Shutting down Bitcoin because of illegal drug trade is like banning cryptography because of terrorism: It is not solving the problem and it is not a valid reason for stopping innovation.
Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
31–40 of 69 posts
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#32The market doesn't seem to be worried
http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg10zvztgSzm1g10zm2...
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#33There's nothing governments hate more than watching people get along fine without them.
Just as there's nothing that gives conspiracy theorists more reinforcement than a government crackdown.
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#34There's always been an untraceable currency sold and traded globally. Gold. You can't trace it back to the origin, as long as it's been melted down. The only thing is, you can't easily transport it. And lets be honest, how many people are willing to accept gold? This is scary stuff for governments all over the world, not because you can buy drugs or use the currency for illicit reasons, it's because -- taxes and bypa…
"You can't trace it back to the origin, as long as it's been melted down."
Allow me to introduce you to the concept of Isotope Fingerprinting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope_fingerprinting
So even melting doesn't necessarily prevent tracing.
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, the snide counter to condescension, &etc.
Let me add some nitpicking to complete the obnoxious HN trifecta. The proper ortographic representation of etc is &c. In fact, that's where the ampersand comes from (think ligature form of Et ).
I appreciated this, actually. It's funny how just being in a negative tree gets you downvoted by association--good thing it's just karma, eh?
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#36Isn't the time and effort of the government better spent in legalizing the drug trade and earning revenue in the form of taxes rather than trying to fight a war that is obviously unwinnable?
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry shareme, but this is pretty much a perfect example of a bad HN comment. hmm so how will they outlaw bartering? Unjustified logical leap. But than again the derivative traders Misspelling. they are allowed to make free money and steal Nonsensical accusation against a group of people engaged in an activity which I'm not sure you fully understand. without any change.. Incomprehensible. Please think before you type…
As far as I can tell, the suggestion that they might as well soon go about outlawing bartering is a sound one. Neither bartering nor bitcoins use US minted currency, both cannot be traced unless the participants volunteer that information, and both arguably can be used for "tax evasion". I'm not trained in tax law, but it wouldn't really surprise me if legally citizens were mandated to report barters on their taxes.…
As far as I can tell, the suggestion that they might as well soon go about outlawing bartering is a sound one. Neither bartering nor bitcoins use US minted currency, both cannot be traced unless the participants volunteer that information, and both arguably can be used for "tax evasion". I'm not trained in tax law, but it wouldn't really surprise me if legally citizens were mandated to report barters on their taxes.
The IRS, unsurprisingly, is way ahead of you on this one
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html
and in fact you are obliged to report bartering income on your US taxes. Bartering, of course, remains perfectly legal, as long as you report it on your taxes.
Of course the IRS doesn't bother to enforce this on small-scale bartering. But if you set up a large-scale bartering network then they would. If you went one step further and threw in an intermediary system of "credits" so that transactions could take place indirectly (instead of swapping pigs for goats you swap pigs for credits and credits for goats) then they'd consider that as minting currency and take a rather dim view.
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#38Isn't the time and effort of the government better spent in legalizing the drug trade and earning revenue in the form of taxes rather than trying to fight a war that is obviously unwinnable?
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#39Isn't the time and effort of the government better spent in legalizing the drug trade and earning revenue in the form of taxes rather than trying to fight a war that is obviously unwinnable?
> earning revenue in the form of taxes
What good are taxes for asset forfeiture beneficiaries and the prison guards' unions?
Re: Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency
#40Isn't the time and effort of the government better spent in legalizing the drug trade and earning revenue in the form of taxes rather than trying to fight a war that is obviously unwinnable?
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