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It's our view that the SEC part won't be what pushes us over the edge. 100% what we're doing is not legal, it's in our business plan. SEC won't care if investor

It's our view that the SEC part won't be what pushes us over the edge. 100% what we're doing is not legal, it's in our business plan. SEC won't care if investors are OK, yes. But if investors are OK, they won't be filing complaints and there will be less pressure to go after us. Not a defense! Just a delaying factor. Prosecution isn't free. Far easier to shut down ICOs that aren't operating as proper anonymous extrajurisdictional companies. They can go after us, but it's a terrible ROI for them. But that is not what we're counting on! Basically we asked: What if everything related to sex work was legal? What would the inevitable startup look like? With modern privacy tech, we can attempt to try it. We can ignore legal issues by operating extrajurisdictionally and anonymously. This article discusses our technical setup: https://medium.com/@PinkApp/pink-app-trading-latency-for-anonymity-and-other-techniques-815ee21c6da4 https://medium.com/@PinkApp/pink-app-trading-latency-for-ano... - excuse the clickbait title. Please let me know the flaws you see! Latency could be a killer, but we think we can mitigate it. The core team, people that know real-world ID, are very few. Within a few months we plan to move nearly exclusively to high-latency communication methods. By having trustless contractors run public-facing aspects of the business, the core team's opsec attack surface is drastically reduced. We have contingency plans, so even in case of arrest or death, the system can be restored from backup. Maybe one day there will be private mature smart contracts and we can codify it. Meanwhile we'll rely on lawyers and other trusted parties. It may sound crazy ... a libertarian cypherpunk dream. But think how if you told people that it'd be popular to send non-refundable Internet money to a hidden internet service that promises to give it to an anonymous drug dealer on the other side of the planet to mail you drugs via the US Postal Service and that people would willingly trust them and it'd all be safer than using the street ... well people would have called you crazy! Yet it's popular and darknet services do exist that haven't had their operators busted.

KGIII 9y ago
> It may sound crazy ... I don't offer an opinion on your business methods, recovery methods, or even the morality. Instead, I point out that you're going to go to prison. As noble as you think your cause, they most absolutely will not care. Also related: I'd not count on jury nullification. You do what you've got to do, but you are going to prison if you follow up on this plan. There are a few things one shouldn't play with; firearms, nuclear weapons, and the SEC. If you're okay with long term incarceration and fiscal penalties that could bankrupt Bill Gates, knock yourself out. If you can be tied to your online messages declaring intent, it's really going to make for an angry judge. I've seen angry judges, they remind me of honey badgers. Seriously, I highly recommend you seek legal council from a qualified legal professional licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Morality and consumer complaints aren't actually things the SEC care about. They are only marginally less aggressive than the IRS.
- QAPereo 9y ago
  Prison will be unfortunate, but it's the felony record that will really end his professional life.
- the_stc 9y ago
  I never suggested morality will prevent a judge or jury. Just that doing fewer bad things results in fewer complains results in less likelihood of spending prosecutor effort on us. But probably when our share price hits $25+ we'll be big enough that someone will decide to go after us for real. If our opsec fails, I'll end up in prison, very probably. That's what contingency plans are for: the project can keep operating without me. Meanwhile that's going to take a ton of effort and time, so I can the project to a point where I'm not vital. Lawyers opinions are the same. No lawyer will advise their client to be the founder of an illegal enterprise. This is not much of an insight. Other than that, most lawyers are not capable of assessing opsec risk.
- mindslight 9y ago
  Oooh prison. From what I understand, most revolutions usually involve people just dying. Granted, the customary prize is obtaining power for yourself, rather than spreading most of it around by creating a new decentralized Schelling point. At any rate, don't you think it's a bit useless to tell someone determined to obviate the government to go ask a government agent for advice?
ceejayoz 9y ago
> We can ignore legal issues by operating extrajurisdictionally and anonymously. That's what the Silk Road folks thought. The feds can screw up a million times. You only have to do it once.
- the_stc 9y ago
  You're right, opsec is stressful! That's why the core team's plan is to get the system running and then hire people to handle interactions. We will focus on things in the background. The core team will only use high-latency-methods like email. That reduces our opsec footprint very much. And our contingency plans will enable another team to pick things up to restore from backups und continue operating.

KGIII 9y ago

> It may sound crazy ... I don't offer an opinion on your business methods, recovery methods, or even the morality. Instead, I point out that you're going to go to prison. As noble as you think your cause, they most absolutely will not care. Also related: I'd not count on jury nullification. You do what you've got to do, but you are going to prison if you follow up on this plan. There are a few things one shouldn't play with; firearms, nuclear weapons, and the SEC. If you're okay with long term incarceration and fiscal penalties that could bankrupt Bill Gates, knock yourself out. If you can be tied to your online messages declaring intent, it's really going to make for an angry judge. I've seen angry judges, they remind me of honey badgers. Seriously, I highly recommend you seek legal council from a qualified legal professional licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Morality and consumer complaints aren't actually things the SEC care about. They are only marginally less aggressive than the IRS.

QAPereo 9y ago
Prison will be unfortunate, but it's the felony record that will really end his professional life.
the_stc 9y ago
I never suggested morality will prevent a judge or jury. Just that doing fewer bad things results in fewer complains results in less likelihood of spending prosecutor effort on us. But probably when our share price hits $25+ we'll be big enough that someone will decide to go after us for real. If our opsec fails, I'll end up in prison, very probably. That's what contingency plans are for: the project can keep operating without me. Meanwhile that's going to take a ton of effort and time, so I can the project to a point where I'm not vital. Lawyers opinions are the same. No lawyer will advise their client to be the founder of an illegal enterprise. This is not much of an insight. Other than that, most lawyers are not capable of assessing opsec risk.
mindslight 9y ago
Oooh prison. From what I understand, most revolutions usually involve people just dying. Granted, the customary prize is obtaining power for yourself, rather than spreading most of it around by creating a new decentralized Schelling point. At any rate, don't you think it's a bit useless to tell someone determined to obviate the government to go ask a government agent for advice?

ceejayoz 9y ago

> We can ignore legal issues by operating extrajurisdictionally and anonymously. That's what the Silk Road folks thought. The feds can screw up a million times. You only have to do it once.

the_stc 9y ago
You're right, opsec is stressful! That's why the core team's plan is to get the system running and then hire people to handle interactions. We will focus on things in the background. The core team will only use high-latency-methods like email. That reduces our opsec footprint very much. And our contingency plans will enable another team to pick things up to restore from backups und continue operating.