Nostr Web Client

I have to correct myself, they won't seize all your Bitcoin. They will just tax the shit out of it. That's much easier and can be done with existing infrastructure. Because if you don't comply, you can just go to jail because of tax evasion.

And you can't use it to make fiat purchases (via crypto debit card or something), especially large ones, if you haven't declared it beforehand. They'll ask "where's that money from" and you have to proove a legal source of income for it. Reversal of the presumption of innocence applies to tax matters.

Bad times for anonymous Bitcoin buyers, good luck finding a jurisdiction on earth that is still a long way behind. In the end, every nation will arrive at the same point. Even Africa, even the Arab world ... all of them. Just a matter of time. Maybe not El Salvador.

We have to build a circular Bitcoin economy. There's no other way.

If you just hodl, you're not helping the cause of achieving financial freedom for all. Then you're not really a Bitcoiner, you're just a private investor with a fiat mentality.

Greetings to Michael from me.

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Misty 1y ago

Bitcoin can't be stopped per se, but the governments that want to will do everything in their power to make it either illegal or extremely difficult to hold, spend, trade, or use.

Currently, financial institutions treat you like a criminal for withdrawing the cash you've already deposited.

The paper trails are already in place to clearly show where you're getting your funds. However, when you finance a house, boom—everything is scrutinized and examined several times before closing and sometimes even up to several years after, depending on how you financed the home.

It was a shock to learn back then that if I had stuffed the money in the mattress and came to deposit it when I was ready to buy a home, the bank would not accept that as valid funds because I wouldn't have been able to provide a paper trail for its source.

This morning, I realized that I'd have to maintain a fiat bank account to purchase groceries or pay a utility bill.

To have a fiat bank account, you must have a physical address.

To maintain a job, pass all electronic screenings without issue, and get money into that fiat bank account, your physical address on the application has to match what's on record at the DMV, government agencies, and credit bureaus, depending on which institution you're working trying to access.

The rent, mortgage, and property taxes must be paid to maintain the physical address.

To be genuinely free, at least in the United States right this second, you almost have to be a homeless vagabond, transacting in Bitcoin only (or other crypto), and be self-employed and unbanked.

Barter, Bitcoin, and gift economy. No permanent physical address. No bank account. No assets.

The extreme tradeoff to this is legal or government authorities threatening you with jail if you don't hand over your secret phrase or having the IRS do all your "missed taxes" for you (much like the Department of Child Support guesstimates how much money they think you should be making at your age with your educational background vs. how much you are) and then the IRS saying that you now owe back taxes into oblivion. They'll use this as justification to seize what they think is yours or, again, still have you imprisoned.

Hmmm. Choices. Choices.

When I solve or accept that problem, I will choose.

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Discussion

ابو مريم 1y ago

السلام عليكم

Hi Misty

I haven’t solved for this either but it is something I've been thinking about along with how we can best develop a bitcoin economy.

Although taxes are not fun or ideal, capital gains is less than income tax so if conversion to fiat is needed it can be strategically done. I also think there are advantages in keeping some UTXOs tracked for spending and others secret for savings.

The system of paying taxes on property you already own seems silly and little different from renting? Purchasing property is a tricky issue and personally I find little benefit in doing so within the USA. International housing market looks more appealing from many angles. It is unfortunate that having a physical address is required to access so many things in the fiat world. I spent a year living in a camper, moving from place-to-place and learned how challenging this can be first hand. With the right local connections it is possible to overcome this! Very likely we will see lots of physical, bitcoin-community locations popping up around the planet over the next decade.

For many who are unbanked bitcoin has already proven to be functional and beneficial, but depending on your jurisdiction some fiat connections may be necessary still for some time. That digital-to-physical energy conversion has to happen somewhere. Many of the Nostr clients are already serving as a kind of second-layer bitcoin bank with the zapping functionality and federated mints. The “be your own bank” trend will likely increase along with adoption. It will continue to be interesting to observe how governments try to control this with banking licenses over the coming years. The stronger bitcoin-communities become the more likely they will be able to project political influence - it seems like we are actively entering this stage.

This diplomatic, late-stage network-state is what concerns me the most, as with all things political they tend to get quickly corrupted. I am reminded that, “Bitcoin simply must be for enemies, or it will never be for friends.” and I look around at the growing Nostr community and am encouraged to see friendly intentions amongst the current majority.

النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ‏ الرَّجُلُ عَلَى دِينِ خَلِيلِهِ فَلْيَنْظُرْ أَحَدُكُمْ مَنْ يُخَالِلُ

Misty 1y ago

Well said.

It's interesting that you bring this up.

I have a lot to say about the topic of traveling. I've spent almost two hours trying to reply, and it's almost 1,000 words long. I'm having trouble shortening it and still explaining.

Basically, this: I and other travelers have started having issues with employers and banks using a physical address from South Dakota which lets you use their mail-box traveling address on your driver's license.

It's all happening subtly and behind the scenes. It's not overt unless it's happening to you individually. I suppose they do not lose a bunch of customers all at once because of it. It's only been so much more so in the last 9 months or so that I've noticed an uptick in the problems, where there wasn't problems three-four years ago when I began traveling full-time.

There's folks on Reddit talking about it. I've lived in the apartment now for a year and I'll have to modify how I work with all of that in the future if I get to do more full-time traveling.

You're right about the capital gains tax. I put it out of mind because we still have to pay federal income tax regardless. If we could only pay one or the other, I see the benefit.

ابو مريم 1y ago

If you're not self-employed the travel stuff is going to vary. I currently work in a hybrid role and have flexibility to work and travel anywhere in the USA but have significant international travel limitations - all based on jurisdicional tax law from where the company is based. I've got a plan I'm working that should smoothen that out for myself next year but it is certainly not a easy issue or something very accessible to most folks. If you do any sort of virtual work, legislation is terribly behind and adapting to its flexibility. As these workplace laws update things should get easier but very likely sneaky privacy stuff will get looped in as well. We'll just have to see how this all plays out.

Anonymous 1y ago

Or just use Monero.

Guaranteed privacy, the only one that the tax authorities put a bounty on whoemver succeeds in breaking its encryption.

With fedcoins you will always be tracked with a lot of "excepts" to preserve a part of your privacy.