First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
171–180 of 194 posts
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
(For Americans) If you earn income in bitcoins, you still have to pay tax in USD. If you earn income in Euros, you still have to pay tax in USD. Bitcoin does not absolve you of your tax obligations, even thought it might help you to evade them.
But do you pay based on what the bitcoin was worth in USD when you made the transaction, or when you pay your tax bill. Which exchange does that valuation come from?
I am pretty sure it is at the time of the transaction. This is no different than buying or selling stock.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but only via the gift tax and after you've reached the gift tax exemption, which is pretty big.
It's not that big. It's $14,000 per person per year.
But it's not strongly enforced.
Actually it'd be very interesting if it was. A lot of 20-somethings in New York get more than that from their families.
Enforcement could put an end to many unpaid intern jobs.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Fed controls reserves, not net financial assets. The net result from a fiscal injection and a financial composition shift is not the same at all.
Exactly how do they differ? My impression is that the net result (depreciation of cash assets) is the same.
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Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#175Unpopular opinion of the day: bitcoin is real money, and the government will regulate it and control it as such. In my opinion, the end-game is this: bitcoin addresses are taxable, with occasional tax agents spot-checking large accumulations of bitcoin to determine if said addresses fall within their jurisdiction. Bitcoin has the unusual ability to have a very tight trace on where a given virtual coin goes: that just…
I like paying tax, I use bitcoin for other reasons, who does not like to have schools and hospitals and the other things that come with taxes ?
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know why this should be unpopular, except among people who see the Internet as a new Wild West. The basic advantage of Bitcoin, that its controlled by an algorithm rather than a central bank, exists whether or not financial regulations apply to Bitcoin. Does it destroy the utility of a crypto currency for exchanges and processors to be required to detect e.g. money laundering?
> the Internet as a new Wild West I thought that idea died, was buried, exhumed, and reburied back in 1996.
No, that meme lives. It just refashioned itself. Look carefully at HN + Reddit to see its traces.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#177Unpopular opinion of the day: bitcoin is real money, and the government will regulate it and control it as such. In my opinion, the end-game is this: bitcoin addresses are taxable, with occasional tax agents spot-checking large accumulations of bitcoin to determine if said addresses fall within their jurisdiction. Bitcoin has the unusual ability to have a very tight trace on where a given virtual coin goes: that just…
I think in the short term at least, this is beneficial for Bitcoin, if it's recognized as money, and businesses and "normal" people start trusting to use it without fearing repercussions from the government, as long as they "follow the rules". This could lead to more centralized exchanges, which again is good in the short term - the more the merrier, so people can easily get Bitcoin with their dollars. But I think th…
Right now we're mid-game with btc. It appears that the implicit strategy by the authorities is to treat it as a functioning currency. Fine then; that is good for btc's long-term success. It also implies that the tax-man is coming. btc is not going to live as wildcat currency used by the fringe, untaxed and destroying economic supremacy (That is to say, I disagree with the idea that btc will destroy the economic system that some people favor).
Also, the blockchain is 100% public. So if you can tie a btc address to a real person (perhaps via tax returns requiring you to declare your virtual currency addresses), then the entire pseudo-nymousness of btc goes out the door.
Things to think about.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Fed controls reserves, not net financial assets. The net result from a fiscal injection and a financial composition shift is not the same at all.
Exactly how do they differ? My impression is that the net result (depreciation of cash assets) is the same.
Increasing the amount of available reserves doesn't really transmit to inflation as it's constrained by demand for loans. The loanable funds model which says that increases in reserves leads directly to increases in loans doesn't really apply under a floating-rate non-convertible currency regime.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody can force opensource code maintainers to build anything. More importantly, nobody can force all exchanges to run any particular code; exchanges can exist in any political jurisdiction.
Whilst way you say may technically be true, the government could just declare this: Each person must publicly declare the bitcoin addresses that they hold. Any legitimate business accepting payment in bitcoins can only receive bitcoins from other registered addresses, else they are black flagged and no longer a registered address. Now, your average business and the banks are not going to circumvent these rules. The B…
The ZeroCoin extension to BitCoin has already been developed, but not implemented, to take care of this exact problem. ZeroCoin effectively destroys Bitcoins only to have them recreated in a new address with no connection to the originating address. These "transactions" have zero traceability (provided there are a few of them happening each block), thus the name ZeroCoin.
Re: Every important person in BitCoin just got subpoenaed by NY financial regulators
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the government steps in to "de-anonymize" bitcoin, then people will simply begin using tumbling services. People don't use those services right now because there's no impetus to. But as soon as the trust inherent to the public ledger is violated by creating a large-scale effort to track the flow of bitcoin, then people will counter that action with tumblers.
See my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6204187 . It's pretty straightforward for the Government to come up with a scheme to defeat tumbling services. Just make it mandatory to only accept payments from whitelisted addresses. Banks and your average business are not going to go all cypherpunk and circumvent such laws.
Meet Zerocoin, the cryptocoin extension adding zero traceability transactions for the low low cost of a few extra bytes per transaction.