Thank you. We believe it is important for crypto attorneys to know the nuts and bolts of crypto. For example we mine with different miners in our office. We stake coins in wallets. We get a view of the everyday business of crypto as well as a macro view of crypto and its broad applications and regulatory issues. We follow the prices of miners and major coins and keep an eye on cloud hashing sites. We don't get caught up with sensational stories but do keep an eye on crypto news. We have discussions with various devs and crypto business owners and answer questions here.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

Huong X. Lam, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

If you would like to proceed with this further you may contact us at our office in Las Vegas, Nevada. 702 796 5221.

This requires a complex answer so I will cover the basics here. Immediately I see a potential statue of limitations problem. Most states have a 5 or 6 year statute of limitations for contract matters. This means that if more than the allowed time has past, and you have not filed any legal action, you would then be prohibited from doing so. When the contract was formed and when the breach occurred are two important issues in SOL matters.

If you could still file a lawsuit then you would have to first look at any written contract you had with the Vendor, which is likely found in their terms of service or other disclosure by them that you agreed to. The matter may be required to go to Arbitration or there could be a clause that states where any arbitration or court action must take place.

If this is a legitimate investment firm then you also might be required to go through mandatory arbitration.

Next you must study the contract and see which sections were breached and then gather proof of your case. The amount of damages is important as it will determine which level of court this would be filed in.

If you have worked through all of these issues and you can file a suite, you have to know where and who to serve with the summons and complaint.

If they are claiming to be an investment firm and they are not registered with the SEC, you could also seek the help of the SEC. You could file a complaint with the SEC even if they are a registered investment firm.

I hope this gives you a start and that I have answered at least some of your questions.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

 

You ask "if..." I am here to answer legal issues that exist and not hypothetical's. Is there such service that processes tips without a fee?

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com



 

They would be a transmitter business as viewed by FinCEN, but the state's individual definitions may vary. The businesses take a fee for their services. FinCEN is probably the most hip government agency; they understand that there is value in crypto.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

I will attempt to answer your questions generally with the caveat that I am not a CPA and I am not a tax attorney. This is based upon my general understanding.  For professional advice on tax matters I ask you to contact a CPA or tax attorney.

1. It is my general understanding that cypto-currency of any kind is not taxable as income unless you spend crytpo in place of fiat for goods or services of value, or, you sell the crypto-currency and then convert into fiat. As to capital gains, the difference between the price you purchased and the price at sale is what you are taxed on. As to the details about amounts, timing, dividends, or ways to reduce these taxes with business entities, see your CPA or a business attorney.

2. If someone tells me that they placed one hundred dollars worth of BTC in a wallet of mine and I take that BTC and sell it for fiat or use it to purchase goods or services of value, yes, it is income. If someone, for no consideration, places BTC in a wallet that is not mine and then sends me access codes to retrieve the BTC but I never claim it, it is not mine and therefore not income.

3. Same answers.

4. See a CPA and same answers.

5. Same answers.

6. You are speaking of staking or minting and the above analysis still applies.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

I have paid my dues over the past 4 years in crypto starting with GPU mining and on to advising individuals and companies. As with any new potentially profitable venture you must spend money and time in the learning phase. I believe that many of the blockchain applications will change the world for the better so I am passionate about this work.  I have given hundreds of people free legal counsel. We also have crypto clients who pay us for our services. The knowledge we share was obtained through great cost and hard work. I'm reaching out to this community for the third time and will answer any questions to the best of my ability at no charge.

As to your other questions, I welcome them.

George D. Greenberg, Esq. 

www.attorneybitcoin.com

Dear Bitcointalk.org Community:

We will answer any legal-crypto related question here to the best of our ability. Our firm has  been involved in Bitcoin Law and crypto-currencies at all levels for the past 4 years.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
Huong X. Lam, Esq.
Las Vegas, Nevada

www.attorneybitcoin.com

It's a good question and one that faces people in many countries. When you say Bitcoin "closed" I am going to take that to mean that BTC would be illegal or not allowed in your country. If this was the case then anything you did with BTC in your country would be illegal. It sounds like it is still legal in your country though but you have some insecurities as to what would happen.

