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TRACK 3: DISCUSS TRACK SUGGESTED (OPTIONAL) QUESTION PROMPTS

The DISCUSS track of the 2018 Computational Law & Blockchain Festival will gather lawyers, policymakers, technologists, academics, and enthusiasts for a Global Symposium addressing core policy areas related to blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies.

While we encourage nodes to explore issues that are of most interest for participants, we have compiled the following list of questions as optional question prompts for consideration. (Special thank you to Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center, Aaron Wright of Cardozo Law School, and Steven Nam of Stanford University for these questions.)

• Tax: Taxing cryptocurrencies and tokens as nations tax investments like stocks and bonds is reasonable given the large profits and losses that many investors are making, but how can these assets also be used as currencies or payment methods if every trade is a taxable event?
• Tax: Transactional taxes are geographic like the VAT in the EU and state sales tax in the US. If these transactional taxes are applied to cryptocurrency and token transactions how can they be effectively enforced and are there better alternatives if they cannot be effectively enforced?
• Securities Law: Globally securities laws demand meaningful and accurate disclosures from those who would seek to raise money from the public on the promise of business profits, i.e. those that issue securities. In the US there is a flexible and judge-administered test that affords regulators leeway to go after non-traditional securities issuance (e.g. some token sales). In Europe, the regulator enumerates a list of investments that it will regulated as securities and it can extend its jurisdiction by adding to that list. With respect to token sales, which approach will grant greater certainty to persons selling tokens? What can be done to improve each approach and offer a clearer line between token projects that need to comply with securities regulation and those that do not?
• Securities Law: Securities laws focus on disclosure to protect investors. Blockchains, by their nature, accomplish disclosure and transparency in new and different ways than the traditional corporate investor prospectus or quarterly profits report. Can the old goals of investor protection be better accomplished using these new technologies and what, if any, compliance requirements (new laws or regulations?) need to be adjusted to best enable this transition?
• AML/Financial Surveillance: Anti-money-laundering regulators have long relied upon intermediaries (banks and other regulated financial services providers) to engage in financial surveillance on behalf of the government and to stop the flow of illicit funds through the economy. Does this approach still work now that cryptocurrencies and tokens can be traded and transferred peer-to-peer in addition to being transacted through regulated businesses like exchanges? Will this balance shift as decentralized exchanges become more prevalent? Is it constitutional (in the US) or moral/ethical to demand similar financial surveillance from the makers of software or from individuals (in addition to typical intermediaries).  
• AML/Financial Surveillance: Law enforcement has come to rely on the transparency of the bitcoin blockchain in order to catch and convict those who use bitcoin in crimes. Will privacy protecting cryptocurrencies upset this reliance and how will law enforcement cope and react to the change?
• AML/Financial Surveillance: Anti-money laundering regulation is, in large part, predicated on effective customer identification (know your customer or KYC). Can blockchain identity tools offer improved AML compliance, how, and do existing laws or regulations need to change to enable that improvement?
• AML/Financial Surveillance: Do you foresee the emergence of new institutions of trust that will deliver services with security for transactions?  How might old institutions be adapted to transactions on the blockchain?
• AML/Financial Surveillance: How can we provide effective oversight for existing (and new) banking products on a blockchain that uses zero-knowledge proof technology?
• Financial Services Licensing/Chartering: Much of financial services regulation for consumer protection occurs through licensing or chartering (i.e. you can’t engage in that line of business without first seeking permission; e.g. E-money licenses in the EU, State money transmission licensing in the US, and bank charters globally). Is this approach reasonable with regard to cryptocurrencies and tokens, given the ethos and dynamism of permissionless innovation in this industry? Do cryptocurrency businesses fit neatly into these permissioned categories (e.g. should an exchange be regulated as a bank or money transmitter?) and what would a new category look like?
• Financial Services Licensing/Chartering: Non-custodial activities (e.g. software development, running a full-node or a miner, running a lightning network or payment channel node, or securing a limited number of private keys in a multi-sig arrangement) are fundamental to the efficient operation of cryptocurrency and token networks. Are any of these activities regulated under existing laws, would we want them regulated, or do we need safe harbors to guarantee that these activities will never be regulated?
• Privacy and Security: Most cryptocurrencies are too public to be long term replacements for the traditional financial system (who wants to get their salary paid on a public ledger?) but law enforcement has come to rely on blockchain forensics for crime fighting. As new technologies like zero knowledge proofs and ring signatures are integrated with blockchains, how can we strike a balance between privacy and the needs of law enforcement?
• Privacy and Security: How might blockchain usage alter the balance of individual rights to privacy and organizational rights to collect data?  What would be your ideal balance?
• Privacy and Security: How might we best reconcile immutability in distributed ledger technologies with a person’s right to modify or erase personal data?
• Tokens: What innovative use cases for tokens could be developed for the mainstream that build upon rather than clash with existing legal frameworks?
• Smart Contracts as Legal Contracts: What is the best way to resolve jurisdictional and immutability issues related to smart contracts?

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