pheller said:
It's wierd to me that this could be taxable, it'd would be like me paying $100 to play a game of monopoly, and the winner gets $600, but the losers get nothing. During the game, I've made $400 in Monopoly Money, but I end up not winning, and losing my $100 of real money. Why do I pay taxes on the $400 gain of fake money I was playing with during the game?
Looks like the gains are measured in real currency rather than whatever made up internet money unit you're working with. That would make sense, so you'd simply have a $100 loss to account for:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-payments/tax-tips-for-bitcoin-and-virtual-currency/L1ZOgU00q
In other cryptocurrency news, Google and Facebook have both banned any and all cryptocurrency-related ads, and Monero has become a clear favorite among cybercriminals both for criminal finance and cryptojacking. Still beats the old WU-and-mules system I guess.
In other more-beneficial-uses-of-computing-power news, I've added another computer powered by 89% non-fossil energy to my BOINC account with a light duty cycle, and got a bronze badge!
Separate from crypto I did see that Sierra Leone employed blockchain to provide a transparent auditable result in their election. So, yay I guess?
The0retical said:
Separate from crypto I did see that Sierra Leone employed blockchain to provide a transparent auditable result in their election. So, yay I guess?
Definitely a positive use of blockchain technology.
pheller said:
As the future of crypto looks more and more bleak, tax issues aren't helping either. There seems to be a lot of debate about what constitutes "gains" within the crytpo-currency trading market.
I'm glad I didn't put more money in.
I "made" $80 of fake money, but I lost $50 of real money. It sounds like I should technically pay taxes on my gains, even if they were not realized.
It's wierd to me that this could be taxable, it'd would be like me paying $100 to play a game of monopoly, and the winner gets $600, but the losers get nothing. During the game, I've made $400 in Monopoly Money, but I end up not winning, and losing my $100 of real money. Why do I pay taxes on the $400 gain of fake money I was playing with during the game?
Good. I want reasonably priced video cards again.
In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :
If he cashed out in December, like anyone watching the trend with some risk abatement sense would, his 85 coins would have shown a net gain of roughly 1.35 million USD. Since he probably didn't, if he cashed out now he's looking at probably tripling his money (roughly). Not bad as long as no other regulatory surprises come down.
Erich
UltraDork
3/15/18 5:58 p.m.
I think anyone who cashed out everything and moved their wife and three kids to a campsite probably does not have "some risk abatement sense."
I bet he would HODL right down to the end of the imaginary currency.
Here's an interesting but not surprising development, it turns out that child porn and links to child porn have been committed to Bitcoin's blockchain:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/20/child-abuse-imagery-bitcoin-blockchain-illegal-content
So we now know with absolute certainty that every mining setup has at least links to child porn on it, which are super illegal in most jurisdictions. Now what?
The only way to remove it would be to fork the cryptocurrency again, and either remove the capability to commit arbitrary data while you're at it, or be ready to fork it again next time...
In other updates, Twitter is also looking to block cryptocurrency ads, and it's been made illegal in the US to own Petro specifically. Although if you really wanted to for some odd reason, I'm sure it could be owned by an American in an untraceable way, you'd just need to launder them through another CC via an exchange/tumbler that doesn't report to US law enforcement.
Update: Good news, you won't be arrested for possession of child porn if you run a mining rig:
https://www.wired.com/story/why-porn-on-the-blockchain-wont-doom-bitcoin/
The comparison to Tor is wrong though, since a Tor node doesn't store what passes through it.
Also Twitter's ban on cryptocurrency ads has gone into effect.
There is no free money, so whats the attraction?
Looks like just another ponzi scheme to me.
Just a slicker version of 3 card monte.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2kO_5cNF5k
Here's a Bitcoin-specific update, the first peer-reviewed study on Bitcoin's energy energy usage has come out, and the result is that it looks like it will end up using at least 0.5% of humanity's energy this year D-:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/7xmvbq/bitcoin-energy-science-world-electricity-demand
Also, at this rate, the first big crunch in mining capacity could come as soon as the end of this year. The study's author makes a compelling case that it will happen around an equilibrium point defined by energy cost vs. total mining energy usage, and it won't end in a sudden inability to complete any transactions, but more of a gradual slowdown as miners with more expensive power pull out, leaving those with cheap/sunk cost power to continue, simply resulting in a slowdown in transaction speed. How much slower depends on how many mining companies and what fraction of the total mining power is using the more expensive energy sources.
GameboyRMH said:
Oh and for a much more general update, I'm so glad this happened:
https://www.wired.com/story/when-the-blockchain-skeptic-walked-into-the-lions-den/
Jesus I'm glad someone besides me said it. There's a number of useful applications of the blockchain but at it's core it's a transactionally based ledger which relies on a consensus to keep it honest.
