A central feature of the equity crowdfunding legislation in the JOBS Act is the concept of a "funding portal," a Kickstarter- or Rockethub-like platform, if you will, through which all equity crowdfunding must take place. (Unlike deals restricted to accredited investors, issuers would not be permitted to sell directly to the crowd.)
Funding portals would be regulated, but the implication was that funding portal compliance would not be nearly as complicated as broker-dealer registration and compliance.
That was the idea.
As the nascent equity crowdfunding industry sorts through how to organize itself, more and more participants are signaling they have come to the recognition that being a funding portal won't get them where they want to be. So they are aligning with broker-dealers, or planning to go ahead and go the extra hundred yards and become broker-dealers themselves. Apparently, it is dawning on everyone that funding portal registration will not be simple, and that funding portal regulation will be highly restrictive as to what a funding portal can do.
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