Regulating Decentralized Exchanges: Is it possible?

[Abiky]

I do think it's possible. If they did it to etherdelta, they could do it to any dex. It is however pointless doing it and it must have been in their minds as well because people will just find a way to trade to another dex which will lead them to countless DEX that could be created a thousand times a day.

DEX are not fully dex in a situation where they could be stopped by SEC. Until the website domains and servers are accessible by authorities, it will not fully become DEX but the mobile apps of these DEX and software like Blocknet are likely harder for them to stop.

Exactly. As long as so-called "DEXs" have a centralized website domain and server, governments will be able to shut them down easily. The situation is different when a DEX is built using a separate software or P2P technology. It'll be practically impossible to censor DEXs this way. My guess is that Block DX and atomic swaps will serve as the "holy grail" of decentralized trades in the crypto/Blockchain space within the not-so-distant future. Regulations cannot be enforced on truly decentralized exchanges, because they're not subject to a single jurisdiction. They live on various nodes worldwide, leaving the middleman out of the system for good. But who knows? Governments may come up with a different strategy in order to prevent people from gaining access to the decentralized economy. As long as crypto/Blockchain tech is considered to be a threat to the existing monetary system, we'll expect constant opposition by governments worldwide.

Nonetheless, the future for decentralized exchanges is highly uncertain. Centralized exchanges are ahead of the game because people use them more than their decentralized counterparts. Governments wouldn't pay much attention to DEXs if trading activity/volume remains low. As long as centralized exchanges dominate the industry, decentralized exchanges will only become an alternative than a replacement. Regulations could stifle the growth of DEXs but not to a point where they completely disappear from the face of the Earth. Just my opinion

[Ozero]

Cryptocurrency exchanges and exchangers must be registered somewhere and this will always be the territory of some state. We know that states always strive to control everything related to finance. Therefore, they consider it possible and necessary to regulate all the processes that are on their territory. However, there are territories of free economic zones, offshore zones where you can get away from the regulation of states, and legal acts on the territory of different states also differ. It is not worth registering and staying in the United States, then the SEC will not have any influence.

[Heisenberg_Hunter]

There were days when decentralized exchanges like IDEX were truly decentralized and we can trust them with our information. But now they are claiming themselves as DEX but have become more like a centralized exchange. Some DEX could change their terms over time, but majority of them still function in a highly decentralized manner. As you have said, there could be regulations pitching in from time to time but the XMR - BTC atomic swap could probably be a game changer of the industry when realized and when proved successful, there wouldn't be really a need for DEX in future transactions. OTOH, centralized exchanges like Binance do charge a hefty fee on its users during withdrawals and have a poor customer support for issues hence DEX could always prove to be an alternative to these highly expensive centralized exchanges.

If an exchange to function properly like Binance DEX, they should be regulating them properly so that there aren't really huge malicious transactions going through them.

As long as crypto/Blockchain tech is considered to be a threat to the existing monetary system, we'll expect constant opposition by governments worldwide.

Possibly the digital yuan could be a new entry to blockchain space backed by government. They are still on the initial testing but China has been spending millions on the tests so that they could be proven as a really good competitor and could possibly replace currency like Tether in future? India on the other hand, has been planning to issue Digital Rupee thereby banning cryptocurrencies which could pose a threat again, but currencies like XMR which is highly privacy centric might become the future of digital trades if bitcoin were traced back to owner on higher scales by government.

[Abiky]

There were days when decentralized exchanges like IDEX were truly decentralized and we can trust them with our information. But now they are claiming themselves as DEX but have become more like a centralized exchange. Some DEX could change their terms over time, but majority of them still function in a highly decentralized manner. As you have said, there could be regulations pitching in from time to time but the XMR - BTC atomic swap could probably be a game changer of the industry when realized and when proved successful, there wouldn't be really a need for DEX in future transactions. OTOH, centralized exchanges like Binance do charge a hefty fee on its users during withdrawals and have a poor customer support for issues hence DEX could always prove to be an alternative to these highly expensive centralized exchanges.

If an exchange to function properly like Binance DEX, they should be regulating them properly so that there aren't really huge malicious transactions going through them.

There really isn't any decentralized exchange except for those which don't rely on a central server to work as intended. DEXs which are software-based and rely only on Blockchain tech, are the ones that will be able to stand the test of time. I'm talking about DEXs like Block DX and atomicDEX (this last one makes use of atomic swaps technology). Enforcing regulations on such exchanges is impossible, because they live on various computers spread around the world. No single government has jurisdiction in every country worldwide. While ETH-based DEXs live on the ETH blockchain, most of them (if not all) are hosted on centralized servers linked to centralized domains. Governments could easily take down the server the ETH DEX is hosted into, putting an end to them once and for all. While it'll still be possible to interact with an ETH-based DEX without a web interface, not many people are tech-savvy enough to do this.

