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Despite Bitcoin being around for a decade, it's going to take computer experts, economists, and philosophers much more time to really start to understand what c

Despite Bitcoin being around for a decade, it's going to take computer experts, economists, and philosophers much more time to really start to understand what crypto actually is. In my opinion, crypto is something very new in human history and most people still haven't really wrapped their minds around what it actually is. Most people are still calling it "crypto-currency" and I think that's a very bad label. Crypto was invented as a digital currency and that's how most people conceptualize it, and the system taxes it as a security, but IMO it's better thought of as a technology platform. The biggest value of crypto isn't so much as a medium of exchange (though that's still very important) but as a distributed technology platform that enables things like smart contracts to run and the natural consequences of that like oracles. I don't expect the current generation of politicians to understand what this means. Even a lot of very smart nerds are really just starting to understand what smart contracts can be used for and why that might be so important and the societal implications of oracles and other things like that. To me, taxing every single crypto movement is as foolish and destructive as taxing every HTTP request would be during the formation of the Internet.

plank_time 5y ago
It’s not new at all. It’s the exact equivalent of tulip bulbs in the 1600s. We’ve totally seen this before.
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  I don't know why people keep bringing this up every time, tulip mania lasted from 1634 to 1637 (just 3 years), Bitcoin has been in existence since 2009 and it's pretty clear it's here to stay now. Bitcoin's goal is to offer an alternative to government controlled currencies that's dependent on the whims of a few central bankers/politicians. It's not even remotely close.
  - adabyron 5y ago
    As assets go up, the more people scream bubble or tulips. As assets go down, the more people scream crash. I've found these to be great signals of who to avoid getting investment advice from.
  - logicalmonster 5y ago
    > I don't know why people keep bringing this up every time The psychology of the people so dead-set against crypto is very fascinating to me, especially on a forward-thinking technology forum. You'd think that people here would be the first to recognize the potential good that comes from things like smart contracts or other unique applications of crypto. We can't read minds of course, so this is just speculation from my own biased human perspective, but I think that people who are so virulently dead-set against crypto are IMO usually seething no-coiners who are mistakenly of the belief that they totally missed the boat on potential wealth and they're so butt-hurt about it that they want to prevent others from succeeding. Crab in a bucket mentality, so to speak. In my opinion, what those folks would do well to understand is that we're still very early. PS: Nothing personal against anybody is intended with the comments here, just want to comment on my opinion of peoples' general thought-processes, which is fascinating.
    - plank_time 5y ago
      Bitcoin is something that was created out of thin air. There’s nothing backing it except what people believe it’s worth. There’s no inherent value. Even baseball cards have an inherent value, ie, the cost of the paper that the card was created from. You can eat the card or you can burn it as tinder in the worst case. With a tulip bulb at least you can grow them and look at them You can also eat tulip bulbs. With Bitcoin you literally have nothing because it’s completely virtual. So people are speculating over the value of something that is just a mathematical calculation. Anything like that can change in a heartbeat. People can collectively decide that it has no worth and then you’re stuck with nothing. That’s what happened with tulip bulbs overnight. One week, people were buying houses with tulip bulbs and the next week they were worthless. And yes, I know the argument behind USD and it being a fiat currency. But I don’t subscribe to it because it has critical mass. We have seen the same thing over and over again in history with stuff like Bitcoin. Dotcom bust, housing bust, etc. I don’t believe Bitcoin will be anything different. When Bitcoin is actively being used as a currency and not speculation then that’s when I will change my mind. Until then it’s a fad that will eventually go to zero. I believe the US government and other governments around the world will ban its use and use terrorism and money laundering as the key reason. It will go to zero soon afterwards in my opinion.
- AlchemistCamp 5y ago
  Tulip bulbs aren't programmable.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > Tulip bulbs aren't programmable. But they're prettier to look at (or at least the tulips you grow from them are). Especially the mania ones, which had some kind of disease that made them brilliantly multicolored.
SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago
It's not treated like a stock (or other security) by the IRS. It's treated like a foreign currency. IE it's property, not a security. They do have a FAQ page[1]. [1] https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-on-virtual-currency-transactions https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/freq...

plank_time 5y ago

It’s not new at all. It’s the exact equivalent of tulip bulbs in the 1600s. We’ve totally seen this before.

rawtxapp 5y ago
I don't know why people keep bringing this up every time, tulip mania lasted from 1634 to 1637 (just 3 years), Bitcoin has been in existence since 2009 and it's pretty clear it's here to stay now. Bitcoin's goal is to offer an alternative to government controlled currencies that's dependent on the whims of a few central bankers/politicians. It's not even remotely close.
- adabyron 5y ago
  As assets go up, the more people scream bubble or tulips. As assets go down, the more people scream crash. I've found these to be great signals of who to avoid getting investment advice from.
- logicalmonster 5y ago
  > I don't know why people keep bringing this up every time The psychology of the people so dead-set against crypto is very fascinating to me, especially on a forward-thinking technology forum. You'd think that people here would be the first to recognize the potential good that comes from things like smart contracts or other unique applications of crypto. We can't read minds of course, so this is just speculation from my own biased human perspective, but I think that people who are so virulently dead-set against crypto are IMO usually seething no-coiners who are mistakenly of the belief that they totally missed the boat on potential wealth and they're so butt-hurt about it that they want to prevent others from succeeding. Crab in a bucket mentality, so to speak. In my opinion, what those folks would do well to understand is that we're still very early. PS: Nothing personal against anybody is intended with the comments here, just want to comment on my opinion of peoples' general thought-processes, which is fascinating.
  - plank_time 5y ago
    Bitcoin is something that was created out of thin air. There’s nothing backing it except what people believe it’s worth. There’s no inherent value. Even baseball cards have an inherent value, ie, the cost of the paper that the card was created from. You can eat the card or you can burn it as tinder in the worst case. With a tulip bulb at least you can grow them and look at them You can also eat tulip bulbs. With Bitcoin you literally have nothing because it’s completely virtual. So people are speculating over the value of something that is just a mathematical calculation. Anything like that can change in a heartbeat. People can collectively decide that it has no worth and then you’re stuck with nothing. That’s what happened with tulip bulbs overnight. One week, people were buying houses with tulip bulbs and the next week they were worthless. And yes, I know the argument behind USD and it being a fiat currency. But I don’t subscribe to it because it has critical mass. We have seen the same thing over and over again in history with stuff like Bitcoin. Dotcom bust, housing bust, etc. I don’t believe Bitcoin will be anything different. When Bitcoin is actively being used as a currency and not speculation then that’s when I will change my mind. Until then it’s a fad that will eventually go to zero. I believe the US government and other governments around the world will ban its use and use terrorism and money laundering as the key reason. It will go to zero soon afterwards in my opinion.
AlchemistCamp 5y ago
Tulip bulbs aren't programmable.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Tulip bulbs aren't programmable. But they're prettier to look at (or at least the tulips you grow from them are). Especially the mania ones, which had some kind of disease that made them brilliantly multicolored.

SAI_Peregrinus 5y ago

It's not treated like a stock (or other security) by the IRS. It's treated like a foreign currency. IE it's property, not a security. They do have a FAQ page[1]. [1] https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/frequently-asked-questions-on-virtual-currency-transactions https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/freq...