You are correct, banks in your country under this fact pattern would not accept deposits that were derived from BTC and this would present a dilemma. Depending upon the amount of BTC your are talking about, if you had a realistic worry that this could happen then you need to explore ways to securely save your BTC until either your country allows it again or you travel to another country that allows BTC in order to exchange for fiat.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
www.attorneybitcoin.com

Dear Community:

As an attorney for Bitcoin and Crypto I receive dozens of requests for help with either actual scams or suspected scams. I am in a unique position to report to the community what is happening on the ground, what to beware of and also to give my analysis of the current state of crypto investing and business. I despise fraud and want to warn the public about certain matters.

I will never reveal names of client's or even of those simply requesting help. I will also never give any specific information that might reveal who my sources or clients are. I take attorney/client confidentiality very seriously and will also protect the identity of those merely seeking representation whether or not they hire me.  

Now to the scams:

Thankfully there are exchanges that seem to be functioning well and also seem honest and sound. However some have better customer service than others. I have heard many, many complaints of tickets going unanswered, freezing of accounts and the inability to fix whatever the exchange wants fixed. While I attribute some of this to a lack of sufficient number of employees on these sites to handle all the tickets and problems, these incidents are a red flag. If the site is indeed honest and overwhelmed, they could still at the very least report to the customer as to how long it will take to answer a ticket and keep the customer informed.

This behavior of the trading sites is in the very least poor business practice and at the very most a bad sign of things to come on that site. I ask the exchanges to take some of their recent windfall profits and hire more people to serve those that have helped you build your business.

Sometimes there is an impatience on the part of the customer. Expecting a reasonable response in a reasonable period of time is fair, but expecting immediate service on a five dollar account or sending repeated tickets and complaints when you don't get the service you feel that you deserve can, I suspect, put you "accidentally" to the bottom of the list. Having said that, it is my view that most trading sites are undermanned and have generally behaved in a disrespectful manner to their customers. Be very careful when you set up your account, sign in, make changes. buy, sell or withdraw.  Mistakes could freeze your account for weeks. 

Generally if there is any widespread fraud, a number of complaints will be placed with the SEC or FTC, among others, and then the regulators will take action, if they can find the owners that is. With this in mind, consumers, when you put your money into these accounts/exchanges, have you done any due diligence? Are they registered as a business with a secretary of state and are they current? Do they provide a physical address? Have you read their terms of service and privacy policies? How long have they been in business?

Moving on from exchanges to cloud mining. Cloud mining has the worst reputation for fraud. Now, not all sites mind you, but enough of them to make any reasonable person wary. And so you should be. Longevity, reputation, price, timely payouts, responses to tickets, how well the site works, take all of this into account. Even then, you might be better off buying a miner and doing it yourself. At least you can control the mining. Buyer beware here. Something is also getting lost in all the excitement recently. Difficulty generally rises over time in mining. This means you need more mining power to achieve the same results with the same coin. Funny how most cloud mining sites fail to mention this to prospective customers. I have seen two or three that have disclosed this over the past few years, bravo to those folks on transparency and honesty.

Beware of hardware scams. They are out there. The price is too good to be true. The miner arrives but only partially works and the seller has disappeared. Most do not disclose what the miners can make in order to calculate ROI and do not disclose the amount of noise, heat and the cost of electricity. Miners that work but that are damaged. Improper PIN cables and connectors, some creating a fire hazard. Failure to educate or warn of the downsides of heat and dust. Now there are those of you out there who will say let the buyer do their due diligence, why should I tell them anything. This is a sardonic, and cynical view. I suggest you be honest and informative. As to the run up in price for miners, they are at ridiculous levels and there are profiteers out there preying on the newbies ignorance. Folks, wait a little while, there is a glut on the market believe it or not, and the prices will drop and there will be more miners on the aftermarket. Prices are already showing slight signs of weakening.

Trading bots, while I have not heard of any fraud, they are generally complex and do not come with any meaningful instructions or tutorials. It will take a lot of time and effort to understand and apply them. This type of knowledge is hard to come by and trading is competitive so you will get no training or information or you will get miss-information. It is a universal truth that you never get something for nothing. You have either earned it or paid for it one way or another.

Hedge funds for crypto. These are also ripe for ripping off people. Are they registered with the SEC? I doubt it. While there are a handful of legitimate ones it is more likely a trader, working at their kitchen table at home, who has had some luck recently and thinks he has it all figured out. He wants your money because he thinks he can make you money for a fee, with his magic touch and brilliant insights.

