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https://www.forbes.com/sites/roslynlayton/2021/08/30/the-crypto-uprising-the-sec-didnt-see-coming/ Stunning article.

THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION IS NOT A DRINKING CLUB

Watching DAI latest video it appears SEC might have just pivoted. They commented to Gasparino (a senior journalist at Fox Business) on the SEC V Ripple case. In their responses they made the stupidest arguments about how they differentiated between XRP and ETH. IE this is their explanation for the Hinman free pass to ETH whilst they enforce against Ripple. QUOTE Gasparino Twitter feed: "@SEC_Enforcement sources tell @FoxBusiness the logic of the agency's case v @Ripple is that the company's infrastructure is STILL being built out so XRP -- the token which was used to finance the thing -- is considered a security. @ethereum infrastructure is totally built-out and has been for years thus it's clearly a commodity. @HesterPeirce argues that all may be the case, but as @SECGov splits hairs, crypto innovation is being stifled so what's needed is a "Safe Harbor" that pulls back all this enforcement action. Developing" This seems to be a pivot because You do not discuss your court cases with outside sources, especially Fox Business. The place to do this is in Court, in front of the judge not in the media ( BTW This statement was made by @SEC_Enforcement , ie SEC's lawyers to Fox News!) The arguments they put forward are risible. Everyone knows ETH infrastructure is not developed and built out; that is why ETH are trying (and failing!) to launch new infrastructure called ETH 02. Even after the free pass ETH foundation were putting out how they were using their raised capital to further "develop ETH infrastructure". DAI suggest Hester Pierce safe harbour is the way out for SEC. Perhaps H Pierce's statements are choreographed preparation for the pivot to happen as part of the settlement and to give the SEC a fig leaf to hide their exposed parts behind? This case is dead. Perhaps @SEC_Enforcement have been panicked into this, perhaps it is planned, but there is no way lawyers schedule a prosecution through media personalities. Those emails and correspondence documents have not yet reached Ripple's hands. SEC have two weeks to settle this without giving up more of their secrets, and more evidence of insider trading and corruption inside the SEC.

For those not on Twitter and trying to understand it all:- Brian Armstrong (is a billionaire American business executive and investor who is CEO of cryptocurrency trading company Coinbase.) Some really sketchy behaviour coming out of the SEC recently. Story time… Millions of crypto holders have been earning yield on their assets over the last few years. It makes sense, if you want to lend out your funds, you can earn a return. Everyone seems happy. A bunch of great companies in crypto have been offering versions of this for years. Coinbase came out recently and said we would be launching our own version. We were planning to go live in a few weeks, so we reached out to the SEC to give them a friendly heads up and briefing. They responded by telling us this lend feature is a security. Ok - seems strange, how can lending be a security? So we ask the SEC to help us understand and share their view. We always make an effort to work proactively with regulators, and keep an open mind. They refuse to tell us why they think it's a security, and instead subpoena a bunch of records from us (we comply), demand testimony from our employees (we comply), and then tell us they will be suing us if we proceed to launch, with zero explanation as to why. Look….we're committed to following the law. Sometimes the law is unclear. So if the SEC wants to publish guidance, we are also happy to follow that (it's nice if you actually enforce it evenly across the industry equally btw). But in this case they are refusing to offer any opinion in writing to the industry on what should be allowed and why, and instead are engaging in intimidation tactics behind closed doors. Whatever their theory is here, it feels like a reach/land grab vs other regulators. Meanwhile, plenty of other crypto companies continue to offer a lend feature, but Coinbase is somehow not allowed to. Gensler in his confirmation hearing: “It’s important for the SEC to provide guidance and clarity,” Gensler said. “Sometimes that’s a clarity that will be a thumbs up, but even if it’s thumbs down, it’s important to provide that.” March 2, 2021 If you don't want this activity, then simply publish your position, in writing, and enforce it evenly across the industry. Ostensibly, the SEC's goal is to protect investors and create fair markets. So who are they protecting here, and where is the harm? People seem pretty happy to be earning yield on these various products, across lots of other crypto companies. Shutting these down would arguably be harming consumers more than protecting them, and by preventing Coinbase from launching the same thing that other companies already have live, they're creating an unfair market. In May of this year, I travelled to DC to meet with every regulator and branch of government I could. I spent most of this week in DC meeting with members of Congress and heads of various federal agencies, along with Ron Conway / Katie Haun and Paul Grewal. Gensler had been confirmed just a month prior, so I brushed it off as the SEC still getting its feet under it. Now I'm not so sure. We've always tried to be good actors in the space - leaning in to sensible regulation even when it is difficult or expensive. We try to think about what products we would want for ourselves, and what risks we would want our families to be aware of, before launching products. We will keep following this approach. Yet here, we're being threatened with legal action before a single bit of actual guidance has been given to the industry on these products. If we end up in court, we may finally get the regulatory clarity the SEC refuses to provide. But regulation by litigation should be the last resort for the SEC, not the first. Our door remains open. Hopefully the SEC steps up to create the clarity this industry deserves, without harming consumers and companies in the process. America could really use us all working together to figure this out right now. That was work - please join Twitter and make my life easier (Hal1000) the copy and paste maniac.