In enterprise environments (mostly banking as it's all I can think of good examples) blockchain can be useful for housing and ensuing the integrity of documents which accompany large financial transactions. In these cases it is imperative that the origination documents be maintained eg: student loan documents, mortgage documents. The downside is that it requires that many lenders join this blockchain to ensure it's integrity (consensus based remember.) It also prevents the loss of data, like the case where a number of AES's student loan origination documents were lost, and loans are legally required to be forgiven.
No one is going to run their accounting system or control the manufacturing process through a blockchain because you don't pass that kind of information between different entireties nor is there a need for that kind of rigorous standard. The kind of complexity blockchain brings doesn't make sense when you can just audit the transactional ledger since there's only a single source adding to the ledger. Also, by definition, a private blockchain controlled by a single entity, thus it would carry the same level of trust as a transactional ledger. It also carries a downside of a bad actor being able to run a 51% attack, which means that it is more difficult to audit as the result is assumed to be correct. So that's sweet if you want to embezzle a bunch of money and have your ledger tell everyone it was a-ok.
If I'm wrong I'd love to hear about it.
The coin thing still is a dumb side effect but it sort of makes sense to encourage participation in public chains if you truly believe in the ideal of a decentralized currency.
SVreX
MegaDork
12/10/18 10:16 a.m.
I wanna thank you guys.
I started this thread, and because if it own no bitcoin.
When I started this thread, it was valued at about $16,000. Today, it is $3,455.02
Would have been an effective way to flush a lot of money.
Robbie
UltimaDork
12/10/18 10:50 a.m.
SVreX said:
I wanna thank you guys.
I started this thread, and because if it own no bitcoin.
When I started this thread, it was valued at about $16,000. Today, it is $3,455.02
Would have been an effective way to flush a lot of money.
If you want to go 50/50 on the savings, you know where to find us. ;)
In reply to SVreX :
I'm glad you didn't buy any. I also love follow-ups and to look at how things went after time passes.
Just thought I'd update again. The original post was made 12/10/2017.. five days later Bitcoin peaked at 19,650.01 per bitcoin. Today's value is .. 3,996.99. Yikes! Hope nobody bought in big. That price is up from when SVreX posted a few months ago, but it continues to show all signs of having been a bubble.
NOHOME
UltimaDork
3/19/19 3:31 p.m.
In reply to dculberson :
I still want to know why it stopped falling at mid $3000 range and did not stick the landing at $0?
In reply to NOHOME :
There’s probably still people out there using it for illicit purchases, and there are “hodlers” who still think it’s going to a million dollars. Hell, if I’d gotten in when I first found out about it (high $30’s), I’d still be rich.
NOHOME said:
In reply to dculberson :
I still want to know why it stopped falling at mid $3000 range and did not stick the landing at $0?
A question for the ages... I can't decide if it'll eventually go there or if there's enough of the druggie anarcho-capitalist population to keep it in existence indefinitely.
mtn
MegaDork
3/19/19 3:48 p.m.
dculberson said:
NOHOME said:
In reply to dculberson :
I still want to know why it stopped falling at mid $3000 range and did not stick the landing at $0?
A question for the ages... I can't decide if it'll eventually go there or if there's enough of the druggie anarcho-capitalist population to keep it in existence indefinitely.
This, I think. And the speculators.
dculberson said:
NOHOME said:
In reply to dculberson :
I still want to know why it stopped falling at mid $3000 range and did not stick the landing at $0?
A question for the ages... I can't decide if it'll eventually go there or if there's enough of the druggie anarcho-capitalist population to keep it in existence indefinitely.
I think the black market uses of cryptocurrencies will make it very difficult for any cryptocurrency to hit $0.00 - this could only happen as it approaches technical obsolescence, which clunky dinosaur Bitcoin will be first in line for.
As for news updates, this article is more about blockchain technology than cryptocurrencies but I found it enlightening...its uses are an even smaller niche than I thought:
https://blog.smartdec.net/you-do-not-need-blockchain-eight-popular-use-cases-and-why-they-do-not-work-f2ecc6cc2129
It's also interesting that the Ethereum project is trying to fix their cryptocurrency's environmental trainwreck factor:
https://www.worldcoinindex.com/news/how-ethereum-2-0-is-planning-to-reduce-energy-consumption-by-99
and it's been made illegal in the US to own Petro specifically
This bothered me a year ago. This really pisses me off with the E36 M3 we've been trying to pull the last 3 months.
God forbid a US citizen be allowed to own a currency backed by a real and tangible asset instead of debt.
Well even not for its illegality (which is at least consistent with the US' sanctions on Venezuela - the Petro was a bald-faced attempt to work around them), there would still be some good political and non-political reasons not to buy any (including the fact that the oil company backing it is itself drowning in debt), and even if you ignore those, you'd still have trouble buying any because it's unclear whether it actually exists:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/venezuela-petro-cryptocurrency-bolivar-scam
http://theconversation.com/dont-be-fooled-venezuelas-petro-is-not-really-a-cryptocurrency-92310
https://in.reuters.com/article/cryptocurrency-venezuela/special-report-in-venezuela-new-cryptocurrency-is-nowhere-to-be-found-idINKCN1LF18G
