@nickabouzeid Read everything published by Coin Center. Trying to predict what "lawyering for blockchain" will look like in 20 years, i imagine, would be akin to time traveling back to 1998 and predicting what "lawyering for the internet" would look like today. In 1998 I had dial-up internet, a portable sony walkman CD drive, and no call waiting. Who could've predicted I'd now have a handheld device that can concurrently handle multiple phone calls, take high quality pictures, and stream music globally?

@albarvaro It depends! (Classic lawyer answer, I know.) It really depends what kinds of challenges a person wants to tackle, where, and with what type of organization. At the end of the day, a good amount of hiring happens via personal/professional connections, so never underestimate the value of cultivating real relationships and staying in touch with folks in your network. That said, most firms, agencies, and companies are also going to appreciate well-ranked schools and experience in well-recognized firms. In brief: strong interpersonal network + high quality work.

@soonaorlater I started in August 2014. In late spring of 2014, I moved to SF and briefly ran my own law practice (tons of respect for founders - running a business is difficult!). I wanted to find and work with clients involved in bitcoin projects. I had spoken to a Coinbase recruiter earlier in the year, but at the time I lived in Washington, DC. A few weeks after I moved to the Bay Area, the recruiter noticed my updated location on LinkedIn and reached back out... the rest is history!

@soonaorlater In some ways, the legal landscape is evolving almost as quickly as the tech, and so on one hand, that seems rather frenzied. On the other hand, most people overlook the fact that the law is *always* in business of applying relatively static rules to new fact patterns. So it's not surprising to me that the law is doing what it always does when it applies to one token project or another, but I think that surprises some people.

@Harry-Garrett I think we'll continue to see what we've seen up until now: we'll continue to see regulators publish guidance as to how the laws under their care apply to new applications (as we've seen by FinCEN, the IRS, the SEC, and the CFTC), and then to the extent that the regulators find people breaking the rules, we'll continue to see enforcement actions (as we've seen by all the same regulators). Each piece of guidance and enforcement actions provides a bit more clarity for folks building new projects, because it can provide greater certainty as to how particular laws will apply in a specific scenario.

@eriktorenberg It's possible we'll see changes with the BitLicense, since that's up for renewal this year, but I don't think we'll see any massive changes to any substantive US regulations. See my response here: https://www.tokendaily.co/p/deep-dive-with-sarah-hody-attorney-perkinscoiellp-formerly-coinbase#comment-1307

@eriktorenberg Many people in the token ecosystem seem to forget that what ultimately sits on the other end of a regulatory framework, are people. In my experience, regulators (i.e., the PEOPLE on the other side of a phone call, email, video conference, etc.) are far less scary and more interested in learning and finding sensible outcomes than they are in bringing down hammers - particularly when you engage proactively with a constructive and collaborative perspective.

@shloky My favorite is early-days internet. "Token-based _X_" is the new "Web-based _X_."

@Dan-Ellis Hire a lawyer! :) It's always a matter of facts and circumstances, so while usability at the time of launch is one critical factor, a project's marketing / white paper / public statements / etc. can also impact Howey analysis.

@spencernoon I wouldn't predict the regs themselves will change much at all (see: https://www.tokendaily.co/p/deep-dive-with-sarah-hody-attorney-perkinscoiellp-formerly-coinbase#comment-1307) It's possible we'll see (more) enforcement actions against companies that have sold tokens that represent securities. For exchanges, we'll likely evolving and robust vetting procedures to ensure that tokens listed do not represent securities, and/or we could enforcement actions if an exchange was facilitating sales of an unregistered security.

@Ruben-M-Perez I see the full spectrum. I definitely have some very sharp peers, and I meet both people hoping to make a specialization and people taking a wait-and-see approach. My guess, though, is that most lawyers aren't on that spectrum at all, and they'll only get pulled into it if/when a client asks them to.

@jamiepitts I don't like the term "smart contract," because the programmatic execution of a function, based on pre-defined factors or terms, is neither very smart nor does it inherently make a legal contract. That aside, I think legal contracts (drafted by lawyers) will increasingly refer to certain terms that will, in fact, be executed among the parties via smart contract (for example, X will pay Y upon Y's completion of X).

@intjr I think the general pulse is "interested," with a desire to learn and come up with sensible policies. One of the cool things about blockchain tech is that a number of regulatory goals are often built right into new platforms (transparency, security, fraud prevention, irreversibility, etc.). Of all the efforts I've seen on the hill, I really liked the proposal for a tax exemption on de mininmus crypto-asset transactions.

@intjr @SHodyEsq Do you foresee big banks trying to coopt regulators/legislators through lobbying in favor of regulatory regime that favors bank-based and developed technologies and protocols? Do you think the inherent nature of decentralization may handicap crypto community vis-a-vis Financial Services Roundtable and the like?

@bentossell Delete the app and forget about it! I'm a HODLer, and unless you're developing with bitcoin or day trading, you probably ought to just hold some as part of a reasonably diversified portfolio of assets. Beyond that, maybe give some away or use it to pay your friends back for things, so that you can increase exposure. Your friends will probably thank you later, if they also hold onto it for awhile.