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Title: Decentralized altcoins which (probably) never will be securities Post by: d5000 on June 14, 2023, 11:11:50 PM The recent SEC actions against crypto exchanges, but also the recent MiCa regulation in the European Union show that the authorities are slowly separating the crypto market into two tiers: Decentralized coins, with Bitcoin as the undiscuted leader, and centralized cryptoassets which may be regarded as "securities". In Europe according to MiCa, from 2025 on (probably) all people who want centralized cryptocurrencies to be traded or conduct an ICO, have to file a standarized whitepaper to the authorities and fulfill other regulatory steps.
So it would be interesting to answer the question: are there also altcoins that are unlikely to be classified as securities? Criteria for decentralized, non-security altcoins The SEC criteria are quite intransparent as of now, but the European criteria (which are at least as important, as EU almost doubles the US's population) are quite clear: To escape from MiCa, a coin needs to have "no identifiable issuer.": Quote from: MiCa This Regulation covers the rights and obligations applicable to issuers, offerors and persons seeking admission to trading of crypto-assets and to crypto-asset service providers.Where crypto-assets have no identifiable issuer, they do not fall within Title II, III or IV of this Regulation. Source (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/commissions/econ/inag/2022/10-05/ECON_AG(2022)737216_EN.pdf), recital 12a (p. 12).This means that the coins need to have to be distributed in a completely decentralized manner for mining and validation tasks. I guess PoS would also be permitted. But if there is any kind of premine, we can already talk about an "issuer", as the developers have then issued some coins for themselves or to sell them in an ICO. In the case of the US with its Howey test, things are a bit more complicated, as PoS for example has been described as a "common enterprise". But there is not much clarity. So I will concentrate here on the European definition: coins which are distributed in a purely decentralized manner and have no premine. List of decentralized cryptocurrencies >> Go here for the most recent list of decentralized cryptocurrencies (last update: 7-7-24) << (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5456378.msg64301620#msg64301620) Old list Already some months ago I researched the top 200-300 coins on coin ranking sites like Coingecko/Coinmarketcap and the result is quite sad: there are only a few coins ranked high without premine. Here's the list of some well-known cryptocurrencies without premine (this is the original list, price data is outdated!): Code: Ticker Name MarketCap (USD) Price (USD) ATH Notes The list may be incomplete, if you know a coin which could qualify (no premine and an independent, no-fork blockchain!) be invited to post it in this thread so I can review and add it!. Edge cases: Dash etc. Some of the coins on this list - particularly Dash - have been accused of being instamined. Dash has also another problem: the governance structure with a "trust". This governance structure has led the SEC to describe it as a security (https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2023/06/11/crypto-dash-also-security/), even if Dash had no explicit premine nor explicit centralized structures. I consider Dash an edge case: it's likely in Europe Dash would not be classified as falling under MiCa. Other languages Similar threads have been opened in other languages: Spanish (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5441919.0) - German (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5318305.msg56383780#msg56383780) There is also a thread with a similar topic, but even more strict criteria by another user (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5138218.msg50853643#msg50853643). Self-moderation notes: All opinions are welcome, but outright spam and promotion of centralized coins will be deleted. Title: Re: Decentralized altcoins which (probably) never will be securities Post by: d5000 on July 07, 2024, 11:00:45 PM Like in the Spanish and German editions I have created a new format of this list with ATHs and some more values. The links in the left column go to the ANN threads. The ranks are based on Coingecko. FDV means "Fully Diluted Value", i.e. the market cap when all coins of the maximum supply are mined or minted.
This is the current state as of 07-07-2024:
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