Bitcoin Forum

With the ray of hope brought by victories such as that of the great leader Zohran Mamdani, it is high time that Bitcointalk took a step towards social justice. It is unfair that some privileged members of the forum, who've had some unfair advantage, earn so much and others so little or nothing. To address this, the most reasonable solution is to impose a fee system for signature campaigns and avatars that exist on the forum so that this money can be redistributed to the most disadvantaged forum members.

The system I propose is as follows: a minimum exemption of $20, on which no tax is paid. From $20 to $50, a 30% tax is paid. From $50 to $100, a 45% tax is paid. And anything in excess of $100 pays a 60% tax.

These are reasonable income tax brackets that resemble those of advanced countries with a high quality of life, such as Denmark.

I hope my left-wing friends on the forum will lead by example and enthusiastically support the idea.

Now, how about redistribution?

Some might consider establishing criteria to prevent abuse of the system, such as requiring recipients of redistributed income to have a minimum level of merit and/or activity.

But to those who think that, I say you are fascists. No human being is illegal. Therefore, the forum must remain open so that anyone can register and benefit from this redistribution.

I am also sure that my friends who support open borders policies will logically also support this great idea. The massive influx of new accounts to the forum can only be positive.

Don't you think those who is already in forum and active on the forum, contributing on forum have enough merits and quality to join a signature campaign. Then why need this redistribution mechanism? If this happens forum will be only seen as a charity programe that will donate money to member's. Even signature campaigns are getting flooded by alts, merit abuser , this idea of your won't sustain.

But

If theymos feels that forum needs to get monetized, the way you're implying rather than cutting of user's pay it should be the projects advertisement. Although forum does have the membership option from where there can be a little revenue generate. But I won't mind if it needs for forum development 5% cut off ain't bad.

Those who is paying tax on crypto after 45% cut off they should still pay 15-30% tax varied by region. Idk how you get this crazy idea.

Personally, I think this proposal completely misunderstands what Bitcoin and by extension, Bitcointalk truly stands for. The whole essence of Bitcoin is freedom from centralized control and coercion. So imposing a tax or redistribution policy on members’ campaign earnings would literally go against that very principle.

From what I know, people earn through signature campaigns because they’ve built trust, activity and reputation over time. That is not an unfair advantage like you said, it’s earned merit. Trying to redistribute it by force isn’t justice, it’s just a soft form of control.

If we actually want equality, I propose that it should come from equal opportunity, not equal outcome. Anyone here can work their way up, no one is locked out. Let’s keep this forum aligned with the decentralized ideals that Bitcoin itself promotes.

Are you insinuating that those farming accounts should get paid for farming because the farmed accounts were not able to reach forum standards to get into a campaign? And what is the first essence of a tax system? Isn't it to mostly foot government duties that in turn makes life easy for the same citizens being taxed?

I thought this forum is decentralized and if we are being taxed then the forum should be renamed to altcoin talks obviously because it's not representing bitcoin in the first place. This is a forum for crying out loud not a country.

I don't see any good reason to implement this proposal.
It would be unfair to the active members who have worked hard to build their reputation and merit. If they are forced to pay a heavy tax on the money they earn from promoting signature campaigns, it punishes their effort.
For example, a 60% tax on a $100 payment leaves the member with only $40. This massive deduction would destroy the incentive to participate. Many high ranking members would simply stop promoting their signature space.

Literally this would significantly reduce the inflow of signature campaigns to the forum. The system would turn the forum into that of the government, taking a large share of members' hard earned money in the name of generating revenue.

A nice initiative but this is a forum about Bitcoin. Where everybody have the right on how to spend their funds.

Must is a strong word.

Now won't say much but give reference to this link about donation https://bitcointalk.org/donate.html

Imposing it as a must is a No in my opinion.
People can choose to do so voluntary. Let's not even talk about how it would be taken advantage of by alts.


Maybe I'm the one that isn't seeing the bigger picture.

The forum is not decentralized, though. It has an admin that can decide to do whatever he wants, and there is nothing much any other member can do about it. Take an example of that bitcoin mixer ban.

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The Taxing thingy is a very bad idea, or maybe it's just some sarcasm or Joke  ;D This is just a forum, not some charity organization or Government arm. If anything, "taxes" would be imposed to help with the forum development or administration, not some "disadvantaged" members who chose top sign up even when they had the choice not to.

