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South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

reuters.com

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Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#91
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but people don't usually put their entire life savings into lottery. but may be they could with Bitcoins...

The data would beg to differ. You have to keep in mind the demographic makeup of the US. More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings - total. [1] Only 15% of Americans have more than $10k saved. Now take that $80 billion figure from the lottery. There are currently about 245 million adults in the US. About 49% of Americans play state lotteries. [2] Now let's do the math. That's $80.55 billion / (245…

Half of Americans have However, around 64% of Americans own their home [1]. How many of them are taking out HELOCs against their homes to buy lottery tickets? Once concern is people are taking out HELOCs for crypto speculation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_S...

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#92
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When a bubble bursts, it's not just about some people, but it brings down the whole economy. I can't believe people have already forgotten what CDO has done to this economy. Bitcoin & cryptos are financial weapons of mass destruction. Any responsible government ought to outright ban them all already.

> Bitcoin & cryptos are financial weapons of mass destruction. You need to explain this. Many of us just think it's a good replacement for gold and other precious metals. Is gold a "financial weapon of mass destruction"?

No, it's a "barbarous relic" in the words of Keynes, which is why it's not really used as currency any more. There are real reasons why the world went off the gold standard.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#93
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's a valid question. three reasons why bitcoin & crypto is NOT like gold and very dangerous. 1) limited supply: drives up price enormously. almost endless. minimal supply, infinitely increasing demand. depending on how far this will go it can potentially suck up all liquidity in the world. 2) no authority, no price stabilization, meaning extreme volatility that adds fuel to vol & price rise, 3) ease of access: an…

> 1) limited supply [...] 2) no authority [...] 3) ease of access But there must be something bad about it as well, right?

[deleted]

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#94
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thank goodness it’s impossible to ban crypto! No it's not. It may be hard to prevent all SK citizens from using cryptocurrencies as SK is a reasonably open society, but it would be straightforward to ban their use.

A ban won't stop crypto any more than it stops illegal drugs, prostitution, etc. That said, there would be an effect on the crypto markets if a handful of major nations took action. So the question I have would be: will they aim for the taxes (presumably allowing crypto trading), or for an outright ban?

I don't think law makers ever expect a law to stop a criminal behaviour. Making it more difficult (remove apps, shut down web sites) is likely to have some impact though.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#95
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For an “infrastructure” that burns dozens of terawatts of power per year I would at least expect fast transactions, and yet...

MFW it takes up to two weeks for an international wire transfer to clear. MFW banks are closed on Sundays.

There's this thing called the internet which lets you make transactions even when your bank is closed. Also, for most purposes it's safer to do credit card purchases than international wires.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#96
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's inconsistent that the govt "saves" you from losing your life savings yet indebts you with a nontrivial amount plus lifelong interest rate payments. Put as question: how much would you like legally binding financial advice by someone up to their ears in debt?

I don't owe $60k because the USG has $60k in per capita debt. Nobody's coming to me for that. The mental gymnastics you need to go through just to equate the two is exhausting. "Legally binding" and "advice" are mutually exclusive concepts. And it's 100% possible you can give great financial advice and be in debt. "Max out your 401k and a Roth IRA" is great advice in 99% of circumstances. Just because someone is payi…

I can see where @dmichulke is coming from, nobody is going to come to your door looking for that money in the fashion you describe but you are paying for it one way or another. Who knows, maybe if the debt levels weren't so high the US would be able to afford a healthcare system like the rest of the developed world.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#97
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but unlike drugs or prostitution, aggressive police action doesn't harm any underprivileged classes, but rather a bunch of affluent tax evaders.

Do you think most people owning cryptocurrencies are affluent tax evaders?

The 1000 or so majority owners probably are.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MFW it takes up to two weeks for an international wire transfer to clear. MFW banks are closed on Sundays.

How many international wire transfers does a typical person make in their life?

I've made a few, but ironically they were all to the bank accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges when I was funding my account.

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The data would beg to differ. You have to keep in mind the demographic makeup of the US. More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings - total. [1] Only 15% of Americans have more than $10k saved. Now take that $80 billion figure from the lottery. There are currently about 245 million adults in the US. About 49% of Americans play state lotteries. [2] Now let's do the math. That's $80.55 billion / (245…

Half of Americans have However, around 64% of Americans own their home [1]. How many of them are taking out HELOCs against their homes to buy lottery tickets? Once concern is people are taking out HELOCs for crypto speculation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_S...

I think that stat means 64% of Americans don't rent.

Homeowner is not the right term for most of that 64%, because most have a mortgage balance, which when subtracted from their Edit: The stat actually means 64% of homes are occupied by their owner. But "owner" is still misleading, as the article linked to above says:

"However, homeowner equity has fallen steadily since World War II and is now less than 50% of the value of homes on average."

Re: South Korea considers cryptocurrency tax

#100
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto is changing the world. I've made money off of bitcoin, but I've done so responsibly, like I suspect must people on HN have, by only betting what I could easily afford to lose. By going mainstream that sort of reasonable/safe approach has ended, and people are now happily risking their entire savings. This will certainly be great for some people, but it also has the potential to be absolutely devastating. In Am…

Nothing of value is being created, at least not of the magnitude of the apparent “value” of the bubble, so making money off bitcoin is by definition getting money from someone else. Clearly it cannot work forever, and those who are left holding the bag won’t be happy.

You mean like stocks and all other derivatives and equities including the US dollar and other currencies on Forex. Smart.
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