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El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

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Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#171

Post by lostmsu »

throwaway129856 wrote: post #162

If bitcoin does become legal tender in El Salvador, does that mean when a US person spending/exchanging it there (or any where in the world) would not be subject to capital gains tax on the spend/exchange? Currently the IRS states that because bitcoin does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction, it is not a foreign currency. It is only considered a virtual currency and subject to capital gains reporting and…

I thought in US you pay the same capital gains tax on currency exchange sans some relatively small allowance for tourism.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#172

Post by rawtxapp »

auxym wrote: post #53
rawtxapp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, Bitcoin appreciated 300% YoY whereas the dollar is in a constantly depreciating cycle, I know which one I'd prefer.

Deflation is not something desireable in macroeconomics. It incentivizes hoarding cash instead of spending it on productive things (hiring people, capital investments to improve productivity, etc). Slow and steady inflation is a stated goal for most governments and central banks.

If that "productive thing" isn't productive enough to yield better than an asset that just sits there in a cold storage, I would argue it wasn't all that productive and/or efficient to begin with.

People will always spend for things they need, they'll also spend it for things they want, but the current fiat system is forcing to spend it just for the sake of spending it forcing over/pointless consumerism on everyone.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#173

Post by rawtxapp »

djrogers wrote: post #59
rawtxapp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically, Bitcoin appreciated 300% YoY whereas the dollar is in a constantly depreciating cycle, I know which one I'd prefer.

The difference is that the dollar doesn’t drop 30% of it’s value while you’re asleep - something BTC has done multiple times, including recently.

I'd even take ~99.99% daily drops (which is a great opportunity to harvest some capital losses btw) if it means I'll get 300% YoY and needless to say that has paid off very well so far.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#174

Post by SamBam »

derefr wrote: post #146
gbear605 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s fine as long as my job is willing to pay me in a constant amount of bitcoin and everything else I need to buy can be bought with bitcoin. If my salary is still in dollars, then what I can purchase for a day’s wages will vary hugely.

Presumably, in El Salvador, salaries would be denominated in BTC. That's the only thing that'd make any sense. (And, barring external regulatory force, it's very likely to be what a free job market where employees mostly spend BTC would move to doing.)

I don't see why they would be denominated in BTC, given that BTC will be legal tender alongside USD, and USD is a much more stable currency.

Making it a legal currency won't even force anyone to accept it. As far as I understand, it will simply mean that the government will accept payments in BTC.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#175

Post by rawtxapp »

eloff wrote: post #94
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USD has this little problem and it hasn’t even begun to manifest yet. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL

Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell. This has been happening since 2008 with no serious repercussions.

My car's "check engine" light has been on for a while now, but it still runs with no serious repercussions, guess I can ignore it. You see how that logic would be flawed?

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#176

Post by SamBam »

zapdrive wrote: post #105
antihero wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but imagine if you bought a beer for $4 and then next week the beer was actually worth $8 and the next it was worth $7 and then a few months later the beer was worth $50. The whole point of fiat is that it is stable and so you aren't fucking yourself by exchanging it for consumables.

Oh are we back to "Bitcoin is unstable" FUD. I missed the memo. I was still going with the "Bitcoin is bad for environment" FUD. I also loved the "blockchain good but Bitcoin bad" FUD while it lasted, that one was fun.

This is a great way of arguing, you've now listed three things bad with BitCoin. Wait, which side are you arguing?

If you wanted to add more things to your list, try "the majority of people buy it because they hope someone else will buy it for more in the future."

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#178

Post by milchek »

rawtxapp wrote: post #28

Even though the market hasn't really reacted to this news (which I suspect is due to the fact that it's proposed/didn't happen yet), this is one of the most bullish news in a very long time in my opinion (even more bullish than companies buying into it). I suspect this will start the domino effect of countries slowly, but surely adopting BTC. It'll probably be the smaller countries first where they don't have great c…

The market did react. BTC was down and then turned around on the hourly that this was announced? Or am I missing something?

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#179

Post by atweiden »

noahadavis wrote: post #154
Geee wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That argument isn't true. Deflationary currency can destabilize governments, not the economy. Econonomies fail because they're run by incompetent governments, who spend more than they can afford. Bitcoin is not guaranteed to be deflationary. It's deflationary when the economy is growing. It's inflationary when the economy is shrinking. Deflation will slow down economy, and inflation will accelerate economy. It's a st…

Does making governments less stable really not make economies less stable?

It would seem so, yes. But I disagree with the GP’s premise: claiming economies rise and fall based on monetary policy alone is like claiming the Roman empire fell because they debased their currency. It’s a contributory factor, but certainly not the only one.

We’d need to assess the merit of anarcho-capitalism vs collectivist democracy to understand whether disempowering governments would in fact decrease economic stability.

Re: El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender

#180

Post by _delirium »

lostmsu wrote: post #171
throwaway129856 wrote: post #162

If bitcoin does become legal tender in El Salvador, does that mean when a US person spending/exchanging it there (or any where in the world) would not be subject to capital gains tax on the spend/exchange? Currently the IRS states that because bitcoin does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction, it is not a foreign currency. It is only considered a virtual currency and subject to capital gains reporting and…

I thought in US you pay the same capital gains tax on currency exchange sans some relatively small allowance for tourism.

Yes, if you realize a profit on forex trading, you do have to report it as a capital gain.
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