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No, no and no. Sweden and Denmark are taxing bitcoin capital gains so I don’t see a single reason why a malicious government cannot confiscate them. The beautif

No, no and no. Sweden and Denmark are taxing bitcoin capital gains so I don’t see a single reason why a malicious government cannot confiscate them. The beautiful story of “digital gold” is just a story. To me it seems more like a digital crap honestly and I can’t wait for the day when it finally disappears. Sadly it will be in any case too late given the massive amount of energy and co2 thrown away..

sobani 8y ago
The Netherlands is taxing (my) Bitcoin holdings as well. The way they do that, is by depending on my honesty. The reason I'm honest is because I don't want any troubles when I'm going to buy my lambo (no, not serious). Afaik Bitcoin is handled the same as cash: they don't really check how much you have, but they will come down hard when you start spending more than you should be able to.
beagle3 8y ago
> so I don’t see a single reason why a malicious government cannot confiscate them. Technically, how can they confiscate them? They cannot. They can tax them 100% or 150%, true. And they can imprison or kill their taxpayers if they with. true. But if I managed to cross the border from (hypothetically) malicious Sweden to (hypothetically) benevolent Liberia, with the private key in my head, what can they do about it? They can, and money governments in the past have, deny me passage with anything of value but my clothes - it is often the case that anything of value gets taken at the border (hell, it is likely the US will take anything above $10,000 on your person unless you are very well equipped legally). But there is no technical way for them to do that with bitcoin, and for that matter to even know that you carry the private key of a $1B wallet in your head, unless they have researched it before hand -- which, at last for now, is hard to do for the entire population. > To me it seems more like a digital crap honestly and I can’t wait for the day when it finally disappears. Art pieces that go for >$1M feels like analog organic crap. But the value is determined by the market, not but our feeling. > Sadly it will be in any case too late given the massive amount of energy and co2 thrown away.. I agree bitcoin is likely wasting significant energy and co2, but ... Have your ever seen a rough estimate of the costs (in resources / energy / co2) that our existing monetary system imposes? It is certainly not free, and e.g. in a lot of places more than 1% of real-estate / energy is consumed by financial entities, many of which have usefulness to society arguably comparable to bitcoin. I have looked for a study as such and has not found one. (sidenote: some estimates are that 1% of global energy use goes towards clothes drying. probably provides even less value to society than bitcoin)

sobani 8y ago

The Netherlands is taxing (my) Bitcoin holdings as well. The way they do that, is by depending on my honesty. The reason I'm honest is because I don't want any troubles when I'm going to buy my lambo (no, not serious). Afaik Bitcoin is handled the same as cash: they don't really check how much you have, but they will come down hard when you start spending more than you should be able to.

beagle3 8y ago

> so I don’t see a single reason why a malicious government cannot confiscate them. Technically, how can they confiscate them? They cannot. They can tax them 100% or 150%, true. And they can imprison or kill their taxpayers if they with. true. But if I managed to cross the border from (hypothetically) malicious Sweden to (hypothetically) benevolent Liberia, with the private key in my head, what can they do about it? They can, and money governments in the past have, deny me passage with anything of value but my clothes - it is often the case that anything of value gets taken at the border (hell, it is likely the US will take anything above $10,000 on your person unless you are very well equipped legally). But there is no technical way for them to do that with bitcoin, and for that matter to even know that you carry the private key of a $1B wallet in your head, unless they have researched it before hand -- which, at last for now, is hard to do for the entire population. > To me it seems more like a digital crap honestly and I can’t wait for the day when it finally disappears. Art pieces that go for >$1M feels like analog organic crap. But the value is determined by the market, not but our feeling. > Sadly it will be in any case too late given the massive amount of energy and co2 thrown away.. I agree bitcoin is likely wasting significant energy and co2, but ... Have your ever seen a rough estimate of the costs (in resources / energy / co2) that our existing monetary system imposes? It is certainly not free, and e.g. in a lot of places more than 1% of real-estate / energy is consumed by financial entities, many of which have usefulness to society arguably comparable to bitcoin. I have looked for a study as such and has not found one. (sidenote: some estimates are that 1% of global energy use goes towards clothes drying. probably provides even less value to society than bitcoin)