A couple of my favorites from the hearing ... Tenreiro: "In terms of turning the documents over for an in camera review ... ramble ramble, ramble, ramble (for several minutes) ... but if the court wants us to do that, then we will." Judge: "Thank you. I do." (with a camouflaged, but evidently indignant tone, I might add) .... Or, when Judge Netburn asked if there was a specific date when SEC deliberations over XRP's status were finished ... so that the SEC could turn over all documents created after that ... or (and I quote) .. "or is this a perpetual SEC deliberation?" .... (LOL ... This harkens to the SEC's accusation of Ripple having a "perpetual ICO",) ... but more importantly demonstrates that if the SEC is still deliberating, then they obviously STILL don't have a position. LOL .... Judge Netburn must have felt that Tenreiro is a couple sandwiches short of a picnic as she all but pulled out the crayons to connect the dots between if-the-SEC-didn't-know,-how-could-the-SEC-complain-CL/BG-were-'knowingly-reckless'?. .... Then Tenreiro sets up a straw man about CL/BG should have known the 'consequences of violation' ... and that the 'consequences of violations are very clear'. Well, no sh@t!! We all know the CONSEQUENSES of violating Section 5. What they didn't know was if Section 5 was applicable. At this point, there is no way around it: Tenreiro is just willfully dumb. FWIW: For me, there was one point toward the beginning where the convo was muted for a while ... anyone else? purposeful? or bad connection? ... Then I was further disconnected TWICE and managed to call back in. Pretty sucky since I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. (Hawaii Time) to listen in.

Ripple are stopping settlement, SEC are in full panic mode?

I was around before Ethereum launched and smart contracts were just a dream. The ideal back then was that because these contracts would run on distributed ledgers that hypothetically couldn't be shut down - they would be like a law unto themselves. The maximalist position would even say that hacks and exploits are allowed - if the contract allows it for any reason (even unintentional reasons) that's a valid use of the contract. It may sound ridiculous today, but if you remember back to the Maker DAO hack a few months after its launch, there was a substantial minority who said that Maker shouldn't intervene in the hack because the code should be the ultimate standard and the code allowed the hacker to take the funds. I wouldn't go that far, I would say that if smart contracts can ever approach being self governing they will need to contain both a written contract and code to execute the contract. The code can be recognized as having failed to execute the contract as written and exploiting vulnerabilities in the code would be theft just as much as a car thief exploiting someone leaving their keys unlocked in the car is. Anyway, that was just a picture of what the discussion was like. The reality is much different than people were imagining. Smart contracts have indeed become the foundation of DeFi and NFTs, leading to an enormous growth of the overall crypto marketcap. No one can deny that Ethereum in particular and smart contract ledgers in general are a huge success. But I don't think they've lived up to the lofty goals of decentralization and trustless contracts that people dreamed about in the early days. For one, in practice, most smart contracts are not immutable (not able to be changed) as was originally most commonly envisioned. The reason for this is practically - with immutable contracts every time an update needs to be made the dev team needs to put out a whole new contract and get everyone to move over to using it - it's a pain. But contracts that can be changed fail to remove the inherent trust in the developers that smart contracts are supposed to eliminate. The fact that we all know what "rug pull" means in relation to DeFi shows how much we've failed here. Another big failure is that ordinary people are often stuck using centralized means to interact with with smart contracts. The most common situation is that you use a website that's centrally hosted to interact with the contract. This is how most of the web3 dapps work. The front end is a fairly simple website that you connect your wallet to. The problem is that when the market is going nuts, these sites often get overloaded and become impossible to interact with. The underlying smart contracts and the networks they run on are still working - if you could compose the proper transaction and submit it to a validator yourself, you could interact with the smart contract just fine. But maybe 1% of people in DeFi have the skills to be able to do this. I'm pro-smart contracts. I've got about half my crypto in DeFi (and will probably be almost all in if Flare ever launches). But I'd like to see the crypto world strive to better implement the goals of decentralization and trustlessness of the perfect, platonic smart contract. I do think that one day when this space matures, Stefan Thomas and Ripple will be shown to be right. I think their idea of keeping the business logic separate from the payments network and having a separate network for distributed hosting may win out in the long run. But Ripple has never been in the right place at the right time.

