Bitcoin Forum

I went to verify and research if it is really true that bitcoins can be used to pay government services. I was surprised that there is one country that I have found that will accept bitcoins as a form of payment in exchange for government services. This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

http://www.coindesk.com/swiss-city-bitcoin-payments-government-services/

What are your thought about it?

Yes it would be very possible to used bitcoin as a form of payment for government services, but for now, it cannot be used since government don't actually accept bitcoin. Though some countries accept it but i dont know if they used bitcoin as payment for government services. If this could happen soon, then it would be very nice and for sure bitcoin will become more famous, used by all people and bitcoin will be legalized to all countries.

It depends on the government if it would adopt bitcoin as a payment but i dont think it would be succesful or those people on the top would agree into this because we all know that bitcoins price isnt stable at all and those funds for their made services would possibly increase or go down and with no fixed rate.It would be really a complicated thing for me.

I`m not surprised with this, Switzerland is Switzerland, what we can think about this, when I saw swiss city it was immediately clear to me what is this all about. Swiss is couple decades ahead of many other countries, in last year there was so many news about swiss and crypto world. There is even some news about how their government helps blockchain, they will probably be the first country that will accept bitcoin, or some other alt coin (i dont know how much swiss coin is connected with swiss government?).

This is not really news, since it is almost a year ago that they have started. It is also is not a country, but a city or region and not to big. Besides being an experiment it is more of an attempt to attract business. They have some startups and people from the financial and crypto world. It did not make any difference in price or legalization, but it certainly did not hurt Bitcoin. You can assume to see more news like this in the future as governments will see it as a possibility rather then a risk. But as they did not replace their payment method and just added Bitcoin as another one, they could stop accepting Bitcoin over night without consequences. So if Bitcoin replaces the local currency it would be big news, but i do not see this in the near future happening.

it's a cool little vote of confidence but why would it increase bitcoin's price? no one is gonna buy something to pay a bill. the bill will end up costing you more. people don't wanna spend bitcoin on the fun stuff, let alone the boring stuff.

What do you define as a "government" service? The only "government" service I know of is income tax and you have to pay that. The local

government services are utility bills, like water, electricity, refuse removal and sewerage. In some cities some are already paying these bills via

payment processors. The government supports their own reserve currencies and in some governments Bitcoin is not recognized as a currency.

Just added to my knowledge (thanks to the article) that companies like Xapo, ShapeShift and Monetas are located in and around Zug. So basically nothing surprising if they will have some bitcoin payment for government services in their area.

But in the events like that, surely other entities and institutions will open their mind for other idea on how will bitcoin will have good effect if meant for any type of payments that will be made whether for government or misc things.

Right now here in my country, we can now pay for several services from the government using bitcoins but there serves as an intermediary for the deal. They pay for service charges but then again, we're talking about convenience here at our fingertips. But that would really be a cool thing if a government fully accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment to the services they offer.

Happy to see some government accepting bitcoin. It is indeed possible for governments to accept Bitcoin as mode of payment as far as they treat it investment or near money in place of real money. In this way, Bitcoin can be recognized as government's asset and will not lead to fear-say anonymous enivronment.

This is great. Bitcoin is getting more popular and stronger and now governments are starting to embrace bitcoin as their another kind of payment option and also another kind of currency, you are right this news can help for the price to keep on increasing. I hope my country will do the same in terms of accepting and using bitcoins.

This is of course the next step ahead I think. When you think about the government, all what they want is people paying their taxes. God knows I am not fond of paying the taxes, but now that with time I understood that it will be hard for me to somehow launder my bitcoins, in the sense that I could not change them in fiat money and pay my taxes with it, as I would get spotted. So I would need to declare them as an exceptional revenue and pay a tax on this and then pay a tax on the wealth possession. That way I would just pay the normal tax on the wealth. And that would not bother me that much considering how long I imagined many scenarios so that I could officially use my bitcoins to buy real estate. Considering I have been used that it would be very hard, paying something but being able to use them makes me happy, even though I have to pay a tax !

Some progresivne countries like Netherlands or so are more keen to allow to pay for governments services with Bitcoin. I agree this is big step ahead and important thing for Bitcoin in terms of acceptance and equality with fiat money. And also the sign that that government recognises Bitcoin. But I don't think this will become mass practice.

Once the government recognizes bitcoin as payment, they will also recognize it as a taxable asset.

I don't think anybody wants a 5% tax on exchanges or transactions.

While Switzerland has been one of the very few countries to accept and use bitcoin, I'm not that surprised to see government utilizing bitcoin over there. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too hopeful just yet that more countries will follow suit. Government has always wanted to be in control of Citizen's activities (including payments for goods and services) and that is one area bitcoin comes against.

Well, Let's hope for the best.

While the concept might be ok, as I have said in other places, something like this would only be a good idea if there is a very explicit caveat that they would not regulate Bitcoin at all and it would exist within its natural state with no interference from the government, aside from accepting it as payment for their services.

It is great that to see a government with an open mind to a new technology, it is great to see we are able to pay tax using bitcoin in that country but I would not used any of my bitcoin to pay the tax, I afraid after I payed using bitcoin the government will start to investigate everyone that owned bitcoin

that is nice to hear such news. the thing is in government service. it is really good. but I think it is not that easy to legalize bitcoin in order to change the payment method or just add it. it does not really matter anyway. and probably it will motivate the other country to follow this country's stepfoot.

