So is that something like a black market, or a ‘dark web’?

When e-commerce was in its infancy, most transactions were skirting sales tax. Now even eBay wants my tax payer ID to make a listing.

Won’t be long and the government will fix the loophole you describe. In the interim, failure to report the capital gain to the IRS is not worth it if you get caught.

The problem is Bitcoin is decentralized. If the US and China ban it, then Canada or Switzerland or Bangladesh welcome it. There is even a Bitcoin node in space. They can try to ban its use over US based telecom, but that will just drive it farther towards black market territory. Then they will have lost any control.

It was built with these problems in mind.

one possibility. The ATM records how much you transferred to your wallet and the price you paid. The next time you transfer out of your wallet to get cash, it records the price and subtracts taxes. The government would have to ban any non government ATMs in this scenario. They would also have to track all transactions from wallets.

possibility two. They just tax the heck out of all Bitcoin transactions in the US ala tobacco.

I think two is most likely but the government is going to try to get “their” share.

That's really not an accurate way to look at it though. While the riff raff wonders how they can buy coffees with it, big corporations and billionaires are buying the coins from the weak hands and flippers. It was never designed to replace currencies for typical transactions. Its not particularly great at that anyway in either speed or cost. It will never replace a nation's currency unless the nation wants it to and even then it would require a currency like secondary layer anyway.

Its not digital currency its digital gold. Its a store of value like gold, some real estate; even stocks are starting to take on that role. The more one thinks "cash is trash" because its a double digit per year melting ice cube of intentionally devaued and debased (aka stolen) monetary energy, the more one moves that entropic decay into something else anyway. Look at some of the insane PE's that are laughably blown out yet continue to attract currency. Real estate is higher than before the 2008 crash. There will always be stores of value people move cash to. Even artwork and collectables can sometimes surge when currencies are wielded as a weapon to steal from the working class.

Bitcoin still requires cash to get into and in most cases cash to get out of. KYC/AML regs will only help it long term. Its barely used for criminal activity as it is and much less so than cash anyway. Its value isn't derived much at all from its perceived anonymity (every transaction in its history is open source and verifiable anyway). The vast majority of it is value is from its value storage properties that make it superior to pretty much everything else including metals. "Its pharmaceutical grade digital gold that stores infinite monetary energy over time without power loss" as Michael Saylor says.

Some talking head just popped off about how the real news with TSLA's Bitcoin purchase is that it enables customers to buy cars with Bitcoin. That was so stupid I can't believe they have an analcyst dumb enough to actually think that.

Dr. Michael Burry on Bitcoin

IMO Bitcoin a speculative investment that's best traded on momentum

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

All fiat currencies are inherently inflationary and meet the same fate. Most here know that. (you certainly do)

Cryptocurrencies try to address that by having a forever set scare amount of "backing" by the finite number of promised "tokens". So far so, so good. No central bank can inflate the value away...something I think about a great deal with the now annual $1-2 TRILLION dollar "emergency" bills being passed.

What they don't have is the "full faith and credit" of a national government; only the true believer's who are willing to trade actual national currencies into bitcoin and back out of it again. So this may be a pyramid scheme, it may be influence with a small "i", but it doesn't have something national governments have: POWER. Pure, unadulterated, throw you in jail, take all your assets, rendition your family, blow up your country, wreck your nation level power. All backed by national economies that they can command, at least for awhile.

Crypto is a fascinating experiment to try and decouple value from national fiat currencies; I can't imagine it being allowed in any meaningful scale before it gets clamped down on, hard. As a substitute to say, gold? It's an interesting thought. But one thing is for sure: if it succeeds as a storage of value, it will be the top 1% that gets all the value out of it. Small fish might get lucky, but will probably just get eaten.

Wish I'd bought some Bitcoin, but I, along with Charlie Munger, think is very, very highly speculative.
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Now a national, say, US Dollar crypto would be interesting...and terrifying. Sweeden, Finland, and China are headed that way (electronic transactions only); the US is generally moving that direction as well. Imagine being required by law to conduct every single domestic transaction on a US government mandated crypto. Great news for the the government, not so good for the underground economy. So it probably won't happen...plenty of under the table transactions conducted by all levels of US businesses.

He also just warned that the entire foundation of the non Bitcoin ("traditional") system is ripe for Wiemar levels of hyper inflation/depression/crash. What we've done in response to the viral helmet fire we set on purpose is far beyond the attention span of the quarterly numbers crowd. Lots of damage has been done and more is on the way. Good luck finding safety anywhere if his over all prediction comes true, especially stocks or real estate, and "fuggetabowtit" for any savings. If that happens having some Bitcoin is likely better than having none.

Trading it takes even more skill and "time on screen" than anything else. 24/7/365 in all markets in all currencies and traditional alghorithms don't seem to apply as well. The entire sector is still trying to figure out what, if any, new MA's to use. Good luck trading it, or anything else when the house of cards comes down. Not financial advice.

I’ve been steadily buying bitcoin every month. I don’t care about the price. I believe in it and want to own it. I had some 3 years ago and was talked into selling it. Lesson learned, I should have stayed the course.

Not fer nuttin' guy but if youze gonna uze da lingo, you gotta spell it right....capiche?

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