What is the legal meaning of &quot;I certify that XYZ&quot;
<p>What are the legal implications of clicking acknowledge below the following statement: &quot;By clicking acknowledge below, I certify that I am not a resident of XYZ.&quot;</p>
<p>The context for this, if it helps, is in the cryptocurrency space. There are a lot of initial coin offerings that are required to restrict participation based on residency. In addition to IP-based blocking, they typically require participants to &quot;certify&quot; their non-residency in prohibited countries. What is the legal meaning of &quot;certify&quot; in this context? For example, if one were to certify a false statement, would it be a crime?</p>

<h2>It means that you state the fact and represent that it is true</h2>
<p>If you make a material false representation in the formation of a contract and the other party enters the contract in reliance on that, then that contract is void. This would appear to be the case here.</p>
<p>When a contract is void neither party can enforce their rights, nor are they required to perform their obligations under that contract. The practical effect for a cryptocurrency broker is they have your money and your crypto coin and you can’t sue to get either back.</p>

<p>In this context, &quot;certify&quot; is essentially a synonym for &quot;state&quot; or perhaps &quot;formally state&quot;.</p>
<p>If the statement is false, there may be legal consequences depending on the exact circumstances.</p>
<p>If the statement is made &quot;under penalty of perjury&quot; then a false statement could in theory be prosecuted as an act of perjury. In practice, people ave very rarely indeed prosecuted for falsifying such statements.</p>
<p>If the statement is knowingly false, and another party relies on such a statement to his or her detriment, and the false statement was made with the intent that such detriment would result, then it <strong>might</strong> be fraud, depending on the detailed circumstances. But the word &quot;certify&quot; would not convert a non-fraudulent statement into a fraudulent one.</p>
<p>Indeed if the statement were edited to change the word &quot;certify&quot; to the word &quot;state&quot; there would probably be no change of legal effect.</p>

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