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Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

corner.squareup.com

21–30 of 132 posts

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, Steve from Balanced here. Curious as to why you say 'sort of' for us: if it's that we're in beta, so is Stripe. (We're hoping to get out of beta in the near-ish timeframe.)

Last I saw, you accepted Bitcoins only from Coinbase accounts. Until I can directly pay with Bitcoins from my own wallet I consider that "sort of".

Ahh gotcha. Yes, we believe that's a pretty important distinction. Fair enough!

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#22
post #18

When Bitcoin's are converted to a fiat currency that's now a taxable event correct? That's when the gain or loss is "realized" So if you pay in Bitcoin and the platform/processor immediately converts it into $US to pay the merchant does that create a taxable event for the seller? I suspect people would like to pay in Bitcoin to a merchant who accepts and keeps it in Bitcoin so that a gain is not realized and no taxab…

I believe the taxable event is exchanging Bitcoin for something that isn't Bitcoin. Even if the merchant holds on to the Bitcoin, a gain has been realized.

Correct

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, Steve from Balanced here. Curious as to why you say 'sort of' for us: if it's that we're in beta, so is Stripe. (We're hoping to get out of beta in the near-ish timeframe.)

Last I saw, you accepted Bitcoins only from Coinbase accounts. Until I can directly pay with Bitcoins from my own wallet I consider that "sort of".

Wat? How can they consider that to mean "accepting Bitcoin"?

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#24

When Bitcoin's are converted to a fiat currency that's now a taxable event correct? That's when the gain or loss is "realized" So if you pay in Bitcoin and the platform/processor immediately converts it into $US to pay the merchant does that create a taxable event for the seller? I suspect people would like to pay in Bitcoin to a merchant who accepts and keeps it in Bitcoin so that a gain is not realized and no taxab…

What the merchant does with the bitcoin doesn't effect wether the transaction is taxable to you. Check with you accountant, but I'm thinking you'll have to account for and pay a tax on any gains in your bitcoin's value at the time you spend it. Assuming I'm correct, it is a taxable event anyway.

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#26
post #20

When Bitcoin's are converted to a fiat currency that's now a taxable event correct? That's when the gain or loss is "realized" So if you pay in Bitcoin and the platform/processor immediately converts it into $US to pay the merchant does that create a taxable event for the seller? I suspect people would like to pay in Bitcoin to a merchant who accepts and keeps it in Bitcoin so that a gain is not realized and no taxab…

Only for transactions over 600 USD, aiui.

[deleted]

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#27
post #20

When Bitcoin's are converted to a fiat currency that's now a taxable event correct? That's when the gain or loss is "realized" So if you pay in Bitcoin and the platform/processor immediately converts it into $US to pay the merchant does that create a taxable event for the seller? I suspect people would like to pay in Bitcoin to a merchant who accepts and keeps it in Bitcoin so that a gain is not realized and no taxab…

Only for transactions over 600 USD, aiui.

The 600 USD threshold is a requirement for form 1099 reporting and is completely unrelated to capital gains tax. Capital gains have no minimum threshold, buying something for $1 and selling it for $2 is a taxable event.

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#28
post #19
post #3

How is Square/Stripe getting around the issue that most exchanges wait for 6 confirmations before a transaction is accepted? Are they ignoring the risk of a double spend and just going ahead once a transaction has propagated to the network for mining?

Probably. Unless you're working in concert with major mining power, it's still hard to engineer a successful double-spend. And by pushing their preferred observed transaction to major pools, Square could help ensure a double-spend can't succeed, or get a near-instant indication that a competing transaction exists. (I don't know if they're doing this.) It also looks like most 'Square Market' purchases take more than a…

Makes me wonder - would we ever get to a point where it's in Square/Stripe/Coinbase/et. al's interests to contribute mining power to help their own transactions along? Or is that pretty much taken care of by transaction fees?

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#29
post #28
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably. Unless you're working in concert with major mining power, it's still hard to engineer a successful double-spend. And by pushing their preferred observed transaction to major pools, Square could help ensure a double-spend can't succeed, or get a near-instant indication that a competing transaction exists. (I don't know if they're doing this.) It also looks like most 'Square Market' purchases take more than a…

Makes me wonder - would we ever get to a point where it's in Square/Stripe/Coinbase/et. al's interests to contribute mining power to help their own transactions along? Or is that pretty much taken care of by transaction fees?

I suspect they'd just strike deals with existing mining specialists, if and when necessary, perhaps even via out-of-band (non-Bitcoin-transaction) exchanges of considerations.

Re: Square Market Accepts Bitcoin

#30
post #8
post #3

How is Square/Stripe getting around the issue that most exchanges wait for 6 confirmations before a transaction is accepted? Are they ignoring the risk of a double spend and just going ahead once a transaction has propagated to the network for mining?

> Are they ignoring the risk of a double spend and just going ahead once a transaction has propagated to the network for mining? After a majority of the nodes have seen a transaction it becomes relatively safe to accept it as valid before 6 confirmations. You wouldn't want to do that for high value transactions, but I think it's fine up to a couple BTC (read: $1000 or less). The Mycelium wallet implements transaction…

You can't determine what the majority of the nodes thinks in this way because of Sybil attacks. Otherwise we wouldn't need proof of work as a consensus mechanism.

Mycelium's "transaction confidence" feature is well intentioned but it is a disaster waiting to happen.

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