the SEC disagrees, and it's up to the courts who is correct.
Arguably the SEC doesn't actually make the rules, and is only tasked with enforcing them, and thus they can't actually give advice on the law because their interpretation of the law might not be correct!
anyhow, then they can of course give you advice what NOT to do, and will do. Otherwise, as i said, how can they enforce something unless they know about it? I don't even get your point, it honestly sound quite stupid ?
>Arguably the SEC doesn't actually make the rules,
Sure, but they should at least tell which rules they follow? I don't get how so many people on HN seem to favour SEC here, a community of programmers who use logic at work
Their job is to find some portion of things that are definitely illegal. They don't need to have comprehensive knowledge of the law, just enough to know that the things they are enforcing against are definitely illegal.
If you're asking the police whether something you're doing is definitely legal, you're asking the wrong person.
In this case, from what I've seen, SEC can not even say what is "definietly illegal" like you say. So they can not be trusted