Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, how the 2020 presidential race could become a referendum on global trade and life for HBO after Game of Thrones.

The first, the case to decide crypto. So yesterday, U.S. securities regulators filed suit against Kik, a Canadian chat app company

that also is the creator of a digital token called KIN.

So Kik is the company, KIN is the token.

And I'm being very careful here in calling it a digital token instead of a cryptocurrency,

because the definition of currency is very much

what's at issue here. So, KIC sold around $100 million worth of Kinn a couple years ago via

what's called an initial coin offering, kind of like an IPO, but buyers get these tokens instead

of stock. Now, as far as Kicks concerned, it didn't need to register this sale with securities

regulators because it believed KIN wasn't a securityS concerned, it didn't need to register this sale with securities regulators,

because it believed KIN wasn't a security. Instead, it calls it a currency because its primary

purpose is to buy and sell digital goods within the KIC ecosystem, and currencies, by

definition, aren't securities. The SEC, though, disagrees. Now, the two sides have been going back and forth

for months, but it became clear last week that negotiations weren't going too well with Kik announcing

a crowdfunding campaign for pending legal costs. And then came yesterday's SEC enforcement action

with a lawsuit that my colleague Kia Kukleacheva called scathing. Why it matters is this case

could determine whether

digital tokens are currencies or securities, not just for kick, but for others. And that is something

on which there has been widespread disagreement, both within the crypto industry and within the

government. No matter which way the case plays out, it could result in common ground rules

that help the crypto industry mature and possibly

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