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Unless you're living off bitcoins there is no such thing as protected offshore savings. They bribe low level workers to leak supposedly secret info and you wind
by dobbsbob 13y ago
Unless you're living off bitcoins there is no such thing as protected offshore savings. They bribe low level workers to leak supposedly secret info and you wind up in jail. Remember the leaked bvi docs? Swiss and Liechtenstein dvds full of depositor info? Almost every country bends over to sign tax treaties with the US. Swiss numbered accounts are meaningless since the war on terrorderp. They (gov thugs) also specialize in blackmail, your finances aren't their only target
- mahyarm 13y agoI don't think you'll be hiding assets, but putting it in another country so you don't get caught by surprise that something like Argentina's capital controls that happened nearly overnight.
- yafujifide 13y agoI am living off bitcoins.
- samstave 13y agoHow?
- yafujifide 13y agoMostly by converting them to dollars when I need.
- acabal 13y agoSo... you're actually living off dollars.
- aero142 13y agoYou're not making an attempt to understand the conversation, just being pedantic. He said he was keeping his money in bitcoins to make it so that his money was harder to seize. Yes, he is spending dollars, but the savings is in bitcoins.
- radiusq 13y agoHow is bitcoins harder to seize than dollars? Aren't the fed and several state govt's seizing several exchanges now? http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4332698/dwolla-payments-mtgox-halted-by-homeland-security-seizure-warrant http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4332698/dwolla-payments-mt... You'd think dollars->cash would be the best to "live off of"
- acabal 13y agoIt's not being pedantic, it's crucial to the problem of Bitcoin. If I'm trying to live outside of government meddling, and yet I'm spending in dollars, then I may as well keep my savings in monopoly money. Why? Because converting to dollars (outside of a guy handing you cash in a shady park) requires a bank account, which in turn requires government involvement--and that's exactly the problem the OP is trying to avoid. You think keeping Bitcoins prevents the government from seizing your assets? Well if you trade in dollars, then they don't HAVE to seize your Bitcoin assets. They can just stop you from converting to dollars, and effectively achieve the same result. All the Bitcoins in the world are worthless if you trade in dollars and can't convert Bitcoins to dollars. And if you think MtGox is going to stand up for you when the government comes knocking on their door and demands they stop honoring withdraw requests for your account, then you're wrong. Bitcoins are cool, they're useful today, and they have potential. But until you can buy a sack of flour from the corner store with Bitcoins, they're not an effective way of evading government meddling. They're just a proxy currency for people who don't understand better.
- aero142 13y agoYou've now expanded your argument a lot further than original. I'm not a bitcoin hoarder so I won't try to defend that approach. Your original comment said that he was living off dollars, as though they are equivalent, which I don't think they are. You are right that until bitcoins can be spent directly for goods you are limited. Dollars are not the only thing you can trade them for. If you piss off the US government, they have to work very hard to shut down every exchange in every country in the world. I don't think it's a rock solid plan, but it's not just "living off dollars".
- 13y ago