https://flare.xyz/putting-songbird-in-flight/ TLDR is: -- tokens have been dropped, but you cannot access them yet as the public RPCs are not live -- the network will be in observation mode until September 27th, which means at any time Flare can unilaterally reset the entire network. A test launch of a test net -- more guides on connecting to wallets etc will appear in the coming days -- exchanges are strongly advised to not list the token until observation mode is over. DO NOT BUY THE TOKEN ANYWHERE YET -- if you claimed Flare on an exchange then politely ask your exchange if they are supporting it and if not why not A guide has been posted in various places by Flare, but be aware that it doesn't work yet because the Towo Labs RPC is not live yet: 🎼SONGBIRD PREPAREDNESS🦜 As we get closer to Songbird launch we wanted to again cover some information pertaining to the Community’s most frequently asked questions: 1️⃣ If you are eligible to receive the $FLR airdrop through a participating Exchange, you are also eligible to receive $SGB. If you are uncertain if a $FLR participating Exchange will distribute $SGB to their eligible customers it’s best to politely ask them and show demand from the Community. 2️⃣ If you are eligible to receive the $FLR airdrop through a self custody wallet, and properly completed the Claim process before the deadline (June 12, 2021), you are also eligible to receive $SGB. 3️⃣ If you used a Ledger device to Claim $FLR/$SGB, there is a Songbird app for Ledger pending approval from the Ledger Team. 4️⃣ If you do not wish to wait for the Songbird app for Ledger you have the option of importing the seed phrase/private keys from the ETH address you used as the message key into another Songbird supported wallet of your choosing. 5️⃣ Some examples of Songbird supported wallets are- D’cent, Bifrost Wallet, and Metamask. 6️⃣ If you used an ETH address from a Metamask wallet you can access your $SGB tokens by connecting to the Songbird Network directly in MM once Songbird goes live. Simply follow the steps below- a. Open Metamask wallet and login b. Go to ‘Settings’ c. Click ‘Networks, Add/Edit Custom RPC Networks d. Click ‘Add Network’ e. In the Network Name block input- Songbird f. In the RPC URL block input- https://songbird.towolabs.com/ext/bc/C/rpc g. In the Chain ID block input- 19 h. In the Symbol block input- SGB i. In the Block Explorer block input- https://songbird.explorer.flare.network j. Click ‘Add’ k. Songbird wallet will display and show SGB token amount 7️⃣ Once Songbird is live, or shortly thereafter, the Community can begin to test the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) by delegating their $SGB tokens to Data Providers on the Network. Delegating $SGB to Data Providers could potentially earn a yield in additional $SGB if the selected providers submit accurate price feeds. 8️⃣ Currently, the wallets that will support $SGB delegation to Data Providers are D’cent and Bifrost Wallet. 9️⃣ Additional instructional information on how to delegate $SGB to earn yield using both the D’cent and Bifrost wallets will be provided in a later blog/post. We hope you find the information useful and are looking forward to soon take part in testing Flare’s canary-net- SONGBIRD! 🏋🏻💪🏼🎉

Full summary of the case https://www.fsicoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/FSIC-Case-Study-Cryptocurrency-and-Conflicts-of-Interest-at-the-SEC-final-2.pdf

Posting this here too because it is significant to a lot of people on the forum. I am guessing that this means Flare is going to be delayed a bit longer. Originally we were expecting the Songbird testing network to be launched around now. This hasn’t happened yet and this tweet suggests it may be late. The Flare network itself was going to launch a couple of months after Songbird, so we were expecting November sometime. Possibly not now. I am frustrated too, but we are getting tokens for free. That buys a very large amount of goodwill on my part.

