A common narrative of cryptocurrencies presents them as "trustless," decentralized, and autonomous systems. The "trustlessness" is meant to suggest lack of need for third-party verification in blockchain technologies, but the term has been somewhat conflated with broader connotations of "trust."...

This discussion paper considers the implications of declaring cryptocurrencies as securities, in light of the recent SEC ruling that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities but smaller, recent ICOs are. Its discussion suggests that, the policy implications notwithstanding, the SEC ruling is...