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1/One area of the SEC's framework statement addresses assets that are intended to be #virtualcurrencies. This part of the "economic realities" section under the "expectation of return" prong suggests that an asset that "can immediately be used to make payments in a wide variety 
2/of contexts, or acts as a substitute for real (or fiat) currency,” is less likely to satisfy the expectation of return prong. The Framework elaborates on the definition, "it is possible to pay for goods or services with the digital asset without first having to convert
it to another digital asset or real currency" and "the digital asset actually operates as a store of value that can be saved, retrieved, and exchanged for something of value at a later time." What kind of non fiat currency assets look and act like this?
4/What's immediately usable, and (b) stores value ? Gift cards, gift certificates. #Virtualcurrencies issued by a Marketplace Facilitator, like perhaps Amazon, that allows you to spend their asset, for example, the Amazon Coin, as soon as issued on their platform for goods
6/So, unless there’s a pre-arranged deal for use in its unconverted state at the time of sale, this factor looks bad for sellers of assets intended to be used as a virtual currency but without a pre-existing marketplace.
7/What about store of value? The language used: “actually operates as a store of value that can be saved, retrieved, and exchanged for something of value at a later time” doesn’t say that the value needs to be stable, but suggests persistence of value over time-
8/an instrument may technically be a “store of value” if the value on DateX is 10000 and the value on Date X+20 is 2, but in that case it’s a crappy store of value. Surmise the point is that the value held should be mostly stable over time. Volatility creates the Investability
9/Surmise the point is that the asset value should be more or less stable over time. Does this suggest that assets that use active market price peg management or algorithmic stability to maintain value look less like a security? Yes, for the expectation of return prong. But...
10/ Because stability is created by either (a) a central actor that manually maintains a value peg by proactive market management or (b) a complex system of buying/selling instruments to maintain their value both of which require a central actor to keep price stability.
11/This conduct by a controlling party probably satisfies the entrepreneurial efforts of others prong of Howey, and thus, you perhaps avoid looking like an asset providing a return, and look like an asset relying on entrepreneurial efforts of others. However, peg maintenance
12/ and algorithmic price stabilization require active trading, perhaps on market places, and or include a system/actor that dynamically adjusts supply and demand, which means price fluctuation, and thus, volatility creates investability...
13/ It seems that the SEC wants virtual currencies that are frozen at a value & immediately useful. What kind of instrument has a market, stable value & doesn’t require management to maintain its value? Casino chips. Chuck E Cheese tokens. Amazon Coins, Gift Certificates, etc…
