ICO supervises Ethereum
First of all, we need to understand what is MLM:
MLM refers to the illegal behavior of organizers and development personnel to obtain wealth by calculating and paying remuneration to the developed personnel based on the number or performance of the personnel directly or indirectly developed, or requiring the developed personnel to pay certain fees to obtain the qualification to join. The essence of MLM is "Ponzi scheme", that is to say, the money of later comers is distributed to the income of former comers
However, the new type of MLM does not restrict personal freedom, does not accept ID cards and mobile phones, and does not take classes collectively. Instead, it uses capital operation as a banner to pull people to cheat money, drives luxury cars, wears gold and silver, and uses money to attract your relatives and friends to join in, and finally makes you lose all your moneythen judge whether the ether coin is a kind of MLM, whether you need membership fee, whether you need to ask your relatives and friends to join
extended materials:
Ethereum is an underlying technology platform on which developers can create distributed applications. With the application, there will be transactions. With a transaction, you need money to complete the transaction. In this way, money has value, and investors' investment has a return. If the transaction volume on the platform is larger and larger, the demand for money will be higher and higher, and the money will be more and more valuable
from the perspective of image, bitcoin creates a kind of digital gold, while Ethereum creates a country, and Ethereum is the credit currency of the country
after bitcoin, there are thousands of digital virtual currencies in the world, many of which are completely deceptive in the guise of "digital currency". Previously, Haikou Municipal Public Security cracked down on a pyramid selling organization called "Eurasian currency", which operated on the internet pyramid selling platform, making more than 40000 investors cheated, involving 4.06 billion yuan. The field of virtual currency has just started, so we need to be cautious
resources : Ethernet money network
blockchain is a general technology derived from bitcoin. It implements a decentralized database model. Bitcoin can be called blockchain 1.0 because it has no concept of smart contract. The key technologies of blockchain include cryptography encryption and decryption and consensus mechanism. Blockchain is generally used to combine with specific business logic, which needs to rely on smart contract, which provides an execution mode free from human interference
the IPO of ICO originates from the concept of initial public offering (IPO) in the stock market. It is the behavior of blockchain project to issue token for the first time, raise bitcoin and solve Ethereum and other common digital currencies.
ICO (abbreviated as initial coin offering) is the concept of initial public offering (IPO) derived from the stock market. It is the behavior of blockchain project to issue token for the first time and raise bitcoin, Ethereum and other general digital currencies
brief introction to ICO:
ICO is a blockchain instry term, which is a common way to raise funds for cryptocurrency / blockchain projects. Early participants can get the cryptocurrency generated initially as a return
because the token has market value, it can be converted into legal currency to support the development cost of the project. The tokens issued by ICO can be based on different blockchains. The common issue is based on Eth and BTS blockchain, which provides bookkeeping service and value consensus to realize global issue and circulation
ICO participants are very important for the success of a project. They will publicize the blockchain project in the community, so that the tokens generated by it can obtain liquidity before the transaction starts. However, the most important value of ICO participants is still the potential benefits brought by the project development or the price appreciation after the token issue
extended information:
domestic prohibition:
at 3:00 p.m. on September 4, 2017, the people's Bank of China led seven ministries and commissions, including the Information Office of the people's Bank of China, the Ministry of instry and information technology, the State Administration for Instry and commerce, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, to issue the announcement on preventing the financing risk of token issuance (hereinafter referred to as the announcement)
the announcement points out that token issuance financing is essentially an unauthorized illegal public financing behavior, which requires that all kinds of token issuance financing activities should be stopped immediately from the date of the announcement, and at the same time, organizations and indivials who have completed token issuance financing should make arrangements such as refund
according to Caixin, the relevant regulatory authorities will take action against ICO. Whether to ban the program is under discussion, the central bank, the CSRC are involved. The legal basis for this action comes from the measures for banning illegal financial institutions and illegal financial business activities promulgated in 1998
