Lets look at what rules and regs Zcash is subject too. Its not a simple question:
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considers most Crypto a commodity, and this position was upheld by a federal Judge in March. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) considers some Crypto a security, specifically ICO’s. The IRS treats all Crypto as a Security at the moment.
Each Crypto coin will eventually be labeled (via a legal case, likely a Class action lawsuit), either a Security (Think IBM, Google, Intel, and regulated by the SEC) or a Commodity (Think Oil, Gold, Cotton and regulated by the CFTC). Most will be determined by Case Law and the “Howy test” for a security, 1946 US Supreme Court.
So to be safe ZCashCo should try to follow both SEC and CFTC rules and guidelines until they are defined. The one significant difference that could tip Zcash over to the Securities side is the existence of ZcashCo. Bitcoin has been ruled a Commodity but has no central company behind the coin, unlike Zcash. Therefore, ZcashCo, Officers, developers, and Employees should follow SEC and CFTC rules in any public statements or opinions. As such, the clear statement of Zcash being “ASIC Resistant” and maintaining said “ASIC Resistance”, intentional or not, could eventually receive scrutiny by the SEC and or CFTC if these statements turn out to be false. While Zcash Company has smartly created the foundation to limit legal exposure to the Zcash company, it is not a perfect isolation. A foundation did not isolate Tezos and they currently have several Class Action Lawsuits.
If Zcash is deemed a commodity it still must abide by CFTC rules modeled after the SEC rules:
Final Rule 180.1
, which is modeled on Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b-5, broadly prohibits manipulative and deceptive devices and contrivances, employed intentionally or recklessly, regardless of whether the conduct in question was intended to create or did create an artificial price.
BTW: This also includes Volunteers AKA(Sean) as the USDL Fair Labor Standards Act forbids Volunteers to for-profit private sector employers. So in the case of a Class action suit, Sean would be reclassified as an employee, then any and all public statements made by him would fall under SEC and or CFTC rules.
Just a few case examples below: In each case the suit is about WHAT the organization said or promoted.
Tezos foundation and Tezos project:
[see Case Nos. 3:17-cv-6779-RS; 3:17-cv-6829-RS; 3:17-cv-6850-RS (all in the Northern District of California) and Case No. 6:17-cv-1959-ORL-40-KRS (in the Middle District of Florida)]
The plaintiffs alleged that because of an internal dispute between the Tezos founders and the Tezos Foundation that was established to conduct the Tezos ICO, the Tezos project was delayed and the futures price for the Tezos token fell, losing nearly 50 percent of its value.
Nano and key members of its core team:
See Alex Brola v. NANO et al., 1:18-cv-02049 (E.D.N.Y. filed April 6, 2018)
Brola alleges that he opened an account at BritGrail for the primary purpose of investing in and exchanging a cryptocurrency called XRB, upon investment solicitations and specific instructions and representations of safety and security made by NANO representatives. Id. at *2. Brola further alleges that NANO publicly promoted BitGrail as a safe and reliable place for XRB holders to stake and exchange their XRB, and XRB holders relied on that endorsement by NANO in choosing BitGrail as their exchange. Id.
Ripple Labs, XRP and Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse
See Coffey v. Ripple Labs, Inc, et al., CGC-18-566271 (Superior Court of California filed May 3, 2018)
According to the class action complaint, 20 billion XRP (20% of the total XRP supply) were given to the individual founders of Ripple with the remaining 80 billion XRP (80% of the total XRP supply) being retained by Ripple to sell to secure funds to be used for “company operations and [to] improve the XRP Ledger.” Statements made by Ripple blur the lines between Ripple Labs’ enterprise management business and XRP, efforts made by Ripple to list XRP on Coinbase and Gemini to increase the perceived value of XRP and limiting the supply of XRP available to the public to drive up prices.
Centra Tech, Inc., and the individuals involved in the Centra ICO:
see Rensel v. Centra Tech Inc., et al., 17-cv-24500-JLK (S.D. Fla.)
In this complaint, the plaintiff alleged that the sale constituted an unregistered offering and sale of securities. The complaint also accused the defendants of misleading investors about the nature of its relationship with Visa and MasterCard, as well as listing fake team members on its website.
There are many more examples. In the end each coin will be defined independently and via case law. As case law builds a foundation for cryto assets then the picture will gradually become more clear. Until then, expect many more class action suits in the cryto world.