[relyio]

In early July, the Tezos foundation ran a fundraiser to fund the project's development (R&D, Bizdev, etc.). At the time it did not have funding (or very little). Its current treasury comes from that fundraiser.

It is an "ICO" because in exchange of your donation, the foundation will recommend a token allocation for you in the genesis block. Nothing prevents anyone to create a "concurrent" genesis block with different allocations though. It's just that the chances are people are going to follow the one the foundation recommends.

So, in that sense... it's an ICO. Although not quite like an ERC20 token sale.

[hudon]

lol. I love how careful you are with your words. You know the SEC doesn't care how it's phrased, right? It's substance over form. Basically, "if it quacks like a duck, it's a duck".

[relyio]

I'm actually describing the process, which is what OP asked. I figured that the SEC doesn't seek legal advice from randos on HN.

[hudon]

That's true, that's true. However to other randos reading HN who may read your comment and take your word for how Tezos' ICO is different than the rest: it's not. Please do your due diligence and ask yourself if you actually want to send money to a couple that has no track record, no product, who is fighting with its development foundation, and whose plan is to re-implement an idea that isn't even proven to be useful yet ("decentralized turing-complete smart contracts").

Typically with securities, there is a bar of quality to meet before you are allowed to sell it, but in this case there is not. So we all need to be as honest and helpful as possible so that investors who don't know any better don't get scammed by those who are claiming to change the world.