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Yeah, it's probably better to just not pay taxes. It is going to be difficult for the IRS to prove that you even own the Bitcoins with money laundering service

Yeah, it's probably better to just not pay taxes. It is going to be difficult for the IRS to prove that you even own the Bitcoins with money laundering services and the ease of creating new accounts. As more merchants accept Bitcoin, I will try to convert to fiat currencies only when absolutely needed.

jhaglund 15y ago
^^this sums up my impression of the bitcoin community. Bitcoin is backed by what? Oh, right, scarcity.
- waterlesscloud 15y ago
  I'm watching Bitcoin along two axes- One, how much value is notionally stored in the system. At this moment, it's roughly $51.4 million (6.192M bc at exchange of 8.3 usd), which is starting to be interesting. An order of magnitude higher, and it's definitely interesting. Two, what can actually be bought with the currency? This is still lagging considerably. It's almost entirely trinkets or not-very-interesting services that have no marginal cost to the producer. No one has put much faith in Bitcoin by putting their livelihood on the line with it, and that makes it less interesting. There's a fledgling trade in controlled substances via Silk Road, but having that as a primary example makes me considerably less interested. Not only am I not in the market for such, growth in this area virtually guarantees the ultimate failure of Bitcoin due to government action. The right approach to grow Bitcoin as an actual currency which is truly exchanged for goods and services is to offer something that people really want exclusively through Bitcoin. The extreme example would be the iPad. One producer, very high demand. Dollars (and thus value) would flood into the Bitcoin system with something like that. But where's the incentive for the producer? If you've got something people want, why would you offer it only via a currency no one uses? There's your core dilemma, and why it's all t-shirts and domain registrations.
  - cruzer 15y ago
    You are correct about the facts, but you have your prospective worng. Bitcoin's are not just handed out to people. They have to be made first which take time and money. Bitcoin also needed to build the network infrastructure first. Bitcoin has only been capable of being used for about 2 months. Now with a more realistic prospective you can see that bitcoin has come a Vary long way, and is sky rocketing in the currency exchange market's. Bitcon has more then quadrupled in value in the pas 30 days.
  - cruzer 15y ago
    "...virtually guarantees the ultimate failure of Bitcoin due to government action." Owe ya, I sure do miss "Bittorrent".. boy do you remember that. Too bad the Gov shut it off. Also, "why would you offer it only via a currency no one uses?" You would not that would be vary stupid. That is why Apple take EUR, USD, and so on....
    - throwaway32 15y ago
      bittorent does not require the "real world presence" that bitcoin exchanges do. While its true it can really never be completely shut off, its very easy to target the major exchanges that an efficient and liquid economy needs. If you are suddenly unable to covert bitcoins to real money, they arnt worth much.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

jhaglund 15y ago

^^this sums up my impression of the bitcoin community. Bitcoin is backed by what? Oh, right, scarcity.

waterlesscloud 15y ago
I'm watching Bitcoin along two axes- One, how much value is notionally stored in the system. At this moment, it's roughly $51.4 million (6.192M bc at exchange of 8.3 usd), which is starting to be interesting. An order of magnitude higher, and it's definitely interesting. Two, what can actually be bought with the currency? This is still lagging considerably. It's almost entirely trinkets or not-very-interesting services that have no marginal cost to the producer. No one has put much faith in Bitcoin by putting their livelihood on the line with it, and that makes it less interesting. There's a fledgling trade in controlled substances via Silk Road, but having that as a primary example makes me considerably less interested. Not only am I not in the market for such, growth in this area virtually guarantees the ultimate failure of Bitcoin due to government action. The right approach to grow Bitcoin as an actual currency which is truly exchanged for goods and services is to offer something that people really want exclusively through Bitcoin. The extreme example would be the iPad. One producer, very high demand. Dollars (and thus value) would flood into the Bitcoin system with something like that. But where's the incentive for the producer? If you've got something people want, why would you offer it only via a currency no one uses? There's your core dilemma, and why it's all t-shirts and domain registrations.
- cruzer 15y ago
  You are correct about the facts, but you have your prospective worng. Bitcoin's are not just handed out to people. They have to be made first which take time and money. Bitcoin also needed to build the network infrastructure first. Bitcoin has only been capable of being used for about 2 months. Now with a more realistic prospective you can see that bitcoin has come a Vary long way, and is sky rocketing in the currency exchange market's. Bitcon has more then quadrupled in value in the pas 30 days.
- cruzer 15y ago
  "...virtually guarantees the ultimate failure of Bitcoin due to government action." Owe ya, I sure do miss "Bittorrent".. boy do you remember that. Too bad the Gov shut it off. Also, "why would you offer it only via a currency no one uses?" You would not that would be vary stupid. That is why Apple take EUR, USD, and so on....
  - throwaway32 15y ago
    bittorent does not require the "real world presence" that bitcoin exchanges do. While its true it can really never be completely shut off, its very easy to target the major exchanges that an efficient and liquid economy needs. If you are suddenly unable to covert bitcoins to real money, they arnt worth much.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]