instead of talking to a lawyer, i think you have to talk to an accountant. there's nothing wrong with what you're describing, so you dont have to be worried about going to jail or getting sued. the real question is how much tax will you pay and how is it declared. you specifically said "donation". is it really a donation or are they paying you for services/goods and you intend to make profits?

if the former, it is declared as income and the whole thing is subject to income tax. HOWEVER, you can use the schedule A to deduct certain costs in lieu of the standard deduction if it's greater. keep in mind that you cannot deduct more than you made. i dont know if the cash you give back is deductable, but your server hosting bill definitely is, and probably whatever you pay developers to build/maintain the site.

if the latter, you can look at the schedule C. i'm much less familiar with that, though i need to learn more about it.

if you insist on not talking to an accountant yet, i suggest you look up those irs tax forms. or better yet, just make your site. maybe nobody will pay for your fg, then you dont have to worry about it.

This post was edited by carteblanche on Sep 21 2013 01:15pm

There must be some kind of boundaries you can't cross, like gambling or letting people use it to gamble. I.e. if JSP forum gold could be traded back for real money, the whole lottery aspect of it would be a form of gambling, wouldnt it?

Yeah, it wouldnt be gambling, just used for transactions.

Would like citations to go along with that. Will send some fg if you prove it.

You are going to have to do some extensive research on patent laws if you want to venture these waters safely

For the mean time, they're unregulated

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/08/14/us_senate_bitcoin_probe/

Wow, created recently too. I recently had a run in with a patent for an invention I submitted to a contest, found a way 'around' it though thank goodness.





thanks for info

http://www.fincen.gov/financial_institutions/msb/

As far the US is concerned, these guys make the rules, which are quite simple: If you, the currency issuer, are offering to sell that currency for government sanctioned currency (legal tender from any UN aknowledge nation as far as I can tell), you need to be a MSB. People trading it for legal tender in your back is none of your concern as long as you make it clear in your rules and the EULA you have your users approve that you forbid such practices.
Corollary to this rule, if you make yourself into a Market Maker, i.e. offering a platform that allows for any currency to be traded for legal tender class currencies, you need to be a MSB, whether you're issuing any of this currency or not.

Don't quote me on this but I think these rules don't apply to commodities, i.e. gold, silver and the like. Those depend on other regulatory bodies entirely.

I have no idea about regulations outside of the US. In a general fashion, no one but the US gives a shit about virtual currencies. Most of these, Bitcoin included, aren't even legally acknowledged as currency outside of the US.

The FinCen 2013 move on virtual currency doesn't count as regulation, only as guidance, however I'd think twice about opening a business that falls under their criteria and skip the MSB licensing. Big gov and all, you know. Keep in mind that getting a MSB is a Herculean task.

This post was edited by flyinggoat on Sep 24 2013 10:26pm

Increadibly insightful, tyvm.