Public Policy Considerations
Required Readings:
‘Public Policy Challenges facing Cryptocurrencies, ICOs and Cryptocurrency Exchanges’ MIT
Cryptocurrency Online Short Course (as adapted, August 2019)
‘Q2 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report’ CipherTrace (July 2019)
‘Framework for “Investment Contract” Analysis of Digital Assets’ SEC (April 3, 2019)
Optional Readings:
‘Cryptocurrencies: Oversight of New Assets in the Digital Age’ Gensler (July 18, 2018)
11
‘European Parliament Publishes Study on Blockchain and the GDPR’ Dan Cooper & Gemma Nash,
Covington (August 12, 2019)
‘Darknet transactions up 70% — with BTC still the currency of choice’ Brave NewCoin (January 31,
2019)
‘U.S. Law: Crypto is Money, Property, a Commodity, and a Security, all at the Same Time’ Goforth
(November 16, 2018)
Study Questions/Issues to Prepare:
1) How do key public policy frameworks – guarding against illicit activities, ensuring financial
stability, and protecting investors – relate to blockchain technology and crypto finance?
2) Under tax, bank secrecy, securities and commodities laws, what is the relevance of how crypto
tokens are classified? (Property, Currencies, Commodities, Investment contracts?) What is the
essence of the U.S. Supreme Court ‘Howey Test’?
3) How might the ‘Duck Test’ guide thinking of blockchain technology and crypto finance? What is
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s current approach to ICOs? What are the options
for a compliant crypto exchange or ICO?