the reporter learned from a person in the instry that many departments including the financial market department of the central bank have stepped up their research on ICO, but there are still some related problems to be solved
according to a number of instry insiders, on August 18, the central bank, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Banking Regulatory Commission organized a special ICO forum, which was interpreted as a "landmark event" in the instry, and it was only a matter of time before it was brought into regulation< On July 25 this year, the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a report on the Dao, which determined that its token was securities. At the same time, it emphasized that any act of buying or selling securities in the United States, whether it was real currency purchase or token distributed with blockchain technology, must comply with the securities law of the United States
according to the definition of financial market division on the official website of the central bank, its main responsibilities include drawing up the development plan of financial market, coordinating the development of financial market, and promoting the innovation of financial procts; In addition, the Bureau of currency, gold and silver is responsible for drafting the relevant measures for currency issuance and gold management, organizing the implementation and undertaking the work of RMB management and anti-counterfeiting currency< According to the regulatory practice of the US Securities Regulatory Commission, ICO is defined as a securities issue. Therefore, if China draws lessons from it, it should also be supervised by the CSRC. However, in China, the digital currency is supervised by the central bank. Therefore, it is the central bank and the CSRC that jointly study and decide who will supervise the digital currency< Since the first half of this year, the number of domestic ICO projects funded by virtual currency has increased explosively, which has aroused controversy over whether ICO is illegal in raising funds
according to the report released by the national Internet financial security technology expert committee, since 2017, the cumulative financing scale of ICO projects completed through various platforms has reached 63523.64btc, 852753.36eth and some RMB and other virtual currencies. Based on the zero point price on July 19, 2017, it is equivalent to RMB 2.616 billion in total. The total number of participants reached 105000
on August 24, the CBRC made regulations on virtual currency financing for the first time. The CBRC drafted the "Regulations on the disposal of illegal fund raising (Draft for comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the draft for comments) and pointed out that the illegal fund raising administrative investigation should be carried out in the name of virtual currency without legal permission or in violation of the relevant provisions of the state. The participants of illegal fund-raising shall bear the losses caused by their participation in illegal fund-raising
it is reported that Huo Xuewen, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of financial work, once pointed out at a closed door meeting that all activities of "managing other people's money" should be included in the supervision
Wu Xiaoling, deputy director of Finance and Economics Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and chairman and President of Wukou School of finance of Tsinghua University, also publicly pointed out a few days ago that internationally, ICO has been regulated as a kind of securities in the United States. The people's Bank of China has also made a corresponding statement to bitcoin (pointing out that bitcoin does not have monetary attributes), and further regulatory measures are expected
a blockchain practitioner said that "blocking is better than sparing". Supervision is expected, but if it is totally negated, some enterprises will inevitably move ICO abroad<
4 ask ICO
1. Should ICO be included in the regulation
Tang Ling, CEO of Zhigui technology and general initiator of ink chain, told reporters that ICO should be included in the regulation. Under the demonstration of wealth effect, there are too many "pyramid selling currency" and "air currency" at present. Many projects can be financed before they are determined. Investors are crazy about speculating in currency, and the risk is great
Xiao SA, director of China Science and Technology Finance Law Research Association, believes that the national financial work conference emphasizes the need to strengthen the "professionalism, unity and penetration" of financial supervision, and all financial businesses should be included in the supervision. ICO should also be regulated. Financial innovation has vitality only when it is in accordance with the law, and any violation and abuse will be counterproctive
Li Lin said that since there is no supervision on the use of funds after ICO financing, the whereabouts of funds after ICO financing have become a mystery. He suggested that regulators should pay attention to the appropriateness of investors
2. How should ICO be supervised