Old news, but I don't remember seeing it. Very interesting indeed. I searched for a follow up on this and apparently the pilot experience wasn't much widely used, but successful, so they continue accepting (https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/swiss-town-zug-continues-allowing-bitcoin-payments-municipal-services/) Bitcoin as a means of payment, which is amazing!


What's that intermediary company?

LOL, How you can affect the whole government to turn its face and investigating the bitcoin users there because you were paying the taxes? there must be something wrong with your transaction which you have done earlier didn't it? otherwise it will be fine. If government want to investigate the bitcoin users, they just don't need to allow their citizens to pay the taxes through bitcoin!

First it is not a whole country but a city in Switzerland that accept bitcoin for public obligations that cost 200 francs
(roughly 0.44 BTC ) or less.
But yes its a big move especially because it is one of the most visited tourist spot also and it can help spread bitcoin word throughout world.

According to the fact bitcoin still, have a lot of the problem with the government permission and bitcoin is still not become the legal payment of the government.
Based on the regulation and bitcoin is not full fill the legal criteria of the legitimate currency by the government.

At present circumstances government is not going to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for its services. If it happened there will be more fun and comfort on using bitcoin.

Lot of other issues will get uplift if governments regulate and accept bitcoin on payment services. Bitcoin as a legal payment is possible if the traditional currency is stopped and bitcoin is circulated keeping value backing. But it cannot come to reality. So countries could start accepting bitcoin through their own digital coins as more countries have generated coins based upon the same technology backing of bitcoin.

I don’t agree with that certain statement you are talking because my country highly recognizes bitcoin with a certain precautions that may comply with their regulations. Although it was not really adopted directly to payment of government services, the country is allowing the exchange of btc to fiat currency money which you can use in payment of government services. Indirect payment is legally used but direct bitcoin digital value wasn’t recognized, you really needed to cash it out to fiat currency as part of the country’s currency exchange system.

few days back i had come across a good news for bitcoin user as we know that bitcoin is the father of all cryptocurrency and so Indian RBI's research department had initiated discussion to make  another cryptocurrency and various banks also had started the same and government had given green signal to bitcoin and may e in future they might accept it as payment for govt services also.

Seems a news from almost a year ago. But good to know that, it's supported by the company related to bitcoin(xapo, shapeshift) around the city.
I'm curious how the implement works, I means it's still decentralized or become a centralized.

That's just the first step to bitcoin's legalization. I am afraid that after that will follow bitcoin's centralization and we may not see bitcoin the same as today never again. I would like this payment for government services in bitcoin would be at least with smaller fees. Today when I cash out my bitcoins to pay my costs I loose like 10% during the process everytime.

Yeah no doubt.Bitcoins can be used as a government currency and a local currency along with traditional local curreny of a specific country.Base on demand and popularity and bitcoins and how reliable it is to use and so easy to navigate.Governmeny acceptin bitcoins as payment through them would be really possible in future

Both Indonesia, Philippines and Nigeria are moving towards that direction. But there is a bad news in Venezuela miners and exchanges are placed in a hot spot by the government and banks. Miners are raided by the government and bitcoin exchanges are no longer allowed to use banking services. Hope what happens to Venezuela will not happen to other countries including Switzerland.

My thought about it is that it is a welcome development and also one in the right direction but we also need to be more careful because to the best of my understanding, for any government to accept the bitcoin then I see they have a way around the anonymity maybe from the forms to fill you then expose your wallet, then you are in the tax net immediately. But at the same time, its a commendable move and hopefully it can be sustained...

Hope it would really happen. Because as far as i know, the country where i am now dont know about bitcoin and also dont want to accept bitcoin. All i can say is, i do hope it would really happen since it will help a lot especially in doing some transactions. It would be very easy and convenient in our part since we can send and receive, pay monthly expenses while staying in your house

Great news and will help bitcoin to be popular in the physical world, with government accepting bitcoin as a form of payment that is already a big one and I believe it will greatly help to increase the adoption rate of bitcoin. I would not be surprise if there will be another government agencies that will accept it, surely with this positive news, it will boost our confidence to hold our bitcoins longer and use it for our online transactions.

Yeah, people who own bitcoin are so protective when it comes to spending them, they always think that they could save a bit more before starting to spend it because they are greedy, and even if they spend they spend it on worthless thing, governments won’t even consider bitcoin a currency because it is not that much spent, it just circulates around the bitcoin community not outside it.

I would argue, it may happen, but for now it's not all the government really accept bitcoin. Although some countries are actually receiving. If this could happen soon, it will be very nice and hopefully bitcoin will become an international currency.

Currently it might be circulating around just the Bitcoin community but there's room for improvement and that's why we all welcome this news of just a first government trying to use it as a payment for services rendered to him. We should encourage this and I know as we move in the future this action will escalate and other jurisdictions/governments will adopt it and the mystery surrounding keeping and not spending Bitcoin will be solved and everyone will embrace it without fear.

It will definitely be great because I think the problem with most governments inability to endorse and accept Bitcoin has to do with potential income tax skipping. Most companies and individuals can refuse to pay their taxes if Bitcoin is globally accepted but I think it will help all of us if it's generally accepted so I will urge the respective governments to employ this technology and enhance its security against people tgat might want to skip paying taxes.

In my country there is an exchange site that accepts Social Security payments using Bitcoins. For the Government to start accepting Bitcoins as payments to services I think the Government needs to accept the fact about Bitcoin first however that might open up a can of worms as they (government) may also start regulating Bitcoins if that ever happens.