To judge by the media, Americans have become consumed with envy over the past 10 years or so. This is especially directed at people who obtained money without exerting sufficient (in the eyes of politicians, the nytimes, et al.) effort.
What has been more effortless than the newfound wealth of bitcoin billionaires? (“bitcoin bastards”?) They put in the price of a Manhattan date night back in 2011, left an encryption key in a filing cabinet, and today they are shopping for houses in the Hamptons (except for those unfortunates who lost the Post-It with the key!).
Some people who understand this market say that bitcoin should be worth over $100,000+ (or maybe “nothing”?). At what point in its rise will voters demand an envy tax? This is not an unprecedented idea. We’ve had taxes on “windfall profits” before. What has been more of a windfall than bitcoin’s rise?
For color, here’s a $2 million Pagani Huarya in Central Square, Cambridge, two blocks from various public housing units (allocated by qualified bureaucrats to the worthy poor!) operated by the Cambridge Housing Authority…
Isn’t the value of BTC kind of predicated on revolutionizing the world monetary system? You won’t be taxed *on* your bitcoin appreciation as valued in USD, you’ll be taxed *in* bitcoin.
What’s going on with the exhaust on that thing? It’s a four cylinder engine? And they run a pipe per cylinder rather than manifold? I’m confused.
I never resent those who have enough money to buy lots of goodies, since that is just what I would do, and it would create income for starving artists and other craftspeople. I do resent those who spend their excessive wealth on propaganda and politicians and the kind of power it takes to deny the little people what little they have. So maybe there should be a sin tax on the number of politicians the gazillionaires have in their pockets.
I think the whole point is it is impossible to tax. Go ahead and put a tax on it, you will have an even lower participation rate than self-reporting sales tax.
> is it is impossible to tax
IRS: How are you living in this expensive house with zero reported income?
BTC Baller: It was a gift?
IRS+FBI: Come with us to the pokey now please.
Why anyone thinks Bitcoin is difficult to tax is beyond me.
Any and all interaction points with the lit economy are subject to tax audits. Converting bitcoin to cash? Banking system reports you. Buy gold? Gold dealer reports you. Buy a house? Seller needs to convert to cash and reports you. IRS can demand an audit trail on any of these.
Even worse for the Bitcoin crowd: FBI poses as a buyer, and finds a contractor who accepts unreported Bitcoin. Doors get kicked down the next morning.
Speaking of losing the post-it (or worse yet the laptop with $80M worth), the paranoia surrounding an encryption key worth millions must be intense.
Tulip bulbs, anyone?
When the entire M2 money supply is converted to bitcoin, its value will be $666,666. It could happen in the next few days, at the current escalation rate. There will be no way to get loans, fund startups, or buy anything in anything but bitcoin. There will be very few who got in early enough to own entire bitcoins. They’ll be the few new billionaires. The rest of us will go on as before, owning fractional bitcoins.
The alternative is an explosion of new cryptocurrencies taking it down to a common stock valuation, but it might have enough traction by now to be considered the replacement for dollars.
Another option is once it hits $666,666, people realize it’s value can go no higher because it has exhausted the money supply & head for the exits.
Since BTC transactions cost $20 and take and hour to process, it’s about as useful a currency as tulip bulbs.
$20 per transaction? Where does this come from? I am transferring my bitcoins to a new wallet (old Multibit is no longer supported.) The transaction fee has been 0.1% which seems reasonable, so transferring $1000 worth costs $1. A $3 coffee at Starbucks would incur a fee of $0.03. The receiver is informed immediately of a transaction although it can take time to have it completely confirmed by multiple miners. I am not sure if a legitimate transaction is ever not confirmed, so yes it can be useful as a currency.
Beautiful car. Kudos to the owner who drives it out and parks it in central square. Baller.