I don’t know why people keep going on about how other coins are near ath and moan that XRP isn’t. It has been delisted from most major exchanges and can’t be traded in the USA for the time being whilst it has the lawsuit hanging over its head. To be honest, to be over $1 and to have held $1 is pretty impressive with all that is going on.

So here we are! This week will be another milestone: sub 700M. And as @LeonidasH pointed out, the funding wallet is now empty. Exciting times ahead, I hope the volume keeps up and we will se a 0 in the Tacostand by the end of November-December.

John E Deaton in reply to someone on Twitter. How could these Ripple attorneys possibly know what these SEC documents show? Have you looked up the #Ripple Defense Team? Mary Jo White, former Chairwoman of SECGov, Meredith Cross, former Director of Corporation Finance. Andrew Ceresney, who served for nearly four years as the Director of Enforcement at the SEC under Chair Mary Jo White. Mathew Solomon, who formally served as the SEC’s Chief Enforcement Litigation Counsel. They might have a clue regarding what these documents show. @MarkCrypto8 But what if these documents mysteriously disappear with no trace and SEC say they have no knowledge of them? Ex SEC employees may have no evidence they did exist. Deaton The documents have already been identified in a privilege log. The SEC can’t destroy them now. And if the documents were destroyed, the Judge could throw out the case as a remedy. The Ripple attorneys seem to almost guarantee that the BTC, Ether and XRP documents that the SEC refuses to turn over will be absolutely exculpatory and potentially end the case. It’s almost as if the Ripples defence team knows something the public doesn’t. --- Which is inline with my thinking in an earlier post in this thread and Jeremy Hogans initial assumptions in one of his early videos, saying something very similar, THE SEC ARE HIDING SOME VERY BAD THINGS--- I'm going to bed, this has been a long day for this underpaid and overworked reporter, I will dream of moons with little XRP icons jumping over it P.s. Stupid Enforcement Cartel, GIVE IT UP ALREADY.

You can now delegate your SGB to an FTSO signal provider, and it seems like the rewards are likely to come online pretty soon (remember the network is still in observation mode until the 27th). This means you will be wanting to delegate your SGB to get those sweet rewards. (NB If all this stuff like FTSO and signal provider is unknown to you then feel free to come by the flare discussion group, we have some info and knowledgeable people who will easily answer your questions) This website has a list of signal providers and how much is currently delegated to them, fees, etc. This is very similar to any other PoS network if you have used that. https://flaremetrics.io/ftso At the moment, because there are no rewards, it is impossible to say which signal provider is 'better' or will get you more rewards. That remains to be seen. Having said that, I do want to put in a plug for @FTSO_AU. They have been engaged on this board in the Flare Discussion Group with us from the beginning, answering questions, giving us some info about what's happening on the backend, and in general being very supportive of us on this forum. I don't want to be a shill and I'm sure it is not encouraged at all here, but I think given that FTSO AU has been an active contributor to this forum I think it's OK to say thanks and encourage others to say thanks too. I personally have FTSO AU on my list of signal providers that I am currently delegating to, they are 3rd on the list so a fair number of other people are making the same choice. Anyway as I said at this moment right now it doesn't really matter who you delegate to, but nonetheless I like to be generous to people who have been generous to us.

Oh the pressure is absolutely on now

Software always takes longer than expected. chainlink c.e.o went m.i.a for months as he ported the code to the go language. He warned the community that there would be no communication for months. Shit hit the fan in less than 24 hours. people calling it an exit scam. No one should be complaining. I call this the golden fork. flr, yflr, sbg and a whole swathe of air drops for a system to manage all the banking coins, full defi. If you're complaining you have no idea what is happening all around you

SGB tokens are finally here 😍 ⭐️VISUAL GUIDE - How to connect MetaMask or Ledger to the Songbird network? ⭐️ 👉https://www.stedas.hr/spark-airdrop-for-xrp-holders.html ➡️MetaMask

This document is single handedly going to be the cause of the ‘great black toner shortage of 2021’.

some ideas for NFT's - a series to be developed (if I get enough likes) I can already see some spelling mistakes, obviously a series that will need to be revised as well as developed! in teh next series we will visit offices of the SEC and get a clearer picture of what is really going on there

Not much sorry for clownbase really. I've read there was a 404 service error yesterday during the meltdown in BTC, I guess they rekt many people once again with their lack of infrastructure. Maybe they should stop whining and use some small amount of the billions they pocketed from the IPO to improve their services. PS. David seems to agree with me

Best to do it right, instead of fast.

