Even while approval of a Bitcoin ETF seems increasingly likely, Federal and State agencies are stepping up their unrelenting attacks on the crypto space. The IRS, the US Treasury, and the SEC are just a few of the regulators taking positions that are unfavorable to digital assets but which could push many crypto projects to extinction.
Much of their concerns center around the ability of criminals to use cryptocurrencies when breaking the law. Money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorist financing are at the top of the list, with some lawmakers considering directly prohibiting digital assets. The risks from such regulatory changes weigh on the market for each digital asset because a prohibition by lawmakers could drive down the value of each asset, potentially to zero.
In the midst of these uncertainties, $JTC is a coin you should know about because it is uniquely positioned to address many of the regulatory concerns. Unlike other digital assets, $JTC incorporates decentralized protocols that bridge the blockchain to state and federal courts. As a result, private owners and government officials can involve judges to ensure that laws are followed on-chain.
Let’s look deeper at the regulatory landscape and explore how $JTC offers holders protection.
The Messy Crypto Regulatory Landscape
The cryptocurrency regulatory landscape is constantly evolving. The United States holds the most significant influence on the market, making it the most crucial geographic jurisdiction. Following close behind are the European Union (EU) and major Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries.
Regulatory Risk in the US
Regulator moves in the United States, primarily via the SEC, heavily influence the market. The SEC is currently headed by Gary Gensler, who is widely regarded as an enemy of the crypto community due to his anti-crypto bias.
The SEC has been keen to label most crypto assets as securities based on the framework in SEC v. W.J. Howey framework. The agency has had a great deal of success pushing its positions and striking fear into the hearts of investors. The result has often been periods of extreme market volatility.
The price action of $XRP is a prime example of how regulatory scrutiny can destroy the value of a cryptocurrency. When the SEC announced it was suing Ripple Labs for allegedly offering $XRP as an unregistered security, the token’s value plummeted, causing massive losses for many investors. It took years after that for the case to play out in court, with the SEC’s case being partially dismissed.
Other concerns include compliance under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and sanctions by the United States Treasury. The BSA requires companies that broker cryptocurrency to register and collect a great deal of KYC/AML (“know your customer”/“anti-money laundering”) information from their clients. Decentralization often makes it impossible or highly difficult to comply. The same is true of sanctions laws. Often, the government lists $BTC and $ETH accounts belonging to sanctioned individuals, which must be blocked from transacting.
Nevertheless, the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks lack any method to enforce the sanctions requirements. This places the networks at risk of prohibition and regulatory enforcement actions, which could devastate the value of the digital assets those networks support.
Crypto Regulation in the EU
The EU arguably leads the way in creating a clear regulatory environment for crypto and web3 companies. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) is a comprehensive regulation designed to create a consistent regulatory framework across all EU member states. MiCA categorizes cryptocurrencies into three groups:
- Payment tokens: These are crypto-assets designed to facilitate payments.
- Asset-referenced tokens: These are crypto-assets pegged to a real-world asset, such as a commodity or a fiat currency like stablecoins.
- Market tokens: These are crypto-assets that do not fall into the other two categories. These are expected to be heavily scrutinized and looked at on a case-by-case basis.
Some have welcomed the MiCA as a solid attempt to create a clear regulatory structure for crypto in the EU. Still, others have pointed out that it’s vague in some areas and potentially overreaching in others. Currently, the MiCA has not been implemented, leaving the European Union in a situation similar to that of the United States.
Crypto Regulation in China
China was once the Bitcoin mining hub of the world, and as the world’s second-biggest economy, its regulatory stance is critical to the market. However, China has issued a blanket ban on crypto within its national borders, and its regulatory crackdown is believed to have contributed to the 2022 bear market. By contrast, easing China’s position on some or all digital assets could increase values sharply.
Jurat, $JTC, and the Regulatory Hedge
Jurat is a unique protocol for enforcing the law in decentralized networks. It allows blockchain nodes to access official courts to enforce transactions that comply with the court’s orders. For example, if coins are stolen from a user, the blockchain can automatically comply with a court order to return the coins, all without involving any intermediaries. The ability to follow court orders gives cryptocurrency regulators important tools they need to enforce the law.
Jurat was incorporated into the JTC blockchain to form a new branch of Bitcoin. As a result, the native coin, $JTC, fully interfaces with official courts, allowing users to freeze coins in dispute and recover coins in case of theft/fraud, mistaken transactions, or lost private keys. JTC mirrors all BTC accounts as of its instantiation at Block Height 717808, which occurred on January 8, 2022. All BTC wallets received $JTC 1:1 with their $BTC at that time.
JTC retains Bitcoin’s core features, such as decentralization and privacy, but combines them with crypto consumer protection and court access for legal compliance. As a result, government officials can more readily enforce their regulations in JTC transactions, making them more hospitable to their legitimate needs. In other words, regulators need not have the same hostility towards $JTC as to many other cryptocurrencies.
$JTC’s Unique Use Cases
By incorporating a decentralized bridge to state and federal courts, JTC opens a host of use cases unavailable or not as valuable on BTC or other blockchains.
$JTC and On-Chain Legal Recourse
The $JTC coin offers a unique utility for any serious commercial use case: legal recourse. Parties who want to enter into commercial transactions require access to legal enforcement. Commercial parties cannot rely on their agreements without legal recourse, so they will not transact with one another. For example, a buyer needs to be able to go to court if the seller gives him a defective product. So, if the court cannot enforce legal rights in cryptocurrency, the commercial buyer cannot agree to use cryptocurrency to make payments.
Likewise, major commercial actors, like banks and public corporations, are custodians of other people’s money. They cannot afford to take risks that would cause an irretrievable loss in the event of fraud, mistake, or lost private keys. Most cryptocurrencies can never be recovered in those circumstances, but with $JTC, a court can effectively order the cryptocurrency to be recovered.
Consumers are often more willing to accept risks than big businesses are, but most consumers still have not adopted cryptocurrencies because of these risks. With $JTC, however, the blockchain connects federal and state courts, allowing consumers to sue hackers and scammers and recover their assets.
$JTC and JTC Ordinals
The JTC Ordinal is a new type of digital asset that offers crypto fraud prevention features and the capacity to incorporate legal documents directly into a token. For example, the copyright, commercial license, and royalty agreement for NFT art can be inscribed into the ordinal’s metadata during the minting process, giving all parties clarity on their rights in the NFT.
Likewise, in the event of a dispute, the owner can use the court bridge to enforce their rights in the token. Acourt can freeze the token until the required royalties are paid. And a collector can recover their NFT if it is stolen or lost through fraud.
The $JTC coin is used to mint JTC ordinals and as gas to trade them between users.
$JTC for Legal3 Attorneys and Permissioned Miners
Attorneys interested in Legal3 applications for blockchain can utilize $JTC in unique ways.. Firstly, $JTC gives them access to an ecosystem with on-chain legal tools so that they can use blockchain to create products and services for their clients. Secondly, licensed attorneys and law firms are welcome to complete the permissioned mining information request to apply to become miners who earn $JTC by maintaining the blockchain.
Final Thoughts on $JTC’s Future in the Uncertain Regulatory Landscape
Even though the crypto market is valued at well over $1 trillion and millions of people use the technology daily, regulators are miles behind the curve. Legal uncertainty plagues the market, and the most important economy, the US, is even more uncertain for cryptocurrency adopters than others around the world. $JTC offers regulators a familiar tool for enforcing the rules of their agencies and so will hopefully be perceived as friendly to their needs.
