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US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

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31–40 of 187 posts

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#31

Where's the problem? Can someone explain? It's not like this bans owning Bitcoin.

Your grandpa dies and you inherit his estate. There's a bunch of boxes and you go thru a lot of them until you get to one of his war stuff. It is too much and you put it aside. Years later, you are prosecuted under this law because it turns out he had a hardware wallet in that box. That's the problem, and it doesn't matter if you think it's not something that is likely. Truth of the matter is, you committed no crime.…

[deleted]

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm waiting for the law to get so vague, they accidentally cover in-app/in-game currencies with legislation that requires it to be regulated.

I suspect money laundering is already there.... they don't care, its all selective prosecution anyway. The purpose of the laws is not to stop crimes, but to make so many things a crime that if you resist tyranny they can discredit you and jail you.

Any game that has goods that can be exchanged by players is a potential for illegal money transfers even without the ability to get money back out of the game. For example, there's a shadow market for both CounterStrike weapon skins and Team Fortress 2 items. Here's how it works: I have a big supply of items. They have an assigned value. You give me money and the name of the receiving party. I send some items to a broker across the planet. They receive the goods, take their big, and give the rest in cash to the receiving party. We have now just made a wire transfer inside of TF2.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#33

Where's the problem? Can someone explain? It's not like this bans owning Bitcoin.

Your grandpa dies and you inherit his estate. There's a bunch of boxes and you go thru a lot of them until you get to one of his war stuff. It is too much and you put it aside. Years later, you are prosecuted under this law because it turns out he had a hardware wallet in that box. That's the problem, and it doesn't matter if you think it's not something that is likely. Truth of the matter is, you committed no crime.…

Not sure why you think you're banned, I can see your comment.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#34
post #6

Good old Dianne Feinstein, always protecting me from the scary terrorists.

And freedom. Remember, freedom is scary. To the downvoters: Seriously it is. For example: Can you imagine what would happen if we allowed people to have bars? People are expected to DRIVE to a BAR and DRINK! Can you imagine what people would do then, if we legalized the existence of bars? People would drive home drunk! Banning bars is obviously the right thing to do!

I appreciate the spirit (I am no DF fan either!) but in the state of New Jersey if you serve alcohol at a party, you are responsible if you allow an inebriated guest to drive off and they mow down people.

If this is about gun control, there is no reason to panic. Your guns are safe.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#35
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh did you notice that huge tax cut they just gave the ultra-rich? They gotta start digging through the couch to pay for it ;)

The US has the most progressive taxation system among all developed nations. Nothing about that fundamental progressiveness has changed due to the tax cuts. The top 20% are paying 95% of all income taxes, that will continue. For example, the US is radically more progressive on taxation than all of Scandinavia: https://taxfoundation.org/how-scandinavian-countries-pay-the...

The (conservative) Tax Foundation article totally ignores that Norway also has an individual wealth tax (0.85% on assets above about USD $179,000), which is quite progressive compared to income taxes. They also have higher capital gain and dividend tax rates than the US (which the article mentions).

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your grandpa dies and you inherit his estate. There's a bunch of boxes and you go thru a lot of them until you get to one of his war stuff. It is too much and you put it aside. Years later, you are prosecuted under this law because it turns out he had a hardware wallet in that box. That's the problem, and it doesn't matter if you think it's not something that is likely. Truth of the matter is, you committed no crime.…

Not sure why you think you're banned, I can see your comment.

It appears flagged to me but I was able to see it before. Maybe it took a while to show up, so the user edited the comment to complain about Marxist moderation, unaware that it had not been removed by mods, causing the mods to remove it..?

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#38
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, bank secrecy is as dead as governments can make it, for obvious reasons. However, for cryptocurrencies, it's mainly exchange interfaces with meatspace currencies that are hard to keep private. If you use local wallets like Electrum, transact via Tor, mix thoroughly, and generally practice good OPSEC, your personas and their cryptocurrency can be as anonymous as you like. But only as long as you maintain compart…

So long as you never use your currency to buy anything you've got a great anonymous currency. Sounds very useful.

If a coffee shop accepts bitcoin, your transaction is effectively as untraceable as cash is today.

The more that people use bitcoin, the more useful it gets and the harder it is to stop.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you think you're banned, I can see your comment.

It appears flagged to me but I was able to see it before. Maybe it took a while to show up, so the user edited the comment to complain about Marxist moderation, unaware that it had not been removed by mods, causing the mods to remove it..?

It's flagged and dead, so you may need showdead on to see it, but it's still there.

AFAIK the mods never actually delete content from the site. I don't even know if they can.

Re: US Senate Bill S.1241 to Criminalize Concealed Ownership of Bitcoin

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as you never use your currency to buy anything you've got a great anonymous currency. Sounds very useful.

If a coffee shop accepts bitcoin, your transaction is effectively as untraceable as cash is today. The more that people use bitcoin, the more useful it gets and the harder it is to stop.

FYI, Bitcoin can't be used for coffee purchases anymore, due to throttling of transaction throughput, but Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum can.
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