A well-done timeline with video evidence of each known stage of WTF moments regarding the SEC and ETH created by CryptoLaw.

Well now, isn't this a fun article that we can all relate to out of Seeking Alpha. You won't have to read far before you run into a gem like this: "If previous SEC Chairman Jay Clayton was the “most conflicted chairman in history”, then Biden’s pick – Gary Gensler – is the most clueless." And it maintains this tone all the way through. The author, Jared Whitley, is not mincing any words at all. Enjoy!!

I think ADA will drawdown after Alonzo; I would be surprised if it doesn't drawdown. I sold my ADA and locked in my profits around $3. It's funny how things work out when it comes to timing. I did tons and tons of research about Ripple and held XRP for several years (waiting for it to go back to ATH and beyond) and then ended up selling when the lawsuit black swan event hit back in December. After that, I bought ADA, without knowing much about it (other than having read a couple of very short articles), and ended up making all of the money that I hoped to make with XRP in only a few months. I've learned not to be concerned with trying to perfectly time the market and trying to sell at the top. I just wanted to make a good chunk of money to fast forward my financial situation many years ahead of where it should be based on my age. (And also to fix financial mistakes [A shameful amount of credit card and other debt] that I made in Univesity) I am now extremely satisfied that I have gotten what I have always wanted out of crypto (I AM DEBT FREE and have a solid savings stash tucked away!) Now I can sit back and let my remaining crypto portfolio ride with zero stress whatsoever.

⚠️Upcoming airdrops for XRP / FLR holders ⚠️ 1) Spark (FLR) 2) Songbird (SGB) 3) DFLR + many others View infographic here 👉 http://stedas.hr/spark-airdrop-for-xrp-holders.html

Plus, recall how (in the USA) the rules got changed to permit corps to buy back their own stock. Which then became the norm as opposed to paying dividends to shareholders. As we witnessed, the stock prices have relentlessly risen higher with the impact of said stock buy-backs. Which is why capital heavy corps (like Apple) would borrow on the cheap, and buy back their own stock with the loans. This of course, was how the wealthy got to avoid paying taxes on gains... Dividends were taxed, but rising portfolio values are not taxed until sold. And when the wealthy borrow (at rates lower than if paying taxes) against their portfolio holdings, that money isn't taxed, and they can spend it all how they like. And rollover the debt until they die. And we wonder why the Middle Class has been vanishing.

Bingo. It's a mob shakedown; they thought Ripple were low hanging fruit for a big payday. Turns out, they stuck up for themselves. Mark Cuban went through NINE YEARS of hell vs the SEC, only because he too had the money to stick up for himself. It would have cost him a LOT less to settle. That's how the SEC works, first they try to intimidate you into paying them off – just like the mob. "Protection money, capiche?!" Then they shake you down with enforcement actions. If you still resist, they rough you up using the legal system and playing very dirty all the way through.

How to earn rewards and delegate your Songbird (SGB) tokens in the Bifrost Wallet? Bifrost Wallet is a non-custodial software wallet, that provides you with a secure and easy way to manage your crypto assets on an Android or iOS device. Bifrost Wallet currently supports Ethereum (ETH), Songbird (SGB), XRP (XRP) as well as various ERC20 tokens. A visual step-by-step guide on how to delegate and earn passive income in Bifrost wallet: https://stedas.hr/how-delegate-sgb-bifrost-wallet.html Bonus: glossary of terms + FAQ

It seems SEC are in full panic over the interest shown by FOX business and are spilling a lot of beans when they talk with Gasparino. This excuse that Clayton was somehow out of the loop when the decision was made to sue Ripple is so easy to knock down, but they try it on the not fully up to speed Gasparino all the same! I think this blabbing by SEC is a further indication that settlement is now very close and they don't care what lies they tell when trying to shift the blame.

