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I think an interesting data point is that the bitcoin faucet guy had to implement an out-of-band authentication system because people were anonymously double-di

by po 15y ago

I think an interesting data point is that the bitcoin faucet guy had to implement an out-of-band authentication system because people were anonymously double-dipping with new, trivially easy to generate id's. You can prove you paid a transaction, but you can't prove who it actually went to. Much of the legal issues would be taken care of if it was coupled with a government-accessable authentication system linking bitcoin accounts to tax id's. I know that sounds bad to a lot of bitcoin fans but it would eliminate the money-laundering issue that the existing system has. That would leave bitcoin as a more predictable/more convenient gold standard and it would no longer compete with US currency. Although, now that I think about it, the problem is that the fact that you have to pay US taxes in USD is really what gives the Greenback it's strength/weakness. The government could still affect the conversion rate which would give it economic controls. This could be mitigated if it was an internationally accepted currency.

Groxx 15y ago
>You can prove you paid a transaction, but you can't prove who it actually went to. You can prove which account it went to, and a person can prove they control an account. (edit: well, you can send to an IP address, but that's dangerous - it can be intercepted - and almost totally pointless - accounts don't identify their owner) As to the tax setup, I've given that some thought. If your employers gave the government the public key of the accounts they payed out to, and the people associated with them, the government would have perfectly accurate income reports. The same way they have now. Switch to an entirely income-based taxation (can also add property taxes, etc, but not really sales tax) and their calculations would be drop-dead easy. Getting people to pay is another issue, but that's no different than it is now. If someone withdraws their money and runs, they have to be caught before they can be forced to pay.

by po 15y ago

Groxx 15y ago

>You can prove you paid a transaction, but you can't prove who it actually went to. You can prove which account it went to, and a person can prove they control an account. (edit: well, you can send to an IP address, but that's dangerous - it can be intercepted - and almost totally pointless - accounts don't identify their owner) As to the tax setup, I've given that some thought. If your employers gave the government the public key of the accounts they payed out to, and the people associated with them, the government would have perfectly accurate income reports. The same way they have now. Switch to an entirely income-based taxation (can also add property taxes, etc, but not really sales tax) and their calculations would be drop-dead easy. Getting people to pay is another issue, but that's no different than it is now. If someone withdraws their money and runs, they have to be caught before they can be forced to pay.