Now onto general observations and predictions. There are many amazing and exciting projects happening right now. It truly is historic. These new and innovative applications are changing the world in ways that are hard to see but they are very real and are having and will have a profound effect upon business and day to day life.

I believe, and this is my opinion only, that the price of BTC has hit a wall at around nineteen thousand for now. As of this writing it is hovering at sixteen thousand. Do not be surprised if there is a back off to sub ten at some point. If God Forbid there is any sort of unfortunate drastic event or events that cause financial distress, BTC and crypto will be the first to be sold. Yes, even before gold, comic books, cars and the like. Crypto will be sold off far before anyone taps their cash savings or tax deferred accounts or traditional brokerage accounts.  So be prepared, diversify and watch the world. Good luck and stay informed.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
"AttorneyBitcoin"
www.attorneybitcoin.com

Law Offices of George D. Greenberg
8440 West Lake Mead Blvd. Suite 112
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.,  89128    

Can you please clarify? An ICO is an Initial Coin Offering to the public. You say you "bought ICO" I need you to elaborate on this. Also please define what you mean by "...later found out that it was not for US citizen.. what do you mean by 'it' what is the 'it' that you are referring to.

Thank you,

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

I have answered some general questions related to you inquiry. In order to dig deeper please email me through my web site. Thank you for reaching out to me.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

Thank you for reaching out to me. I need to clarify what you mean by "ico services." Are you seeking to help those who are looking to launch an ICO or are you seeking to launch one yourself? Under some fact patterns you would fall under investment adviser and would have to register with the SEC. Now there are  exceptions to this depending upon the nature of your relationship with those you are selling services to, how you are paid, who is paying you and their expectations of you. 

As any sophisticated dev knows, creating a viable coin and launching it is only part of the project. Social media marketing and creating an eco system and following for the coin require an enormous amount of work. Then comes the difficult task of getting listed on a viable exchange. I suspect that these latter services are the ones that you are seeking to provide. There is certainly a market for that but these projects are not for the timid, it is exhausting work.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

 

Well put. We cannot ignore the bad actors in our midst and self regulation is in order until laws and enforcement catches up. I will only represent those engaged in legitimate projects. Not the cut and run scammers.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

I'm sorry I cannot help you with these issues.

I am not a tax attorney. The SEC does need to regulate ICO's as a lot of people can get hurt.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.

www.attorneybitcoin.com

I can handle many issues in other states as they can be either federal, general business related or have to do with crypto-businesses.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
www.attorneybitcoin.com

Yes you can. But you would be well advised to hire an attorney to send them a demand letter.

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq

www.attorneybitcoin.com

Dear Community:

Doing a public offering of a coin or a token has changed recently. The SEC (the Security Exchange Commission,) considers this enterprise to be acting as a security. In particular, passive investments from purchasers who hope to realize a profit, offered to the general public. You must become registered with the SEC (in essence, obtain their permission) in order to proceed without being fined or shut down.

There are very few exceptions. Some exceptions (exemptions) include offering the sale only to accredited investors (accredited through the SEC,) acting as a non-profit (sounds easy but it's not,) and possibly limiting all purchasers to those who are out of the country and non U.S. Citizens.

The purpose of these regulations is to protect the general public from fraud.

Putting together a prospectus and applying to and obtaining permission from the SEC is generally best left to attorneys. It is involved. However an ICO can be the start of a very profitable venture.

Attorneys George D. Greenberg and Huong X. Lam obtain SEC registration for ICO's and offer creative payment arrangements for our services. We also of course accept payment in BTC or ETH should you wish to make payment in this way.

These ventures are exciting and risky. To do them correctly does take effort and knowledge. We can refer you to appropriate coin developers as well and provide guidance on social media marketing and how to obtain a spot on an exchange. 

Best:

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
www.attorneybitcoin.com

I am George D. Greenberg, Esq. I have practiced in crypto-currency law for the past 4 years. I have several threads on this site, have answered dozens of questions, posted articles, and continue to do so. I have personally mined for several years in order to learn the nuts and bolts of crypto. I have represented suppliers of miners, mining pools, mining farm operators, coin developers, marketers, traders and web site developers.

I have been a speaker at a bitcoin convention and currently represent several clients in various crypto related ventures. I accept BTC and ETH and look forward to speaking with you.

George D. Greenberg, Esq.
8440 West Lake Mead Blvd. Suite 112
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. 89128

www.attorneybitcoin.com

Thank you.