Killing crypto
Sorry for the harsh wording, but it seems many people fail to understand the broader implications for this case.
Should the court side against LBRY, it would literally put the future of all cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, in question.
The simple fact that the case of Securities and Exchange Commission v. Howey Co., which was decided more than 70 years ago by the Supreme Court, is still being used a deciding factor in courts today, should give us a sense of how powerful common law is.
Judges generally take their guidance from previous rulings on similar cases, so a negative ruling here could make it easier for them to kill off any project which utilizes crypto tokens. DeFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smart contracts, and just about everything except possibly stablecoins would potentially be on the chopping block.
The large caveat here is geography. In many countries, innovators like LBRY are free to thrive, even if they do need to take special care not to accept U.S. users.
So try as they might, this won't stop the revolution. It will simply chase it offshore. Web 3.0, the internet of value, is at this point inevitable. Even LBRY will move forward, regardless of the outcome of this case.
Perhaps someday soon, U.S. citizens will need to use a virtual private network (VPN) in order access large swathes of the internet, just like the Chinese do. Oh, wait...It's already happening.
