And the taxes. Pay your bills plus CG tax. I can't understand why nobody mentions this. It says right in the fine print that your sats are sold for fiat, then sent out to whoever is getting paid.
Discussion
Yes, when your life gets cheaper because you held BTC and paid bills with it, you do have to share some of the realized cheaper-ness with the government. Newsflash: that doesn't mean you're worse off than if you had held dollars.
This isn't for people who held BTC. It's for plebs who want to try this BTC-only lifestyle they keep hearing about. They end up buying and selling and buying again and selling again because it sounds so great. They could've just used the fiat on bills and bought corn instead of giving it to the government and the exchange in taxes and fees. It's not the taxes that bug me. It's the complete lack of mentioning the taxes and that your corn is just getting sold.
then it's even more predatory
I guess predatory is a little strong because it's just business, and that's what we should assume the business is there to do, but all these influencers should probably mention it to the plebs who keep them influencing. Not really looking out for the little guy there...
that's a little bit stupid
there's this thing called false advertising you might wanna look into
business isn't inherently predatory
you just insulted basically every ethical businessman on the planet might want to walk that statement back
Yeah that's what I'm saying. Just degrees of focus on profit. Kind of came out like business is bad, but I mean that Strike isn't being "predatory" but rather maybe "aggressive." They do explain all this in the terms, so it's not a lie or falsely advertised. You are in fact using your BTC to get a bill paid.
But not everyone reads the terms, and Strike will squeeze a little more profit out of them. And that's fine, because they're there to make money. The selling and tax liability just merits a mention from the community, but I rarely, if ever, see it.
targeting ignorance is predation
you need to take a business ethics class
I live a business ethics class. I'm trying to not be simple and accuse a legitimate, profitable business of predation because their customers don't RTFM.
I am taking issue with people gushing over this feature and not mentioning that the baby is a little bit ugly.
lots of people live lots of different things and still would benefit from a class because they are ignorant and have bad takes.
also you do not live a business ethics class lol
not engaging further with you on this topic because you don't seem to be arguing intelligently tonight
You may need to go back to the napkin with that math. I suppose if you're selling every bit of what you make, you could be right. However, if your expenses are lower than your income, this is an easy way to maxmize exposure to bitcoin while minimizing (eliminating) exposure to dollars.
Also, it is for hodlers, and to assume it isn't or can't be is some faulty logic. Sweeping a "DCA" from your strike balance to your hardware wallet is still allowed on strike while using billpay. I was a hodler long before billpay was introduced, and I continue to hodl, DCA, and leave my bags untouched while using billpay.
JFC this slate numbnuts is killing me... ANYWAY... Basically we agree on all this stuff, I just have some exposure to people who would want to do this, and yeah, they'd be buying and selling it right back out. They really need that extra couple of percent that they'd pay in taxes or fees. So I'm sensitive to that side of it.
I also know some OGs who would never move that cold corn to a KYC exchange. So those are my idea of people who "held BTC" which may be an overgeneralization on my part. I'm kind of leaving out the shorter-term hodlers, so maybe they do win in all this, like in your DCA case.
At the end of the day, I'm complaining about there not being a big wall of metaphorical text reminding plebs that this is not currency, it's an asset.
Now I can get on board with that. They need a "nicotine warning" stating potential tax ramifications, especially if the goal is to onboard plebs who are brand new to this. And/or really iron out the details up front and not bury them, intentionally or not.
Yeah, so somewhere in there earlier I was trying to make the point to the arguebot that the folks with the platforms would be a great avenue for this. Talk about the features, pros, cons, etc. and mention the tax liability. Ultimately we want people having a good experience, not calling it a scam. And they will when they get that tax bill, even if it is technically their own fault. Seems easier to educate them up front and explain the personal responsibility of it. But I don't see that much, hence me getting all pissy about it. 😆
Don't quote me, but I think nostr:npub1cn4t4cd78nm900qc2hhqte5aa8c9njm6qkfzw95tszufwcwtcnsq7g3vle discussed this whole topic, inluding tax ramifications, with nostr:npub1qny3tkh0acurzla8x3zy4nhrjz5zd8l9sy9jys09umwng00manysew95gx on the #MoneyMatters episode they did together mid-December. However, I do acknowledge that it's somewhat unreasonble to presume somebody would jump into all the podcasts and do deep dives on their first day in bitcoin.
Yep, I think the new feature sell just kind of outpaces the broader education for noobs. Same with Nostr development. I'm the guy who talks everybody into stuff, so I end up doing a lot of onboarding. It's tough.
oh right, because that's exactly how you assess benefits
when the irs agent rapes your daughter you can say "well it would've been worse if they had raped me too"
how about fucking neither ?
If you’re selling BTC to pay bills, you’re not really benefiting from ‘cheaper-ness’, you’re just spending your BTC and triggering a taxable event in the process. The whole idea of Bitcoin is not constantly converting it to fiat to navigate a system Bitcoin was meant to replace. In this case, you’re simply exposing yourself to unnecessary tax friction without any real gain over just spending in dollars for bills you know are coming. Again because with this feature you are not spending Bitcoin, you are SELLING it.
🤦🏿♂️
If there's capital gains owed by the sale of the btc, that definitionally means your life got cheaper by holding it. It means your purchasing power increased between the purchase point and sale point, meaning you spent fewer sats than you purchased. I'm not sure where the disconnect is
100%.
It makes zero sense. It’s a lie to say it’s paying in Bitcoin, and having a capital gain/loss for every bill paid is awful. I don’t care how “easy” strike makes the tax reporting.
following
Imagine being upset because you have to pay taxes due to your stack going up in value….