Tian Ying, vice president of okcoin, believes that the first step in the supervision of ICO is to clarify the legal nature. The registration management of ICO's enterprises and the open and transparent trusteeship management of ICO's tokens should be carried out. The project sponsor, token circulation platform and the third-party propaganda organization should strengthen the inspection of the authenticity of the project, increase the risk ecation of investors, and effectively control the risk. These regulatory measures can be implemented after qualitative analysis. There are also many legal experts who suggest to refer to the financial technology sandbox regulatory system implemented in the UK and Singapore to minimize the contradiction between innovation and risk
for how to supervise, Tang Ling suggests setting up project audit and e diligence. At present, the ICO project is "self-examination and self passing meeting". Although the agent investment platform will also audit, it has not been put on record. At the same time, we should set up the fund trusteeship. In the early stage, some media exposed that indivial platforms used capital precipitation to buy financial procts, which was caused by the lack of fund custody, and it was easy for the platform to roll up money and run away. In addition, standardized management, the funds should not be allocated at one time. Many entrepreneurs haven't seen so much money and don't know how to spend it. It's easy to have problems
Xiao SA believes that the specific regulatory focus is: proct registration, information disclosure, asset custody, project authenticity and qualified investment
"proct registration is an effective way for regulators to understand and monitor high-risk financial business; Information disclosure is a routine scheme, which can make the project more transparent; Asset custody to prevent stakeholder cases; Project authenticity is the minimum requirement for ICO issuers; Qualified investment, matching the risk and investors, restricting speculative funds. " Xiao SA said
3. What are the difficulties of ICO supervision
Tang Ling said that the regulatory difficulty lies in that many platforms can now achieve ICO through smart contracts, especially through Ethereum projects, which can be raised by themselves without going through the platform. There are many private placements with high risks
Tian Ying believes that identifying the nature of ICO is a difficulty in promoting supervision. ICO is a bit like crowdfunding, but it is not exactly the same as crowdfunding. A while ago, the SEC of the United States announced the results of the investigation on the Dao token, believing that the token has the scope of securities and is under the supervision of the securities and Futures Law. This judgment is also the result of a lot of research and analysis by US regulators. Some non security tokens may expect the right to use certain procts, which does not belong to the category of securities
she believes that ICO is an Internet proct, and some ICO projects are operated globally. In the process of management, international coordination needs to be strengthened. What's more, how far should supervision go
Xiao SA said that there are differences in the instry on the nature of ICO. If we define the essence of ICO as "barter" and exchange one special virtual currency for another, it can be explained
if the ICO project directly raises "legal currency", including RMB, US dollar, euro, etc., it can be understood as "deposit" of illegally absorbing public deposits. Once it meets the requirements of article 176 of the criminal law on the crime of illegally absorbing public deposits, it may constitute a crime
Xiao SA believes that if the ICO project has a dividend clause, it has an equity mark; if the project has a repurchase clause, it is suspected of "capital preservation and interest preservation". It is similar to a financial proct, and it is actually an illegal operation to issue a financial proct without a license. In judicial practice, if illegal business is difficult to define, then the above behavior is likely to be identified as pyramid selling. Many ICO projects in the promotion process, there are promotional incentives, such as "pull an investor back token."
4. The impact of regulation on ICO
Xia Hu, CEO of Weiyou Yuanjie, told the Beijing news that regulators should regulate the development of ICO, especially the establishment of "qualified investor system", because many ordinary investors do not have the ability to bear high risks and should not participate in such high-risk projects. If there is no qualified investor system, it is easy to cause social problems
as for the regulatory impact, Tian Ying said that in the short term, it will have an impact on the current market, and in the long term, it will be concive to the sustainable and healthy development of the entire digital asset instry, so as to truly make the market healthy first and then efficient. On the other hand, supervision will also enable high-quality projects to present their value
according to a research report of Huachuang securities, the innovation trend of ICO is worthy of attention. In the long run, with its growing influence, it is necessary to accept supervision to promote the healthy and orderly development of the instry. ICO platforms or projects with strong strength are expected to take the lead in embracing regulation, balancing innovation attributes and potential risks, and become the beneficiaries of ICO's future development.
