Bitcoin documentation standards
The advent of virtual currencies such as bitcoin raises a pressing question for lawmakers, regulators, and judges: should bitcoin and other virtual currencies be classified as money or currency for legal and regulatory purposes? I examine two different approaches to answering this question—a descriptive approach and a normative approach. The descriptive approach says that bitcoin and other virtual currencies should be classified as money or currency just in case they really are money or currency, whereas the normative approach says that this question of classification should be answered on the basis of substantive normative considerations. I argue against the descriptive approach and in favor of the normative approach. Today, there are thousands of such currencies in existence. Most notably, many of them are used as a method of payment in some environments.
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Cryptocurrency Regulations Around The World
In the United States, cryptocurrencies have been the focus of much attention by both Federal and state governments. While there has been significant engagement by these agencies, little formal rulemaking has occurred.
Many Federal agencies and policymakers have praised the technology as being an important part of the U. There have generally been two approaches to regulation at the state level.
These states hope to leverage investment in the technology to stimulate local economies and improve public services. One example, Wyoming, has been mentioned as a state seeking a broader impact on its economy. In furtherance of this objective, Wyoming passed legislation allowing for the creation of a new type of bank or special purpose depository institution. These crypto-focused banks can act in both a custodial and fiduciary capacity and are meant to allow businesses to hold digital assets safely and legally.
The state has been praised for becoming the most crypto-friendly jurisdiction in the country. Another state, Colorado, passed a bipartisan bill exempting cryptocurrencies from state securities regulations. Ohio became the first U. Oklahoma introduced a bill authorizing cryptocurrency to be used, offered, sold, exchanged and accepted as an instrument of monetary value within its governmental agencies.
On the other hand, Iowa introduced a bill that would prohibit the state and political subdivisions of the state from accepting payment in the form of cryptocurrencies. Authorities in at least 10 other states, like Maryland and Hawaii, have issued warnings about investing in cryptocurrencies. New York, which passed laws once considered restrictive, has eased restrictions for attaining a BitLicense in the hopes of luring back cryptocurrency companies that previously exited the New York market.
Those taking the latter approach will be better positioned to regulate as and when the technology evolves. In addition, futures, options, swaps and other derivative contracts that make reference to the price of a cryptoasset that constitutes a commodity are subject to regulation by the CFTC under the Commodity Exchange Act.
In addition, the CFTC has jurisdiction over attempts to engage in market manipulation with respect to those cryptoassets that are considered commodities.
The SEC generally has regulatory authority over the issuance or resale of any token or other digital asset that constitutes a security. Under U. Supreme Court as an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others. SEC v. Howey Co. In , the U. Joiner Leasing Corp. On February 6, , in written testimony to the U.
Certain market professionals have attempted to highlight the utility or voucher-like characteristics of their proposed ICOs in an effort to claim that their proposed tokens or coins are not securities. Many of these assertions that the federal securities laws do not apply to a particular ICO appear to elevate form over substance.
The rise of these form-based arguments is a disturbing trend that deprives investors of mandatory protections that clearly are required as a result of the structure of the transaction.
Returning to the ICOs I am seeing, strictly speaking, the token — or coin or whatever the digital information packet is called — all by itself is not a security, just as the orange groves in Howey were not. Central to determining whether a security is being sold is how it is being sold and the reasonable expectations of purchasers.
When someone buys a housing unit to live in, it is probably not a security. But under certain circumstances, the same asset can be offered and sold in a way that causes investors to have a reasonable expectation of profits based on the efforts of others.
For example, if the housing unit is offered with a management contract or other services, it can be a security. Later in the same speech, Mr. Hinman made clear that a digital token that might initially be sold in a transaction constituting the sale of a security, might thereafter be sold as a non-security where the facts and circumstances have changed over time, such that the Howey Test is no longer met.
While such comments are not official policy of the SEC, they are a good indicator of it. If a digital asset is determined to be a security, then the issuer must register the security with the SEC or offer it pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements.
See SEC Rule a 5. GRAMS were to allow customers of the messaging service to use the token as a means of payment for goods and services within the Telegram ecosystem. In March of , the U. Kik had argued that its private sales were limited to accredited investors, but the court held that even those sales did not qualify for an exemption because its private and public sales were a single integrated offering.
The outcome of the Telegram and Kik proceedings has made it incredibly difficult to consummate most token-generating events involving U. Many issuers have opted to exclude U. With little prospect of legislative action, the hostile environment towards token-generating events in the U.
In addition to Federal securities laws, most states have their own laws, referred to as blue sky laws, which are not always preempted by Federal law. Anyone selling digital assets likely to constitute a security should check with counsel about the applicability of blue sky laws.
Of particular importance, there are certain exemptions from registration under Federal law that do not preempt the application of state blue sky laws. It is worth noting that state securities regulators increased their scrutiny of digital assets during An area of particular focus has been exchanges and others offering interest-bearing crypto accounts.