You are proposing that people pay tax for signature earnings to the forum, and at the same still pay to their country when the money land in their wallet do that participant of the signature end up with nothing? If you pay 30% to the forum and another 30% to your country, you will be left with 40%, is this worth the time and energy put in to meet the signature campaign requirement? This idea is not necessary because the forum still have enough money. This is a community that was created for Bitcoin and not primarily for profits, unless there are many things you are not telling us.

I'm surprised this idea is coming from a high rank member. I think the higher the rank, the more reasonable the post should be  :)

Haven't we passed the era of exploitation? This is purely exploitation! The system will even favor non signature participants than the actual participants.

Correct me if I am wrong please. So literally, the forum will automatically turn to money making platform where you just need to be a member to get paid?

Suppose the tax is mainly for the maintenance and improvement of the forum if the need be, that is a fair suggestion but tax for redistribution is totally off point in my opinion.

In every society earning is attribute to hard work, not emotion or pity. I see no reason why forum should be different, offer to reward for just being a member. Personal donations is always a welcome one, people who feel some persons are not benefiting enough from the forum can decide to make donations for them willingly and not through tax imposition.

The forum is fighting against alts but this suggestion is another way to reward alts.

I am saying NO! to any forceful levy, where's the freedom we all talk about? This  is so unfair on many grounds. Everyone here in this forum has earned their rank, status and reputation in this forum by merit. If they are paid higher, they deserve it. Everyone should work hard, earn merits and enjoy the benefits others are enjoying. If anyone here feels that lower ranking members are not earning enough or not earning at all, they can voluntarily donate to these persons. Imposing a fee on members here and enforcing it goes against the principles of Bitcoin.

I'm sure the OP doesn't mean this, he just wanted to know people's reaction to it.

Let it make sense to me, a user took his time and efforts to build a profile on a neutral forum, and he would be taxed, for what? Those new users, or the underprivileged users should also do better to rank up. To help them is not about taxing others, but to further create a better enabling condition/environment for them to rank up.

Does it even link up to be using a country's tax system on a forum like this? Has he even thought of an abuse where people continue to open and farm new and underprivileged accounts to receive the benefit?

Besides all that, the forum would tax you as high as the OP stated, and you will still pay PIT to your country. What would remain?  ???

Hahahaha 😂😂😂…… this must be a joke coming from Poker player FMC. We complain for the taxes levied on us by the government and now we want to do same? How are we any better?… some of the words you used makes me not want to believe it.
There are a lot of things that could go wrong with this. How will you determine the under privileged users or most disadvantaged like you used.
 It just means newbies can just relax and get paid cause the more advanced ranks would be working for them. Once such a rule is established the influx of new accounts will be overwhelming if right now we’re complaining of alts. This just makes it easier for them, the goal will be get to the level of merits/activity of being recognised as a “most disadvantaged” and boom you’re settled.
It’s funny to think of it!

See @Free Market Capitalist I get the angle you're coming from, but I don't really think or support that kind of system here on Bitcointalk. And The forum has always been set up in a way that you earn based on your contribution, activity and the trust you have built. See those people who earn more did not just get lucky, they have been in this forum for years, they stayed committed and consistent, and they have also built trust in the forum.

So If you start to tax or force campaign earnings to be redistributed, then most campaign managers and advertiser will probably just leave, which means in the end nobody will benefit. And if you open the door for anyone to sign up and instantly get a share will 100% attract spammers and alt account like crazy. And you don't want to even imagine how bad things will get when there's an easy way to abuse the system.

So IMO I think the better way is still to be encouraging people to learn, improve their posts and build their reputation. And when they have  build their names and value, you'll see that opportunities will just come naturally. Trying to force equality usually ends up breaking the whole system instead of balancing it.

Honestly I get your point man, but don't you think it's better people fight for their place in signature campaigns and get it by their good contributions to the forum as evaluated by campaign managers. If you make provision for earning by those who are of rank and not privileged to be in signature campaign, it would be easier for guys to grow alts to a certain rank which makes them eligible to receive pay in the forum and to that effect ghost workers would be much in the forum.