Guys, Below is your September 2021 update on the lawsuits filed against Ripple Labs, Inc. As of today, September 14, 2021, there appears to be five (5) open or active lawsuits Ripple Labs, Inc is involved with and litigating. Overall, the main focus lately has been on the SEC v. Ripple Labs, Inc. et al case. It appears there are three other securities-related cases (four total including the SEC case) that are open or active listing Ripple Labs, Inc. as a defendant. The open or active cases are in bold: 1.) 2013 - Ripple v. LaCore Enterprises (closed) 2.) 2015 - Ripple v. Kefi Labs (closed) 3.) 2015 - Arthur Britto v. Jed McCaleb (closed)** 4.) 2016 - Bitstamp v. Ripple, Jed McCaleb, Stellar (closed) 5.) 2016 - Ripple v. Pixel Labs (closed) 6.) 2017 - R3 v. Ripple (Delaware) (closed) 7.) 2017 - Ripple and XRP II v. R3 (California) (closed) 8.) 2017 - R3 v. Ripple (New York) (closed) 9.) 2017 - Tony Petrucci v. Ripple (closed) 10.) 2018 - Ryan Coffey v. Ripple, XRP II and Bradley Garlinghouse (California) (closed) 11.) 2018 - Ryan Coffey v. Ripple, XRP II and Bradley Garlinghouse (U.S. Federal Court) (closed) 12.) 2018 - Zakinov v. Ripple, XRP II and Bradley Garlinghouse (California) (closed; consolidated w/ #17) 13.) 2018 - David Oconer v. Ripple, XRP II and Bradley Garlinghouse (California) (closed; consolidated w/ #17) 14.) 2018 - Avner Greenwald v. Ripple, XRP II, Bradley Garlinghouse, Christian Larsen, Ben Lawsky (California) (closed) 15.) 2018 - Avner Greenwald v. Ripple, XRP II, Bradley Garlinghouse, Christian Larsen, Ben Lawsky (U.S. Federal Court) (closed) 16.) 2018 - Avner Greenwald v. Ripple, XRP II, Bradley Garlinghouse, Christian Larsen, Ben Lawsky (U.S. Appeals Federal Court) (closed) 17.) 2018 - Zakinov et al v. Ripple et al (U.S. Federal Court) (open/active) 18.) 2019 - Cooperative Entertainment, Inc. v. Ripple (closed) 19.) 2020 - Simmons v. Ripple Labs, XRP II, LLC, and Bradley Garlinghouse (U.S. Federal Court) (closed) 20.) 2020 - Ripple Labs, Inc. et al v. YouTube, LLC (U.S. Federal Court) (closed) 21.) 2020 - Bitcoin Manipulation Abatement, LLC, v. Ripple Labs, XRP II, LLC, and Bradley Garlinghouse (U.S. Federal Court) (closed) 22.) 2020 - Simmons v. Ripple Labs, XRP II, LLC, and Bradley Garlinghouse (U.S. Federal Court) (open/active) 23.) 2020 - Thomas Stelmaszyk v. Ripple Labs, Inc., et al (closed) 24.) 2020 - NPP Australia Limited v. Ripple Labs, Inc. (closed) 25.) 2020 - Creditcare Technology Corporation v. Ripple Labs, Inc., et al (open/active) 26.) 2020 - Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple Labs, Inc., at al (open/active) 27.) 2021 - Toomey v. Ripple Labs, et al (Florida) (closed) 28.) 2021 - Toomey v. Ripple Labs, et al (California) (open/active) Notes on the five (5) active cases: #17 (above) - This is a securities-related case. #22 (above) - This is a securities-related case. #25 (above) - This lawsuit is quietly making its way through the discovery phase. It looks like the plaintiff (Creditcare) is requesting sanctions. The next hearing is on September 21, 2021 at 9:30 AM PST. #26 (above) - Go check out @attorneyjeremy1, @FilanLaw, and @JohnEDeaton1 on Twitter for updates on the SEC vs. Ripple Labs, Inc. et al lawsuit. #28 (above) - This is a securities-related case. It was initially filed in state court (Florida. Earlier this month, on September 9, 2021, there was an order from the court to reassign the case to a U.S. District Court Judge. The plaintiff is trying to form a class action against Ripple Labs, Inc. for its sale of XRP to Florida residents in violation of Florida securities laws. https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/36147-ripple-lawsuit-tracker-december-2020/ https://www.xrpchat.com/topic/35446-ripple-lawsuit-tracker-september-2020 @Pablo @WillGetThere @jcdenton @Snoopy @vlad_got_it @Mrsrippley @xrpisking