New Jersey and several other states issued cease and desist orders against BlockFi, a well-known crypto exchange, for offering such interest-bearing accounts. Several exchanges attained approval as an ATS and several firms have been registered as a broker-dealer, in each case, with the intent to deal in cryptocurrencies that are considered securities.
To date, however, there are only a handful of security tokens actively trading on these ATS platforms. This is likely the result of the difficulties in harmonizing traditional securities laws around the transfer of securities and the notion of a peer-to-peer network that seeks to operate without intermediaries.
On March 18, , FinCEN issued guidance that stated the following would be considered MSBs: i a virtual currency exchange; and ii an administrator of a centralized repository of virtual currency who has the authority to both issue and redeem the virtual currency. FinCEN regulations require MSBs to develop, implement, and maintain a written program that is reasonably designed to prevent the MSB from being used to facilitate money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities.
The AML program must: i incorporate written policies, procedures and internal controls reasonably designed to assure ongoing compliance; ii designate an individual compliance officer responsible for assuring day-to-day compliance with the program and BSA requirements; iii provide training for appropriate personnel, which specifically includes training in the detection of suspicious transactions; and iv provide for independent review to monitor and maintain an adequate program.
All U. It is important to have a compliance program in place to avoid or mitigate receiving civil and criminal penalties from OFAC for non-compliance.
See 31 C. While there were several flaws in the logic set forth in the letter, it remains an area of concern for anyone considering a token sale. State laws on money transmission vary widely but can generally be grouped into a few categories.
A novel solution to the redundancy of attaining state licenses is to become a New York limited purpose trust company. Nevada and Wyoming have since followed New York and now permit the creation of special purpose depository institutions. DeFi is the permissionless decentralization version of various traditional financial instruments with a focus on exchanging assets, lending and borrowing and the creation of synthetic assets.
For example, Uniswap is a decentralized exchange in the form of two smart contracts hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, as well as a public, open-source, front-end client. This ultimately allows for anyone with an internet connection to trade many Ethereum-native tokens with other users of the application. Consequently, every individual or business that owns cryptocurrency will generally need to, among other things, i keep detailed records of cryptocurrency purchases and sales, ii pay taxes on any gains that may have been made upon the sale of cryptocurrency for cash, iii pay taxes on any gains that may have been made upon the purchase of a good or service with cryptocurrency, and iv pay taxes on the fair market value of any mined cryptocurrency, as of the date of receipt.
Any realized gains on virtual currency held for more than one year as a capital asset by an individual are subject to capital gains tax rates. Any realized gains on virtual currency held for one year or less as a capital asset by an individual are subject to ordinary income tax rates. The IRS requires, on Form , for each virtual currency transaction, the following information be disclosed: i a description of the amount and type of virtual currency sold; ii the date acquired; iii the date the virtual currency was sold; iv the amount of proceeds from the sale; v the cost or other basis ; and vi the amount of the gain or loss.
It should be noted that the record-keeping requirements of IRS Form can be particularly onerous for those who have used cryptocurrency to make numerous small purchases of goods or services throughout the year. For transactions completed on or after January 1, , the Internal Revenue Code now prohibits the use of Section a for cryptocurrency transactions, and requires a taxpayer to recognize taxable gain or loss at the time that any cryptocurrency is converted into another cryptocurrency.
Section of P. Generally speaking, exchanges between different cryptocurrencies are usually done by either i a simultaneous swap of one cryptocurrency for another, or ii a deferred exchange, in which one cryptocurrency is sold for cash, followed by the purchase for cash, of a different cryptocurrency.
One kind or class of property may not, under that section, be exchanged for property of a different kind or class. In Rev. Silver is essentially an industrial commodity. Gold is primarily utilized as an investment in itself. An investment in one of the metals is fundamentally different from an investment in the other metal.
Therefore, the silver bullion and the gold bullion are not property of like kind. Therefore, the bullion-type coins and the numismatic-type coins are not property of like kind. With respect to digital assets acquired via a hard fork or airdrop, the IRS issued Rev.
Pursuant to this revenue ruling, the IRS confirmed that the new assets resulting from such events can result in revenue to the taxpayer. The IRS also concluded, however, that a taxpayer does not have gross income as a result of a hard fork if it does not receive the new cryptocurrency.
The IRS concluded that a taxpayer who received Bitcoin Cash as a result of the hard fork had realized gross income. Arizona became the first state in the U. The law grants regulatory relief for innovators in these sectors who desire to bring new products to market within the state. Under the program, companies are able to test their products for up to two years and serve as many as 10, customers before needing to apply for formal licensure. Other states have since followed suit and created similar programs including Wyoming, Utah, Kentucky, Vermont, Nevada and Hawaii.
The Dodd-Frank Act amended the Commodities Act to add new authority over certain leveraged, margined, or financed retail commodity transactions.
The Company Act generally requires investment companies to register with the SEC as mutual funds unless they meet an exemption. Cryptocurrency funds, and hedge funds generally, can be structured under one of two exemptions from registration under the Company Act. Section 3 c 1 allows a fund to have up to investors. As a general rule, most startup funds are structured as 3 c 1 funds because of the lower investor suitability requirements.
