The answer should begin with a principle that is neither new nor unique to crypto: the federal securities laws regulate legal and economic relationships, not technology. The inquiry is therefore not whether blockchain or smart contracts are involved, but whether they create, eliminate, or materially alter the legal and economic relationships that the securities laws regulate. Much of the federal securities laws can be understood as a response to the need for investors to trust intermediaries with continuing authority over their assets. That does not make the securities laws less relevant. Sometimes software will recreate the same intermediary relationships that have long been subject to the federal securities laws.