Nonetheless, I believe that truly-decentralized exchanges will be able to go above the law. Once governments realize that their efforts to tackle such exchanges are in vain, they'll declare DEXs as "illegal". People that are caught trading on a DEX could face either fines or jail time. While truly-decentralized exchanges will still exist, their level of adoption will be extremely low as most people will be afraid of breaking the law. Who knows what holds for this industry as governments continue to impose heavy-handed regulations? Just my thoughts

[bandungan]

So the real problem is finding the identity of the founder you don't really know? Then I want to ask what the government is doing when an exchange is big? Is this just a government strategy to tax the exchange founders or something?
it seems that this could be one of the reasons why decentralization regulations should exist. but there may be a positive side to decentralization

[freigeist]

Exactly. As long as so-called "DEXs" have a centralized website domain and server, governments will be able to shut them down easily. The situation is different when a DEX is built using a separate software or P2P technology. It'll be practically impossible to censor DEXs this way. My guess is that Block DX and atomic swaps will serve as the "holy grail" of decentralized trades in the crypto/Blockchain space within the not-so-distant future. Regulations cannot be enforced on truly decentralized exchanges, because they're not subject to a single jurisdiction. They live on various nodes worldwide, leaving the middleman out of the system for good. But who knows? Governments may come up with a different strategy in order to prevent people from gaining access to the decentralized economy. As long as crypto/Blockchain tech is considered to be a threat to the existing monetary system, we'll expect constant opposition by governments worldwide.

Nonetheless, the future for decentralized exchanges is highly uncertain. Centralized exchanges are ahead of the game because people use them more than their decentralized counterparts. Governments wouldn't pay much attention to DEXs if trading activity/volume remains low. As long as centralized exchanges dominate the industry, decentralized exchanges will only become an alternative than a replacement. Regulations could stifle the growth of DEXs but not to a point where they completely disappear from the face of the Earth. Just my opinion

Speaking of p2p technology and cross chain atomic swaps
have you checked this project named QORTAL
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5258519.0

This can run on a rasberyPI at your home.
No more bulshit KYC/AML and exchane hacks because you own your keys.

Remeber NOT YOUR KEYS NOT YOUR COINS.

[Abiky]

So the real problem is finding the identity of the founder you don't really know? Then I want to ask what the government is doing when an exchange is big? Is this just a government strategy to tax the exchange founders or something?
it seems that this could be one of the reasons why decentralization regulations should exist. but there may be a positive side to decentralization

That would be a major challenge governments will face to have in the long run. The fact that they want to regulate crypto so badly, tells us that they're desperate to collect taxes. And something they can't control like a decentralized exchange, will make them furious. I can't imagine what strategy governments will come up with to "catch" the creator of a decentralized exchange. The US government was successful in penalizing EtherDelta's founder because his identity was public. But what if it was all the other way around? Then it would've been impossible to find him. Regulations can only be enforced in a centralized environment. When governments try to regulate something that's decentralized, they'll eventually fail because there's no single point of failure. A distributed network is outside the jurisdiction of a single government. I doubt governments will be successful at enforcing regulations on decentralized exchanges in the future.

Nonetheless, time will tell us whenever decentralized exchanges will live up to their name or not. Only truly-decentralized exchanges will stand the test of time. My guess is that Block DX and Atomic Swaps will be immune to regulations because of their truly-decentralized design. People will be able to trade from one crypto to another without the need for KYC. It'll be the future of crypto/Blockchain tech as governments begin to crackdown on centralized exchanges. At least, crypto's vision of "banking for the unbanked" will be realized. And that's what truly matters. Just my thoughts

Speaking of p2p technology and cross chain atomic swaps
have you checked this project named QORTAL
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5258519.0

This can run on a rasberyPI at your home.
No more bulshit KYC/AML and exchane hacks because you own your keys.

Remeber NOT YOUR KEYS NOT YOUR COINS.

Thanks for sharing. We definitely need more decentralized solutions to maintain crypto/Blockchain tech as censorship-resistant as possible. The new QORTAL DEX seems promising. But the lack of liquidity could harm its adoption in the mainstream world. At least, it's better something than nothing.

[Imran232]

I think It's quite tough to regulating decentralized exchange. And one more thing i never use etherdelta because i already got lots of negative ratings on this exchange. That is why i never use it. I don't think soo they are legitmate worker and they are not the real dex. Because they stole funds from our account.  That means they can regulate our account. But according to dex it is anomoyous that means no can can know you and no kne can regulate you. But for etherdelta it is not. Its my opinion about this topic. Now what about your thought.

[roosbit]

Help me understand this, In all this if the government got to the creator does this mean he or she has the kill switch to put the decentralized exchange offline, and who knows what...users could lose millions of dollars worth of crypto locked on the exchange?? If this turns out to be true then the belief of a DEX being out of the reach of one entity would be the biggest joke !!! But seeing etherdelta technically still online...now forkdelta then no one person can have full control of a DEX...

[LordShanken]

Decentralized exchanges are the one that can't be regulated, it's really that simple. Popularity of Bitcoin stands on the fact that its decentralized and can't be regulated. Many decentralized exchanges are popular because they can't be regulated.

[Ozero]

The decentralized nature of exchanges should mean that regulation isn't an option. However a lot of projects claim full decentralization buy in practice only a few  projects are fully decentralized.
Some projects are only partially decemtralized and still allows for their smart contracts to be altered.

All business structures of any form of ownership registered on the territory of a certain state, even if they claim to be representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations and have nothing to do with planet Earth, will be regulated by the relevant authorities of this state. The state must be sure that this organization does not conduct subversive activities, observes the laws of the state and pays taxes. Therefore, everything decentralized will be checked and organizationally regulated all the same.
To get away from this, there are free economic zones, there are offshore companies, where you can do anything for a small fee, so long as it does not look criminal outwardly.

[DevFile90]

Regulation and decentralization can't co-exists, if a decentralized exchange get regulated then it's no more a decentralized exchange I believe