Best so far (long thread)

( facepalm )

It is indeed strange behaviour. SEC under Gensler, who comes across in his lectures are approachable, thoughtful and balanced, is behaving in a more and more dysfunctional way. There is no explaining, and where the explaining happens it is simply open lying or engaging in obstinate authoritarian telling. We are also hearing stories of lawyers leaving because they are feeling undermined by their boss. Regulation is a social contract. We consent to regulation, or in authoritarian countries are forced by the military to work by the rules. People accept authority and regulation only when the regulators are respected. When they are not respected the regulated find ways of circumventing the regulations and put two fingers up to the regulators they despise. They move their companies abroad, invent schemes like money tap or simply commit fraud and just break the rules with others who are also willing to break rules. Gensler is destroying respect for SEC and the result will be disorder and mayhem, not ordered markets he says he wants. I think I saw an article about how institutions Gensler previously ran have fallen on their faces? The man is clearly incapable of doing his duty. There are five commissioners. Two are already in open revolt. Maybe a third one will step forward and put an end to this rule by a mad man?

@WrathofKahneman : “Really, it's laughable. So many opinions; no rules, only guidelines citing opinions. That aren't rules...” Saltwater crocodiles lay immobile in shallow pools waiting for prey. Occasionally they muddy the waters with their tail to keep things opaque and in their favour. Dunno why that popped into my head….

You never accounted for SEC's proclivity for using extortion to reap "settlement" awards. The SEC was prolly gambling that RL would do anything to hurry up clarification and get re-listed by exchanges. But wut happened the puddy kat whose tail the SEC grabbed turned out to be a very annoyed lioness !

Well, we are still here. Haven't posted anything because literally nothing is happening yet. XRP has come back into the 1.20 range, but the arrows that I drew are just pure luck. We can never know the exact timing of a move. So we are still waiting. Correction has been going for two weeks, and it could be two more weeks. There's no way to know. XRPBTC looks a little clearer. The correction may have bottomed out and we will see a little move up like the arrow suggests. BTC, after trusting the plan, decided against it and is still hovering under 50k. Since we've only seen one true break of 50k in this correction, it's not time to panic just yet. Crossing over and getting rejected is more significant than never crossing the line, in my opinion. If we see a couple more rejections from over 50k then it might be time to start wondering. In other happy news, BTC dominance is nosediving again. Currently around 42%. Local bottom here is just under 40%. ATL is around 35%. I hope we get there.

Leonidas XRParcade is making videos! He has such a big name for original research he deserves our attention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPlqKNR8CbE&t=249s

A must watch for anyone wanting to understand the context of our investment in XRP and other blockchain projects. The ILP, invented by ripple and gifted to the W3C is a layer on top of the existing Internet that will transform data standards, security and trust for everything to do with Data and Finance. Everything to with the internet will be transformed by blockchain, (and Ripple/XRP is right at teh centre of this monster ecosystem). Anyone who says we are through innovation and into early adoption just does not comprehend how very early we are in this.

Lest not for forget, the current confidence in the Ripple camp is in no small part thanks to social network sleuths like DAI, Crypto Eri and others who connect the dots with videos and documents. Who would have thought a few weeks ago that the Hinman speech was the product of collaboration between crypto groups, law firms and the SEC?? Before it was more of an assumption and hearsay. The vested interests and conflicts of interest now seem provable in court - and explain the lack of clarity. SEC never intended to provide clarity. That's the real story here making Ripple's position very strong. But if they head to trial - the whole thing might hang in the balance until Supreme Court. And that takes years and years.

I don’t believe that ripple isn’t actively seeking settlement. If it offers what they want from it why wouldn’t they.

I think that is untrue. SEC can play this game up until summary judgement on Fair Notice, which should be around November after Discovery is complete. The big question is are SEC's lawyers prepared to let Ripple lawyers see the messages around the Hinman speech? I think they probably are not going to be happy to pass them across because they probably include too much ammunition that could be used by Ripple in a post summary judgement world. Ripple have good arguments not to settle until summary judgement because that would be a big win for Ripple. The urgency to settle seems to me to be on the SEC side. SEC is wounded, bleeding and now coming under attack from the mass media like Fox business.