Until the SEC provides more guidance on classifying individual cryptocurrencies as securities or commodities, the likelihood of many cryptocurrencies being deemed securities is high. As such, we recommend that cryptocurrency funds that invest in anything other than Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and the handful of other clearly commodity coins, comply with the Company Act preemptively.
For most startup funds, this would mean limiting investors within a given fund to less than beneficial owners. In July of , the OCC affirmed in an interpretive letter that national banks and savings associations can provide custody services for cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Developer Guide
It appears JavaScript is disabled. To get the most out of the website we recommend enabling JavaScript in your browser. Cryptocurrencies, also known as digital currencies or virtual currencies, are a form of digital money. They allow payments to be made electronically and function in a similar way to standard currencies that use physical cash. However, unlike standard currencies that can be exchanged physically using notes and coins, cryptocurrencies are only exchanged electronically using lines of computer code.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposals
The wiki substantially documents the Bitcoin protocol , but equally important are the rules used by the client to process messages. It's crucial that clients follow certain rules in order to maintain consistency across the network, and to protect the Bitcoin security guarantees. Here, the focus is on handling tx and block messages, because that is the tricky logic. This will skip over the method of requesting and forwarding these messages for now, and describe what to do when they are received. Also, this will describe the minimal data structures in rather abstract terms, ignoring the client's various indexes, maps and hash tables used for efficiency. This will be a conceptual description. This is all based on a fairly literal reading of the source code.
Virtual Assets
Changpeng Zhao, chief executive officer of Binance, exploded onto the cryptocurrency scene in with a new business model that rewarded customers with his company's own cryptocurrency, then let them pay fees with the same currency. The document details plans for a yet-unnamed U. While Binance appears to have gone out of its way to submit to U. US, an ulterior motive is now apparent. Unlike its creator Binance, Binance.
Navigation and service
Unlike dollar bills and coins, cryptocurrencies are not issued or backed by the U. The lack of a physical token to count and hold may confuse some. Rather, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency used in electronic payment transactions—no coins, paper money or banks are involved; there are zero to minimal transaction fees; transactions are fast and not bound by geography; and, similar to using cash, transactions are anonymous. Digital currencies are stored in digital wallets, which are software or apps installed by users on their computer or mobile device. Each digital wallet contains encrypted information, called public and private keys, that is used to send and receive the digital currency. Miners are awarded digital currency, like Bitcoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, and Litecoin, in exchange for verifying each transaction and adding it to the blockchain.
Protocol rules
It comes with full documentation and many large, well known Bitcoin apps and services are built on it. Then read:. Important announcements : If you use bitcoinj in an application please sign up for the announcement list so you know when new versions are available and if there are critical bugs found. Be aware : this library is Apache licensed. By using it, you agree with the terms of that license. In particular pay attention to section 7 and 8, which assert there is NO WARRANTY that this library is safe to use or bug free, and in fact that by using this code you accept that none of the contributors shall be liable for any damages or monetary loss that results from your use of their code, even if due to bugs in that code. In short, according to the license the library is distributed under, there are no situations in which you could sue any of the developers it's as if you wrote the entire library yourself. If you can't handle that, don't use this library.
What is bitcoinj?
The Developer Guide aims to provide the information you need to understand Bitcoin and start building Bitcoin-based applications, but it is not a specification. To make the best use of this documentation, you may want to install the current version of Bitcoin Core, either from source or from a pre-compiled executable. Questions about Bitcoin development are best asked on the Bitcoin StackExchange.
Protocol documentation
RELATED VIDEO: THE BITCOIN STANDARD - The Economics of BTC - Unabridged AudiobookThis page describes the behavior of the reference client. The Bitcoin protocol is specified by the behavior of the reference client, not by this page. In particular, while this page is quite complete in describing the network protocol, it does not attempt to list all of the rules for block or transaction validity. For protocol used in mining, see getblocktemplate. Usually, when a hash is computed within bitcoin, it is computed twice. Merkle trees are binary trees of hashes.
How Bitcoin Works
Representations of the virtual currency Bitcoin and Ethereum stand on a motherboard in this picture illustration taken May 20, MOSCOW, Jan 28 Reuters - Russian authorities have drawn up a 'road map' that envisages restrictions on cryptocurrencies but not a complete ban on trading and mining as advocated by the central bank, a document seen by Reuters showed on Friday. Politicians have pressed for a change of tack by the central bank, which has proposed restricting cryptocurrency trading and energy-intesive mining on Russian territory because of concerns it may cause financial instability. President Vladimir Putin has asked those involved to find a consensusand a working group, including the finance, economy, digital and interior ministries, the FSB security service, and the central bank, has been working on such a plan. A representative for Chernyshenko confirmed the document's authenticity.
Blockchain , bitcoin, crypto assets , virtual currencies …a whole new vocabulary describing innovative technology to swiftly transfer value around the world. The fast-evolving blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have the potential to radically change the financial landscape. Blockchain originated just over 10 years ago.
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