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South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

reuters.com

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Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#11

Post by dmichulke »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #10
smaili wrote: post #8

> Australia’s central bank governor Philip Lowe warned on Wednesday the fascination with the assets felt like a “speculative mania.” Just curious, what is it about speculation that has govs so worried? It’s quite clear at this point Bitcoin has grown far too large and most are now speculating on its value as a store so what benefit is there to step in, attempt to regulate it, and risk its undoing? To me, I’m reminded…

If non-professional investors start putting their life savings into Bitcoin and it crashes, the government can't just say "though break, you will starve on retirement"

Why can't they? Surely they can indebt every person with accumulating govt deficits (currently 62k in the US) so what's different?

https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_per_capita_public_debt

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#12

Post by indubitable »

JetSpiegel wrote: post #10
smaili wrote: post #8

> Australia’s central bank governor Philip Lowe warned on Wednesday the fascination with the assets felt like a “speculative mania.” Just curious, what is it about speculation that has govs so worried? It’s quite clear at this point Bitcoin has grown far too large and most are now speculating on its value as a store so what benefit is there to step in, attempt to regulate it, and risk its undoing? To me, I’m reminded…

If non-professional investors start putting their life savings into Bitcoin and it crashes, the government can't just say "though break, you will starve on retirement"

I think this almost certainly is not the reason. You can take something as simple as lotteries to show this. Lotteries specifically target and exploit lower income individuals who we can say are probably not 'professional investors.' And they're huge money. In 2016 $80.55 billion was spent on lottery tickets in state lotteries in the US. [1]

That's hundreds of dollars per person if each and every adult in the US bought exactly an equal share of all lottery tickets. In reality only x% of people play and the distribution is going to he heavily distorted. Lotteries are a major drain on society, but government's love the 'free' money. So we have them.

[1] - https://www.statista.com/statistics/215265/sales-of-us-state...

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#13

Post by toomuchtodo »

dmichulke wrote: post #11
JetSpiegel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If non-professional investors start putting their life savings into Bitcoin and it crashes, the government can't just say "though break, you will starve on retirement"

Why can't they? Surely they can indebt every person with accumulating govt deficits (currently 62k in the US) so what's different? https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_per_capita_public_debt

Because those people vote.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#14

Post by indubitable »

smaili wrote: post #8

> Australia’s central bank governor Philip Lowe warned on Wednesday the fascination with the assets felt like a “speculative mania.” Just curious, what is it about speculation that has govs so worried? It’s quite clear at this point Bitcoin has grown far too large and most are now speculating on its value as a store so what benefit is there to step in, attempt to regulate it, and risk its undoing? To me, I’m reminded…

Let's be enormously speculative and consider what might happen if cryptocurrencies do not collapse. The implications of this are interesting. They would end up being a worldwide asset that hedges against pretty much everything except worldwide economic collapse. That's sounding like the makings of the next reserve currency. What would be the implications of this for nations that currently benefit from the current world reserve currency? What would be the implications of economic vessels like national bonds and other treasuries that nations rely on to borrow money?

It would also all but entirely nullify a major chunk of government power and control. If a nation is unhappy with the economic direction of their country they can inflate or deflate the monetary supply, manipulate national holding rates, and more. Or take 'offensive economics.' If a nation wants to attack an individual, group, or even another country assets can often be frozen. And we haven't even gotten into the implications this would have on the international banking system.

It's funny in a way. You just don't know if you're on the doorstep of a complete shift of era in economics, or if you're just watching another boom bust cycle. One's certainly much more likely than the other, but if I had a major vested interest in one outcome over the other - I'd certainly be looking to take proactive action to try to ensure it.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#17

Post by TeMPOraL »

dmichulke wrote: post #11
JetSpiegel wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If non-professional investors start putting their life savings into Bitcoin and it crashes, the government can't just say "though break, you will starve on retirement"

Why can't they? Surely they can indebt every person with accumulating govt deficits (currently 62k in the US) so what's different? https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_per_capita_public_debt

Because a) this debt at least pretends to pay for the comforts of their lives like infrastructure, security - and in some countries - education and healthcare; and b) national debt does not work the same way a private individual's debt works.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#18

Post by derefr »

josephagoss wrote: post #16

Edit: ok not 100% sure of the solution, but I think that there should be a way for the government to stop people putting their life savings into Bitcoin.

It'd be annoying if restricting "investment" into cryptocurrency also restricted the ability to use a cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. Sure, stop people from buying $10k of a coin and holding it. But hopefully don't restrict people from buying $5 of it to immediately send to someone. (Though I'm honestly not sure how you would be able to legally have one without the other.)

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#19

Post by __warlord__ »

josephagoss wrote: post #16

Edit: ok not 100% sure of the solution, but I think that there should be a way for the government to stop people putting their life savings into Bitcoin.

This, in fact, goes against what Cryptocurrencies represent and what scares me the most is that people, in this case governments, are trying to regulate the new with the old. Remember, innovation always win.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#20

Post by [deleted] »

derefr wrote: post #18
josephagoss wrote: post #16

Edit: ok not 100% sure of the solution, but I think that there should be a way for the government to stop people putting their life savings into Bitcoin.

It'd be annoying if restricting "investment" into cryptocurrency also restricted the ability to use a cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. Sure, stop people from buying $10k of a coin and holding it. But hopefully don't restrict people from buying $5 of it to immediately send to someone. (Though I'm honestly not sure how you would be able to legally have one without the other.)

[deleted]
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