It is such a privilege for us noobs to share a forum with the gods of crypto like you. Thank you for generously sharing that pearl of wisdom with us. It is so insightful and explains how ignorant we all are. If only we were able to see the future with 100% knowledge like you…

Something that would be interesting to know about Lubin and Consensys would be how much BTC / ETH he personally had after the ETH token launch. Because what it seems like to me is that he effectively created a company (Consensys) that funded much of the development on ethereum, as a way to sidestep centralization. So was he or Consensys selling any of the BTC/ETH raised at launch in order to fund new projects through Consensys? How much ethereum development after the token launch was funded through Lubin's "central-but-not-central" company? Consensys did not raise external funding until earlier this year, notably after the Ripple case was announced. JP Morgan was the primary investor as part of $65M in fresh funding. So from 2014 through 2020, I wonder how Lubin funded ethereum development (but through Consensys of course). This from a Forbes article about their fresh funding round...(link to article) So to recap... 1. Does an ICO, markets it and everything, little press tour to announce it, facebook posts, etc. - All illegal 2. Creates a third-party company and funds development of the ethereum blockchain just so that it's not attached to the name Ethereum. Sounds like pretty centralized control. Sounds like funding via money raised through an illegal securities offering. Sounds shady. 3. ALLEGEDLY helps to write the guidance from the SEC (already proven to have conflicts of interest with Ethereum) that gives ether a golden ticket and slams the door on all competition. 4. Pisses on the graves of said competition afterwards. 5. Snuggles up with JP Morgan to the tune of $65M in order to continue funding development of the ethereum network...but not centrally of course. ANSWER THE GODDAMN QUESTION, SEC: IS ETH A SECURITY??

The Coinbase/Armstrong comments are totally disingenuous. It's pretty clear - on the first page of the Securities act of '33- that loans are a security and there are 7 exemptions, none of which fit their proposed product. If I, internet spitballing schlub, can find this info inside of 30min and gain a basic understanding, shouldn't a publicly listed corporation whose CEO went on to head a regulatory agency at least have a clue? They wanted feedback to make it work, but the SEC told them it doesn't. What more should they have said? If Coinbase wants to lend like any bank, then they can subject themselves to banking regulations and back loans w/100% actual collateral. They know this. I can see that some original sales of XRP to bootstrap things might be securities, just like ETH was, but that the security status is not inherent and no longer applies to XRP. I hope it isn't true, but it's at least reasonable in light of current regulations. (slap on the wrist for sales ~10 years ago, XRP not a security, Larsen & Garlinghouse cases dismissed) The concerning thing is that the SEC seems awfully capricious in how they administer the law, and clearing ETH as a security only highlights this. US regulations need to be cleared up ASAP. Why are some platforms are allowed to lend, but others aren't? They will, in the end, all be regulated though because they pose a risk to the existing financial world, i'm sure. But Coinbase is just an opportunist trying to leverage the sentiment around the Ripple case. Honestly, they can pound sand.

Four years of cutting through regulatory red tape, and SBI gets it done. Will be running by December. Here's the article.

Every day that goes by brings more videos, more documents, more stories of SEC hypocrisy and perhaps more evidence of corruption. SEC have FOIA coming at them from all directions and if bad stuff comes up that will be followed by litigation. The stuff that is being found these last few weeks by the XRP army is giving SEC's enemies more fuel, more knowledge of where the bodies are buried. SEC need to find a graceful way out and to stop the digging. They could have used Gensler as a Mr Clean. March was their last opportunity but they chose to pile on the aggression instead. They have lost the initiative and the case now has its own momentum out of the control of SEC lawyers. Ripple will settle on their terms on there timeline.

Ironically, in July 2018 Gary Gensler himself in a testimony to Congress cited Hinman's speech as what he saw as the SEC's official view. He taught MIT students the same thing. "Reasonably clear, very clear" - Source here. In your own word's GG, so your own understanding at the time, seems to be that you took the SEC's official position to be the same as most other market participants, i.e. the SEC viewed Ether and BTC to not be securities based on Hinman's speech and when this is added to that email from the SEC, saying the SEC has made no determination yet on XRP, then good luck proving that Ripple should have known. Hey GG you taught this in your classes at MIT, if I was a student of yours, I would be asking for my money back, for all the BS you taught. It's lucky you found a position, in which BS is still given out as an acceptable answer, IN MY OPINION.