lab10

When someone issues Electronic Money it needes a licence. The exact regulation can be found at: https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20007043
Cryptocurrencies are not seen as e-cash, because there is no central coordinator.
Furthermore the is no need for a licence, if the monetary value is traded within a company or small group (e.g. Styrrion)

Important: If someone gets crytotokens for fiat money, someone needs to hold the fiat money if it is not immediately considered as payment for something. Electronic vouchers or prepayed Mobile Payment (NFC based)cause no problem.

If we want to top-up a token system from a bank account, then we could do that automatically via the bank and there is no carring about the payment towards the token issuer in the background. That would be feasable for big issues - e.g. City of Graz.
If we have a Graz-Coin which is usable for all kind of purchases, then the Euros must be kept in a trust until someone is cashing in and the Euros are immediately transfered to the bank account of the recipient.

Electronisches Geld

I created a test token on Ropsten.

In Mist->Wallet->Contracts->Custom Tokens links here.
Account needs to be connected in order to deploy.

Ropsten Testnet:
Token contract address: 0x6363af576cbc122283070173fb3412e084efe712
Instantiate:

o = eth.contract([{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"name","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"totalSupply","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"_from","type":"address"},{"name":"_to","type":"address"},{"name":"_value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"transferFrom","outputs":[{"name":"success","type":"bool"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"decimals","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint8"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"standard","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[{"name":"","type":"address"}],"name":"balanceOf","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[],"name":"symbol","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"_to","type":"address"},{"name":"_value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"transfer","outputs":[],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"_spender","type":"address"},{"name":"_value","type":"uint256"},{"name":"_extraData","type":"bytes"}],"name":"approveAndCall","outputs":[{"name":"success","type":"bool"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[{"name":"","type":"address"},{"name":"","type":"address"}],"name":"allowance","outputs":[{"name":"","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"inputs":[{"name":"initialSupply","type":"uint256"},{"name":"tokenName","type":"string"},{"name":"decimalUnits","type":"uint8"},{"name":"tokenSymbol","type":"string"}],"payable":false,"type":"constructor"},{"payable":false,"type":"fallback"},{"anonymous":false,"inputs":[{"indexed":true,"name":"from","type":"address"},{"indexed":true,"name":"to","type":"address"},{"indexed":false,"name":"value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"Transfer","type":"event"}])
i = o.at("0x6363af576cBC122283070173Fb3412E084eFE712")

Transfer a token (to my status.im account):
i.transfer("0x069c1194f34fc83c17c7d6584c7fcf630868b1d9", 1)
(works only if eth.defaultAccount is set)

Can be added to Mist custom tokens as described here (however I can't select it in send view for unknown reason, pending question in Gitter.

There's also a Token Factory.

Cryptocurrencies are not seen as e-cash, because there is no central coordinator.

How do you know? As far as I see it's not directly mentioned in that law.
And then there's the question if an Ethereum token still qualifies as crypto-currency. It's not inherently decentralized like mined coins - except if explicitly made so by the controlling smart contracts (e.g. how is issuance controlled? how can the rules be changed (smart contract upgrade) etc.)
Lots of grey imo.

Also I think the distinction between currency and voucher is also potentially blurred. Depends on how strict you are in enforcing the one-time use rule.

How much of some more radical ideas (see Dezentrales_Geld) we can apply here?
I guess we should at least make sure the coin is prepared for later upgrades in such ways :-)

Decentralized Capital just announced their IDEX Exchange on Ropsen Testnet:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/5nro31/decentralized_capitals_exchange_idex_is_live_on/

Dietmar Hofer wrote:

Cryptocurrencies are not seen as e-cash, because there is no central coordinator.

How do you know? As far as I see it's not directly mentioned in that law.
And then there's the question if an Ethereum token still qualifies as crypto-currency. It's not inherently decentralized like mined coins - except if explicitly made so by the controlling smart contracts (e.g. how is issuance controlled? how can the rules be changed (smart contract upgrade) etc.)
Lots of grey imo.

Also I think the distinction between currency and voucher is also potentially blurred. Depends on how strict you are in enforcing the one-time use rule.

How much of some more radical ideas (see Dezentrales_Geld) we can apply here?
I guess we should at least make sure the coin is prepared for later upgrades in such ways :-)

In my interpretation - cryto is excempt from beeing E-Money through:
(3) Kein E-Geld im Sinne dieses Bundesgesetz ist:
2.ein monetärer Wert, der für Zahlungsvorgänge verwendet wird, die über ein Telekommunikations-, ein Digital- oder IT-Gerät ausgeführt werden, wenn die Waren oder Dienstleistungen an ein Telekommunikations-, ein Digital- oder ein IT-Gerät geliefert werden und mittels eines solchen genutzt werden sollen, vorausgesetzt, dass der Betreiber des Telekommunikations-, Digital- oder IT-Systems oder -Netzes nicht ausschließlich als zwischengeschaltete Stelle zwischen dem Zahlungsdienstnutzer und dem Lieferanten der Waren und Dienstleistungen fungiert (§ 2 Abs. 3 Z 12 ZaDiG).

What a sentence.
That seems however to apply only to digital goods and services.

Also see Gibling (local currency for Linz)