Because bitcoin is money, and shitcoins are not.
55 karma · joined December 26, 2011
So many better things to do or think about on your time off. Read a good book. Climb a mountain. Hang out with friends/family. You know, live.
There are also numerous projects to work around Internet censorship in the crypto space. Such as the Substratum Network (https://substratum.net) and Mysterium Network (https://mysterium.network).
This differs from Bitcoin, which is not issued by any company and has no central organization that does any work or promotion of the token.
The response from American cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex expresses the distinction between securities and other types of tokens:
“As a U.S.-based digital currency exchange, Bittrex is committed to incubating new blockchain technology projects and offering innovative, compliant digital tokens to our customers. Bittrex uses a robust digital token review process to ensure the tokens listed on the exchange are compliant with U.S. law and are not considered securities. Bittrex is committed to helping advance the United States’ global leadership in this emerging industry, and we look forward to continuing our proactive dialogue with the SEC and other regulators on how to build a secure, fully-regulated environment for blockchain that encourages innovation and economic growth.”
https://support.bittrex.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001525152-B...
They seem to be prepared to meet the SEC in court to argue that the assets they facilitate trading for are not securities.
Thanks for posting the links! Taxtips.ca is not an official source, and note they use a ton of "may" be this and "might" be that. I will ignore that page, since they clearly do not know and are not the CRA.
The Canada.ca link is consistent with what my accountant said -- when you use crypto to purchase goods or services, it is treated as income (just like bartering), taxable in equivalent CAD value at the time of the transaction. Trading crypto for other crypto is _not_ a goods or service, since crypto is treated as an intangible asset or commodity.
The third link is also consistent with this view:
"Buying and selling digital currency like a commodity
When you file your taxes you must report any gains or losses from selling or buying digital currencies.
Digital currencies are considered a commodity and are subject to the barter rules of the Income Tax Act. Not reporting income from such transactions is illegal."
In order to be considered a "gain" or a "loss", according to my accountant, the commodity must be realized into fiat money. "Selling or buying" means selling into fiat or buying with fiat. "Bartering" means trading for goods or services -- crypto is not considered to be goods or services.
https://twitter.com/cryptozerp/status/953324474077769728
Good time to go shopping!
1. China cracking down harder: https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/01/16/business/16reuter...
2. South Korea cut off access to banks by cryptocurrency exchanges in December, and access to exchanges by foreign traders. As a result the prices in the country spiked, and the largest price aggregator CoinMarketCap removed Korean exchanges from the index because they were skewing the averages. This caused ~$150B to appear to have suddenly vanished, gapping prices down. This is when the sell-off began in earnest. Then recently the South Korean Minister of Justice said he wants to shut down exchanges, but then the PM says that would require a vote in the National Assembly on new legislation. They are consulting with Japan (who are positive on crypto) and China (who are not) to create a new regulatory framework. http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180116000817
3. Indonesia just banned cryptocurrency transactions, stating only their native currency is legal tender. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/01/15/bank-indonesia...
4. France's central bank has been whining about cryptocurrency for some time and finally convinced the Minister of Finance to make a public statement and authorize a draft of new regulations. https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/905169/bitcoin-France...
5. A speculative theory: the Bitcoin futures contracts are about to expire, and some investors will have bet on lower BTC prices. There could be large market players deliberately pushing prices down to meet those futures bets. Or just market makers wanting to get in at a lower price point.
An application like this would use a new address for every transaction, and never use it again. There are desktop software wallets that do this, in the interests of privacy.
What is SeekingAlpha.com truly worth? What is a fake newspaper on your electronic screen truly worth? What is the software you used to write the article worth?
The value of digital assets lies in their usefulness, and how many people use them. The usefulness of the software "Bitcoin" is that it allows people to store a record of value -- like the numbers in your bank account -- in a reliable, secure, trust-worthy, fungible way that is practically immune to corruption, control, and seizure, and can be transferred to anyone else anywhere in the world almost instantly, for practically free.
