How Security Legislation Affects SteemIt.com
If I did my math correctly, I should have 3 STEEM to create a SteemConnect App by the end of the week. Some documents say that account creation fee is now 6 STEEM and that SteemConnect might not work with just 3 STEEM. I re-engaged power down mode just in case. BTW, if you are a programmer with @steemconnect and the price of an account is 6 STEEM, could you please change the price on your page.
In the last post I mentioned that I have been researching exchanges and the regulation of securities.
The easiest type of exchange to create is one in which you have a base currency and a single equity. Such an exchange can be implemented with a few simple tables.
Once you have the logic for trading one equity in place, it is matter of replicating that logic to add many such tables.
The SteemIt Market provides an example of such an exchange.
The SteemIt market lets people trade between STEEM and SBD (STEEM Based Dollars]. The SBD is theoretically pegged to the USD ... but it isn't. When I joined the SBD was trading on the open market at $1.30. Today it trades at $0.95.
Because the base currenct (the SBD) fluctuates, the market isn't as interesting as it should be. One has to factor into the price of SBD on the open market to get the true price of STEEM.
Which brings up the question: How exactly could one create a simple exchange in which the base currency is pegged to the dollar?
It can actually be done quite easily through with the creation of a security that actually held dollars.
But, if there was a real live security involved in the exchange, the creators of SteemIt.com could be charged with selling securities without a license.
It seems that much of the thought around building cyber-currency was based on people trying to figure out how to create exchanges that wouldn't entangle them in SEC regulation.
Even the corners of a market that aren't directly regulated by the government are indirectly affected by the regulatory regime.
That is a really astute observation
The observation isn't just my observation. Libertarians have long pointed out that regulations don't just directly affect the regulated. Regulations end up distorting the entire market. This is why regulations end up having undesired consequences. it also explains why regulators tend to develop a totalitarian mindset.
The regulators regulate one group. This creates undesired consequences. The regulators then regulate another group causing more undesired consequences. The regulators then conclude that they need to regulate everything.
The US was formed around the idea that the states would due most of the governing. Businesses flee regulated states for unregulated ones. In response the regulators seek regulation at a national level.
Today one sees a bigger and bigger push for regulation at an international level.
BTW: You will find this effect in every industry. My observation isn't really that astute. I am just taking a general principle to a specific market.
This is exquisite and admirable