Question 1: ICO is a blockchain instry term, which is a common way to raise funds for cryptocurrency / blockchain projects. Early participants can get the cryptocurrency generated initially as a return
question 2: because ICO is an unauthorized illegal public financing behavior, it is prohibited by the state
prohibit ICO from issuing according to the announcement: at 3:00 p.m. on September 4, 2017, the people's Bank of China led seven ministries and commissions, including the Internet Information Office, the Ministry of instry and information technology, the State Administration for Instry and commerce, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, to issue the announcement on preventing the financing risk of token issuance
the announcement points out that token issuance financing is essentially an unauthorized illegal public financing behavior, which requires that all kinds of token issuance financing activities should be stopped immediately from the date of the announcement, and at the same time, organizations and indivials who have completed token issuance financing should make arrangements such as refund
extended information:
at 3 p.m. on September 4, 2017, the notice on preventing the financing risk of token issuance is as follows:
first, accurately understand the essential attribute of token issuance financing activities
token issuance financing refers to the financing subject raising bitcoin from investors through illegal sale and circulation of tokens In essence, the so-called "virtual currency" such as ether currency is a kind of unauthorized illegal public financing behavior, which is suspected of illegal selling token tickets, illegal issuing securities, illegal fund-raising, financial fraud, pyramid schemes and other illegal criminal activities
Relevant departments will closely monitor relevant developments, strengthen cooperation with judicial departments and local governments, strictly enforce the law in accordance with the current working mechanism, and resolutely deal with market chaos. If suspected crimes are found, they will be transferred to judicial organsthe token or "virtual currency" used in token issuance financing is not issued by the monetary authority, has no monetary attributes such as legal compensation and compulsion, does not have the same legal status as currency, and cannot and should not be used as currency in the market
2. No organization or indivial shall illegally engage in token issuance and financing activities
from the date of this announcement, all kinds of token issuance and financing activities shall be stopped immediately. Organizations and indivials that have completed the token issuance and financing should make arrangements such as refund, reasonably protect the rights and interests of investors, and properly handle risks. Relevant departments will seriously investigate and deal with the activities of token issuance and financing that refuse to stop and the illegal behaviors in completed token issuance and financing projects
On September 2, it was reported that on August 21, the central bank headquarters received the relevant emergency report. The report analyzed in detail and clearly pointed out that from the perspective of penetrating supervision with substance more important than form, ICO belongs to illegal fund-raising in disguise
according to the lover quoted, relevant people of the central bank have studied a large number of ICO white papers and come to the conclusion that "90% of ICO projects are suspected of illegal fund-raising and subjective and intentional fraud, and less than 1% of the ICOS that actually raise funds for project investment."
ICO is the full name of initial coin offering, short for the first public offering of digital token, which imitates the IPO (initial public offering) in the stock market. That is to say, the project sponsor can obtain financing by issuing initial token through blockchain technology, but the initial token cannot be purchased in legal currency (RMB, US dollar, etc.), because it violates the laws and regulations of various countries on financing, and needs to be purchased with digital assets with good liquidity such as bitcoin and Ethereum
Yao Qian, deputy director of the science and Technology Department of the people's Bank of China and director of the digital currency Research Institute, pointed out in an article a few days ago that the current ICO is at the edge of legal supervision. Starting from the system construction, we should give the ICO a legal statement as soon as possible. He suggested that the implementation of sandbox supervision on ICO (in a "safe space", financial technology enterprises can test their innovative financial procts, services, business models and marketing methods, instead of being immediately subject to regulatory rules when related activities encounter problems) On August 16, Huo Xuewen, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of finance, also said in an internal closed door talk that Internet finance, blockchain and ICO can only have vitality if they develop in accordance with laws and regulations, and any violation and abuse will be punished"the national financial work conference made it clear that all financial activities should be regulated. All activities of "managing other people's money" should be subject to supervision. Blockchain innovation, Internet finance innovation, ICO innovation, but if you do not control the risk, then all the innovation will go to its opposite. If the traditional financial risk is 1.0 and the Internet financial risk is 2.0, the current blockchain and ICO risk is 3.0. " Huo Xuewen said at the meeting