But that's just Bitcoin, the very first of its kind. The thriving technology ecosystem that Bitcoin birthed is boiling over with potential.
"Comparing Bitcoin’s energy consumption to other payment systems
To put the energy consumed by the Bitcoin network into perspective we can compare it to another payment system like VISA for example. Even though the available information on VISA’s energy consumption is limited, we can establish that the data centers that process VISA’s transactions consume energy equal to that of 50,000 U.S. households. We also know VISA processed 82.3 billion transactions in 2016. With the help of these numbers, it is possible to compare both networks and show that Bitcoin is extremely more energy intensive per transaction than VISA."
1. I have read that with every VISA transaction, transactions move between no less than 5 separate institutions. What is the net energy used in all of that deliberate inefficiency? All buildings, vehicles, and energy use of people who work for VISA must also be taken into account. And for all other credit cards and payment systems.
2. Bitcoin isn't really a "payment system", so comparing it to VISA is apples to oranges. It is more of a store of value, like a bank. So it would more properly be compared to the net electricity consumption of all banks, including all buildings, armoured trucks and all vehicles used to ship people to and from banks around the world.
* BitShares and Steemit both use it, and I believe the forthcoming EOS network will as well. See https://bitshares.org/technology/delegated-proof-of-stake-co...
* Ethereum has successfully tested a new hybrid PoW/PoS system and is rolling it out on the main network soon. Links in this article: https://www.coindesk.com/ethereums-big-switch-the-new-roadma...
* PoS was just an example - there are a range of consensus algorithms that are not proof of work, which was the very first one. Ripple is a "real world" blockchain that does not use proof of work: https://ripple.com/build/xrp-ledger-consensus-process/
* Here's a few other consensus algorithms: https://www.coindesk.com/short-guide-blockchain-consensus-pr...
> because if you make a single mistake in the code and lose all your money, there will be - by design - literally no one to help you.
Actually there are, by design, roll-back mechanisms that can be deployed if the majority of the network agrees to carry it out. I believe the current controversy in the Bitcoin network is partially over the removal of such a mechanism. Various other blockchains and blockchain-like networks have correction mechanisms. Also note, its not always about storing money - thats just one use.
- Proof of Work isn't the only consensus algorithm, there are ones with lower computational costs, such as Proof of Stake
- See IPFS, and there are other distributed storage solutions
- One can add new ledger entries that refer to previous ones, to correct them
Aside from transparency (and note that privacy is also an option on some blockchains), the main benefit is that smart contracts can eliminate the need for 3rd parties, but still provide trustworthy transaction settlements. Third parties such as the Uber organization, or a bank. The tasks they perform can be provided automatically via programmable transaction handling on the blockchain (smart contracts). Another benefit of distributed software is that it is more resilient (in theory - the global architectures are still being developed), no central point of failure or high-value target for attack.
How could a clever Chinese citizen avoid government scrutiny of their cryptocurrency finances under these conditions? They could trade Yuan (cash) for BTC through an underground mechanism of some sort. The vast majority will already be on the record at the soon to be defunct exchanges.
Cloudflare, ISPs, and other companies or non-governmental entities should not be obligated to enable or allow hate speech via the services that they provide. Haters should have to bear the full cost and social consequences of propagating their message.
Open to remote Ruby on Rails development work with awesome people, making software that helps to make the world a better place. Based out of the Canadian Rockies (Banff, AB -0600). I've been working with Rails for about 5 years, and have 10+ years of PHP and Sysadmin/DevOps experience. I've done mostly backend work with Rails, with a dash of CoffeeScript and Bootstrap on the front-end, but I'm keen to learn the major JS frameworks and build up my front-end skills.
* https://stackoverflow.com/story/brentkearney
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In my spare time, I'm into mountain biking, trail running, skiing, traveling, and creative/art projects.
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