[bmcusick]

> The investors are relying on the efforts of others for their profits.

Are investors in gold relying on the efforts of others for their profits? After all, there are people out there making gold exchanges, developing gold mines, marketing gold jewelry, minting coins and bars for vaults, etc. etc. There's your efforts of third parties which drives up value of gold.

Of course the answer is "maybe" until the law is written or the case decided, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the law already has categories that are a closer fit.

Who's the third party in a decentralized ecosystem? Everyone who's ever contributed a line of code? Everyone who has developed a DAPP that feeds the demand side of the market?

Where's the common enterprise that's being invested in?

[will_brown]

Well as lawyers we know why gold isn’t a security according to case law, and that logic definitely doesn’t apply to Ethereum/Ether.

>Where's the common enterprise that's being invested in?

The DAO was a decentralized ecosystem and yet the SEC issued an opinion. So what in your mind distinguishes Ether from the DAO tokens and makes Ether deserve to be treated like gold or another commodity like oil?