|
October 13, 2013, 03:01:36 AM |
|
The question, I think, that you are asking is: can a company legally accept money from public purchasers in exchange for its hashrate?
The answer is: It depends.
For United States issuers, at least, I can add some detail. The way that most companies have been going about this is by selling "perpetual mining bonds". These things - whatever else they might be - are securities subject to the registration requirements of the Securities Act. That means that the company must pay a princely sum to attorneys and often auditors for securities compliance work. For small issuances like the "IPOs" we've seen, that just isn't cost-effective. Furthermore, they can only be sold to a limited number of non-accredited or unsophisticated investors. Issuers have essentially ignored these requirements and sold them anyway, taking investors money in exchange for little more than a promise to pay them back out of whatever profits they generate. That's not legal.
I think there is another way, a better way, to do this, and without violating the securities requirements. Instead of selling a right to profits or equity in the company, a company might sell a right to the hashes themselves not tied to the performance of the company. Just like Amazon might sell its terabytes on a Glacier server, a mining company might sell a subscription to its hashing power directly to its customers. Key word being customers - not investors. You'd need a lawyer to prepare a proper contract for you, and it wouldn't be cheap, but I think it can be done. Also, I think a competent attorney could prepare a contract that might even be freely assignable to other customers. I'd love to hear the opinion of any legal beagles out there.
|