Bitcoin Is an Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitcoin Is an Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State

#101

Post by mrb » Mon, Apr 08, 2013, 4:44 PM UTC

dcc1 wrote: post #90

mrb wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong graph. You need to look at the volume of transactions, not at the number of transactions: http://blockchain.info/charts/estimated-transaction-volume-u... As you can see, the graph is similar to the market price.

@MRB transaction volume is dependant on the price isnt it? If price goes up so does the volume?

Yes and this is my point. If the exchange rate doubles while the volume remains the same (say 100k BTC per day), then the economy is effectively increasing. It means people are spending twice the USD despite merchants halving their BTC prices (they generally index their BTC prices depending on the exchange rate).

Re: Bitcoin Is an Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State

#102

Post by Andrew_Quentin » Sun, Apr 14, 2013, 6:59 PM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #25

FTA: Taxation: How do governments collect taxes on transactions in Bitcoin? The answer is they don't, and they can't. Though many Bitcoin fans don't quite realize it, Bitcoin's radical transparency could in fact be a tax-collector's wet dream. Every public-key, balance, and transaction is public. A government that wants to coopt and efficiently tax Bitcoin could announce the following policy, based on the idea of 'ta…

That is a bit like having to register your bank account with the government. The opposition I can envision to that is considerable.

Moreover, what happens if everyone decides to ignore it? After all downloading copyrighted material without a license is a crime.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State

#103

Post by BrokenPipe » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 8:09 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #96

BrokenPipe wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

public keys are only available after you make a transaction and usually the bitcoin clients create a new address for each new transaction such that the public key for the account which actually holds the coins is never revealed.

The constant generation of new balnace-holding addresses on demand, that are not typically shown to the user unless they dig, is an arbitrary choice of the Bitcoin-QT software, not a requirement of the protocol. In the protocol/blockchain, you can see every public key that has ever received any balance. You can have all your 'change' returned to a small set of pregenerated/registered addresses. So the government just…

again, that's not true. Only addresses from which transfer have been made from have their public key revealed in the blockchain, until then, there is no need for it.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Existential Threat to the Modern Liberal State

#104

Post by mehwoot » Mon, Apr 15, 2013, 11:23 AM UTC

johnvschmitt wrote: post #30

gojomo wrote: post #25

FTA: Taxation: How do governments collect taxes on transactions in Bitcoin? The answer is they don't, and they can't. Though many Bitcoin fans don't quite realize it, Bitcoin's radical transparency could in fact be a tax-collector's wet dream. Every public-key, balance, and transaction is public. A government that wants to coopt and efficiently tax Bitcoin could announce the following policy, based on the idea of 'ta…

Excellent points. This would, of course, lead to any individual, or entity, simply keeping 2 sets of keys. One legit, taxed, & one gray/untracked. That way, they could play either the clean or dirty markets. But, they still couldn't launder, or cross between dirty & clean easily. They'd still need a collaborative cleaner in between... Such cleaners are easily built in the model you mention. (Out of country, with hand…

They'd still need a collaborative cleaner in between... Such cleaners are easily built in the model you mention. (Out of country, with hands in both clean/dirty channels.)

Not really, the government could just say any out of country transfer needs to be done through a registered service. So if your aunt wants to give you money, has to go through "Bit Western Union" or whatever.

Shame, because then its destroying almost free transfers as well. Essentially nothing is gained, but the government can easily track everything.