Let me just say for the record, I really don't think it is the subject matter of this thread which is causing some of the negative responses. The community, and especially masternode operators, deserve to know what kinds of regulatory risks might exist and this is a perfectly acceptable topic to discuss. The problem is when the discussion is pointed with generalized statements or assumptions that seem very much like they are intended to evoke fear in the audience -- that's the reason for the troll marks.



Note how the OP phrases things:

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Masternodes are coinjoin servers. Masternodes are doing mixing. what will masternode owners do when they start being charged with illegal money laundering? Asked and answered with the thread title "Masternode owners going to jail?"

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The reality is more complicated than that. It has not been established whether an applicable law might consider the masternodes to be "doing" the mixing, or if the privatesend users are. Masternodes are similar to centralized coinjoin servers but that does not mean they would be treated the same as coinjoin servers under a law. In addition, the law is different from one country to the next -- this article discusses regulations in the Netherlands only. The extent of the regulations is unclear and there are still pending Dutch court cases.



This is something we need to be conscious about because any precedent that is set from the Netherlands could potentially manifest itself down the road in other jurisdictions. Which, to my understanding, is a big part of why the core team has already contracted with a law firm, so that masternode operators can be informed about what the law could mean for them and to guide both their personal decisions and also their masternode votes.



IF this turns out to become a real problem, then masternodes and the dev team will need to make some decisions about the best way to respond to the situation and move forward. Remember that the regulatory climate is out of our control. It is prudent to talk proactively about planning for different possibilities, whether that involves strengthening protocol-level privacy for masternodes, non-protocol-level privacy for masternodes, or changing something about the way we do mixing. But it is not a foregone conclusion where the governments are going to come down on this, and it's also not a foregone conclusion that MNOs would not be able to respond with anything other than selling or going to jail.



My 2 duffs --