Again most of us pay taxes in our different countries for crypto profits and it's a lot already and if we still pay taxes here in the forum that would be double taxation and would be very discouraging to participants of signature campaigns. In sharp response there would be many alts trying to meet up to having something profitable after the double taxation and the quality of engagement here would even degenerate the more. If you place the taxes on the companies for their participants, they may loose interest in continuing since it would increase their budget against their plan.

To me this your idea would have more negative consequences than the positive you intended.

My only course of wonder is what would the online quality of life be then,,,
Maybe the Epochtalk project would have more funding which it didn’t lack in the first place to come into play, lol…

And then should the taxation become too much, we would at least have something to complain about like the rest of the taxed world do and accuse its government. That would make for a true community you know, something to accuse the administrator Theymos, staff and DT users of.

A good business for account farmers indeed ;D

Now the good guys will feed the bad ones also just like every flaw system of the real world?
Is not like signature campaign is a compulsory/necessity for all. Not all top forum members are in campaign and some have never been in one and I think this is also true for some old low ranks members.

You almost got me at first, I was like, what is he on about? There's no way he's being serious. The more I read, that I started understanding that this post is all sarcasm. Good one! Not only did the post make me laugh, but the serious replies were also hilarious. Although this post is not serious, it actually draws a parallel with signature campaigns and what's really happening out there. Although you raise simple and valid points, the majority of people of the "left" will never accept it nor even discuss it without yelling their BS.

You should have capitalized "MUST" instead of "Taxed";
theymos merited this post but dropped just 1 merit, now I have mixed feelings about that;
I love your idea, let me quickly make 5 accounts incase this idea would be implemented;
Now, how do I grow the 5 accounts, do I need to hire people?
Who knows theymos could decide to share Satoshi's bitcoin to all of us in this forum one day;
ThankGod I'm in this forum. Let Mixers return first before you start your redistribution.

Nice try

https://talkimg.com/images/2025/11/07/U65TP3.png

;D ;D ;D ;D :P

Unfortunate, 1st April 2025 is about 5 months away, so why did you have to hurry @Free Market Capitalist? This would have been a very good prank for the day!
Since we are talking tax, how about the service that are advertising here, are they going to pay taxed as well just like our greedy governments do?

i agree!

and.. and..

it should be backdated!! to the beginning!!

And redistribute more taxes for minorities, such as women and LGBT  :D
Those people have less presence in the crypto industry,  they were always oppressed by white man who ruled here since the beginning of bitcoin times

The forum is not the government, and people must file their tax reports individually to their governments.

I don't know it is ideally if the forum acts like a government, taxing forum members and redistribute it to other forum members. If there is such tax redistribution, I believe that KYC will be enforced mandatorily. Without KYC, you can not distribute money fairly in this forum.

In addition, if the forum does that, the forum head admins will have to file tax report with this activity included in the forum tax report to USA government too. It will become more complicated than what you imagined.

This is a great idea and I agree with that.
Free Market Capitalist Regulated Market Socialist, I see theymos has merited your topic and I think it means that he will implement the new tax policy soon.


I also have a few suggestions and I hope theymos will take them into consideration.

• Apply an exit tax to those who decide to leave the campaigns
• Freeze rates and not allow campaign managers to increase them
• Pay the internet bills for all the newbies

I am surprised by most of the comments on the first page, which have failed to grasp the irony.


Because inspiration struck yesterday. I wasn't going to wait five months.


Yeah, so actually, going back to Regulated Market Socialism mode I was thinking, how about a parallel with "Defund the Police" and stuff? I think moderators should be fired and the unfair trust system abolished. We cannot continue to oppress people who have broken the rules because social and personal circumstances beyond their control have forced them to do so. Everyone has the right to rehabilitation, and through a system that does not penalize forum members for things that are not really their fault, we will achieve an ideal (forum) society in which, as John Lennon said in Imagine, the world will be as one.

Socialist: I'm going to squeeze the signature participants, take all from them and redistribute back to everyone including active members without campaign.
Signature Participants: Oh No!  :o The forum is dead, I'm leaving the forum. You can't take the everything and reshare back to everyone.

