What happens if Bitcoin succeeds? | Hacker News Reader

What happens if Bitcoin succeeds?

voxeu.org

4 pointsnabla94 comments

Every transaction is traceable. Who hasn't bought something and not payed taxes? Those days are over. The government is going to be aware of every transaction and they will get there cut.

1. Lightning network allows payments between parties where only the opening and closing transactions are on the blockchain. Future updates will only enhance this privacy.

2. It's relatively easy to obfuscate where transactions come from using CoinJoin, Whirlpool, etc.

3. You can buy and sell bitcoin using non-KYC peer-to-peer markets on Tor such as Bisq (https://bisq.network).

This article didn't bring up taxes. In the US taxes must be payed in USD, that means there will always be a demand for USD. I don't know how taxes are handled if I want to buy a tesla, but I am guessing you have to pay Capitol gains tax plus sales tax. It seems like it might be good to hold some USD, even if Bitcoiners/anti-inflationist are right. Bitcoiners like to think they are the only hedge against inflation out there. Currently, that is obviously silly, at best it is a spectulitive bet that one day it will be a hedge against inflation.

The other thing I hear bitcoiners say is there is going to be an event where the government tries to outlaw Bitcoin, but it will be too powerful by that point, but that also doesn't make sense to me. Any large purchase has to be registered(i.e. A house, a car, I think anything over 10k). So, if you buy a house/car and someone robs it, who are you gonna call?

How long till there is a list of people with unsecured assets online?

That brings up another incompatibility with Bitcoin and the people who tend to own it(liberitarians). Every transaction is traceable. Who hasn't bought something and not payed taxes? Those days are over. The government is going to be aware of every transaction and they will get there cut.

I see the government winning the battle, but if you live in a democracy/republic "YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT" so make it a good one.

There are already states in the US accepting Bitcoin as payment for taxes. There are cantons in Switzerland where you can do this as well. https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/25/ohio-becomes-the-first-sta...

It seems like it might be good to hold some USD, even if Bitcoiners/anti-inflationist are right.

Actually no. Services like Strike (https://beta.strike.me) allow you to use bitcoin to pay in dollars (or any fiat currency) in realtime.

So you can be bitcoin-only and still pay dollars.

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