Bitcoins - the new currency?

[andyofborg]

Tax would be a small price to pay for the level of acceptance that traceability could give.

 

tax would most likely be due now on any significant transaction

[Nagel]

tax would most likely be due now on any significant transaction

 

What kind of tax and how could the authorities track Bitcoin transactions? It's only when Bitcoins are converted into regular currency that they become visible, otherwise they are completely anonymous.

[andyofborg]

What kind of tax and how could the authorities track Bitcoin transactions? It's only when Bitcoins are converted into regular currency that they become visible, otherwise they are completely anonymous.

 

at the minute you can't do anything useful with bitcoins and you probably never will so it doesn't really matter.

 

but if you could do something useful with them, then depending on what you do and where you do it then you could be opening a liability for any sort of tax, income tax, national insurance, vat etc.

 

the authorities don't have to track the actual transactions. someone at one end of the transaction needs to track their transactions not just for tax purposes but for the actual running of their business too.

[Hairyloon]

at the minute you can't do anything useful with bitcoins and you probably never will so it doesn't really matter.

There appeared to be a few traders on the Bitcoins website who presumably accept bitcoins for their wares.

[Nagel]

at the minute you can't do anything useful with bitcoins and you probably never will so it doesn't really matter.

 

There's a lot more available than last time I was involved with Bitcoins back in June.

 

Look here - https://www.britcoin.co.uk/services.php

 

Not much you might say, but at the rate its growing they may become useful in the future. They can also be used on The Silk Road for buying illegal stuff, but I don't know if that actually works.

 

I imagine they are useful for moving money internationally under the radar of the authorities.

Edited December 27, 2011 by Nagel

[andyofborg]

Not much you might say, but at the rate its growing they may become useful in the future. They can also be used on The Silk Road for buying illegal stuff, but I don't know if that actually works.

 

I imagine they are useful for moving money internationally under the radar of the authorities.

 

not sure if being the currency of choice of thieves, drug dealers and terrorists is really going to enhance it's reputation.

[Nagel]

not sure if being the currency of choice of thieves, drug dealers and terrorists is really going to enhance it's reputation.

 

It will certainly be the pretext that governments use to shut down Bitcoins if it ever became important enough to threaten their own currency systems.

 

What's your evidence that it's used by thieves and terrorists? I believe it's used for anonymous online drug purchases, but I've seen nothing to suggest it's used by the other groups you mention. Mostly it's used bt geeks and speculators and as one of the latter I made some good money on Bitcoins in the summer.

[andyofborg]

What's your evidence that it's used by thieves and terrorists? I believe it's used for anonymous online drug purchases, but I've seen nothing to suggest it's used by the other groups you mention. Mostly it's used bt geeks and speculators and as one of the latter I made some good money on Bitcoins in the summer.

 

it's anonymous so how would anyone know if thieves and terrorists are using it. without widespread acceptance then it's use for that sort of crime is probably limited, though if it grows then criminals will use it. there is no way to stop that.

 

any sort of flaw in the algorithms opens up the way to essentially counterfeiting large amounts of it which leads to fraud and a loss of confidence. ordinary currencies can cope with a fair amount of counterfeit currency in circulation but too much and the currency fails.

 

i doubt a government could destroy it, to do it properly would require that all governments act together and it would probably require greater control over the internet/people's pc's too. the best they could do is drive it back into the shadows where it becomes a way of trading between a fairly closed group of people for very limited things, under those circumstances then I wonder if the currency would fragment into separate currencies.

 

i can see some similarities between bitcoins and the euro, it will be interesting to see if the fail for similar reasons....

[Phanerothyme]

i can see some similarities between bitcoins and the euro, it will be interesting to see if the fail for similar reasons....

 

Really?

 

I can't imagine what the similarities are.

[Nagel]

Really?

 

I can't imagine what the similarities are.

 

The only similarity is that no one knows if either will succeed or fail. I'd rate Bitcoin's chances of success higher than the Euro's at present.