It's not that dip baby. :D

I was wondering this was a "BANNED WORD" in this forum ::) or at least one of the WORST ARGUMENTS ( don't ask me why ;) )

For sure I have seen this as one of the rarest places on Planet Earth with people providing helps by them. Perfect strangers in most of the cases ....  ::) Without any kind of barrier based on location, color of skin, religion, economical status WHAT EVER!

[My 2 satoshi]
I would not see nothing strange to continue to help other fellow bitcoin passionate.

The real problem with any kind of taxation is to have a real "democracy" on that choice.  
Probably this is literally impossible and we are not still able to figure out the real reasons behind.  
Probably AI and even blockchain with transparency could implement a new way of thinking "more intellectual" and for this reason "more human".

A proposal like this has many questions un-answered.
What it should be the right point to give a start? How these must be collected? How it should it be managed? Who decides? What happens if someone would not use/join this "program"?
Are we sure this could not have a negative effect by pushing only spammers to keep posting ::) ?
An option (other 2 satoshi, so here we have 4) it could be just give donation freely to forum and to users. This is already how it works nowadays, probably not the best system but definitely working.

It is already taxed and redistributed.

The taxes imposed on us by our respective governments do this quite (in)efficiently already and it does not matter if you earn in fiat or BTC....
That is the real irony here.

Good Humour :D

You should have PM'ed theymos about it, and it could have been a lovely April Fool's event. Since theymos already noticed it, I assume theymos will plan something and announce it in April 2026. I am having a difficult time choosing forum members for my campaigns. You will notice that there are always some open positions in some campaigns. LM told me the other day that there are not enough members that he could accept for his campaigns.

I assume you also noticed that a lot of dormant accounts are now waking up seeing all those open slots in signature campaigns. This will be a nice opportunity for them to make some money. BTW, I see you are successfull with this topic so far.

What about those with loan tags? I think they should be added to the list of the disadvantaged members of the forum   ;D

Well, as I said in my previous comment, the first step would be to fire all those repressive moderators and get rid of the trust system, so in this case tags would disappear from their profiles and no tags could be added. Then, of course those people that are victims of the circumstances and have been forced to default loans/scam/whatever should be beneficiaries of the redistribution towards an equal forum society. This includes banned members too.

Yes we can, yes we can!

Exactly bro, almost all society today earns based on hard work, so if his suggestion is made to happen, then it will kill the morals of the hard working members here, and additionally, what if most account that are in a campaign decides reduce their efforts like the unfortunate or disadvantage members as you called them, they decides not to put in more efforts like those disadvantage ones, believing that at the end of the day, the national cake must be shared, don't you think that this will make so many people not to do anything again since they know that at the end, they must get something, this act alone encourages laziness.
I just can't imagine this because some people are very good at looking for loopholes to exploit, and someone can have as high as 50 alt account ;D ;D if  something like this is ever implemented.

I didn't expect to see something like this here :)

At the beginning of the last century, in one northern country (which existed for no more than 70 years), they also "remembered" the idea of ​​universal justice and equality. Therefore, the new government decided to take away and deprive the most proactive individuals of everything they had and "fairly" distribute it among the rest. Unfortunately, nothing good came of this, but only hindered the country's development for a long time (and the people in power fairly distributed financial flows among themselves).

Everyone gets what they deserve (those who put in more effort have more advantages). In a competitive world, there can be no "fairness" a priori.

So, are you proposing to "incentivize" non-competitive users at the expense of the most active ones? This will deprive non-competitive users of the incentive to develop and improve. It will also undoubtedly impact the quality of posting and discussions, because why strive for "growth" if, under your proposal, they'll be fairly paid anyway?

Furthermore, "free" payments will attract crowds of lazy and uninitiated users to the forum simply to earn a free "salary" at the expense of other users.

If you care about the well-being of the "poor and disadvantaged," then what's stopping you from creating a fund, collecting funds (you can take the initial step by donating 1st), and distributing them to all the "disadvantaged forum members"?

It's not hard to guess from the first lines of the thread that this is sarcasm. But even after the OP clarified out loud that he was joking, there are still people who, firstly, have no sense of humor, and secondly, are too lazy to read what was discussed above. ;D

The elites could use their power to avoid paying tax, how? they didn't apply the campaign and whenever we see their post, they wear a paid avatar and signature. They could give excuse if they only wear the avatar and signature just for a personal reason to promote their affiliate link.

I think the ending of this system is similar to signature ban, it make people not interested to be active.

The reward distribute towards member members is really mind blowing, it's like the government giving money to dead people.

I demand a treaty to avoid double taxation!

Typical government: tax middle class, but not the ultra rich. This shouldn't be implemented on Bitcointalk alone, this should be implemented in Bitcoin on a protocol level! I propose BIP666: Capital gains can instantly be taxed when funds are moved, so if someone moves 80,000 Bitcoin from 2011, 60% of that should automatically be redistributed to all poorer addresses on the blockchain.
Bring socialism to Bitcoin now!

Theymos should also get rid of proxybans, I just had an AI spammer ask me to whitelist his brother:
Without proxybans, this injustice wouldn't have occurred!

Obviously, Admin just made a mistake when he requested to change his nickname to "Capitalist Free Market".

Yeah, let's distribute 80000BTC to 57 million poorer address[1]. Everyone who have multiple address with non-zero balance would make a fortune.

[1] https://app.blockunity.io/charts/on_chain/bitcoin_non_zero_addresses (https://app.blockunity.io/charts/on_chain/bitcoin_non_zero_addresses)

DO IT NOW!
https://i.ibb.co/v63dpW0Z/download.png (https://imgbb.com/)
Just kidding ;D

edit: old btc users will remember a coin that has used the "old address" as Proof of Claim (yes it was Clam coin).
Addresses from btc/ltc/doge can always be redeemed for this airdrop.

Why would you leave out the poorest of the poor? There are 1.4 billion empty addresses on-chain, who all deserve a $6 windfall!

Let’s not bring taxes into this and let people have a space to breathe eh? If you bring taxes into the picture than the whole sig camp thing will die because casinos will demand passport scans to hire posters and seriously fuck that. I wouldn’t do that and no sane good poster I know would do it either.

It would also become another kick in the crypto’s privacy and then our crypto address will be known by the government and again, no sane person wants that.

Let’s drop the idea and keep this part of crypto government and tax free.

Many got whooshed ITT ;D

Theymos already saw this topic and he gave him +1 Merit. This shows that Theymos is already aware of this topic and he is very interested in this topic that is why he gave him +1 Merit as a reward for posting this topic. And I think we will see its implementation next April Fools' Day.  :D

However, this plan is not bad but tax should not be taken for redistribution. Tax can be taken for the development of the forum and it should be maximum 5% and this fund can be used for the development of the forum and for the remuneration of moderators

I know you are watching, I have four words to say:

Turn
The
Volume
Up

What makes you think the forum needs more money?

I am actually shocked when I see the title of this post. Anyway for the good of community. Sarcasm isn't bad at all. But I wonder if theymos will actually give this a thought.

Does it mean death and taxes is for real? - Joe Black.

You mentioned taxes to be distributed to the less fortunate on this forum.
Isn't there already a lot of knowledge about crypto on this forum? The question is, why are there still people who are less fortunate, as you say? The answer: Maybe they never read, never try to improve this forum, or even do nothing at all.

Ultimately, it all connects to the campaign when they make the effort to read and create high-quality posts.

Don't you realize that Newbie members can rise to Legendary level thanks to their efforts on this forum?

So, luck depends on how we work, not just sitting around earning money. That's impossible.

We should also distribute a fraction of the forum funds (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=155000.0) as a welcome bonus, to incentivize more people to join. ;D

Oh no  :o

Guys, are there any offshore forums I can move to to hide my sig campaign money to avoid getting taxed on it?

You got most people, when I was reading your post I was laughing seriously and when I saw that theymos merited you I just said to my self theymos most have been laughing seriously, what made everything really fun to me was the serious reply I was seeing  :D members where very serious criticizing the idea.
Theymos would have made it more fun if after meriting the post he replied by saying and I quote " good idea it will be implemented immediately" :D
But to be honest this your idea should be implemented immediately we really need to experience equality in this forum and we need people to work more hard so they can generate some finance we can use to pay the lazy once.

What the hell is going on? Am I in an alternate reality where it is already April 1? I first saw vapourminer's post about tariffs on merit, and now this.

Anyway, hell yeah, tax the Billio.....top signature campaign earners.

You indirectly criticise EU countries I guess, because such a tax and social system exists in Europe. This is very interesting because the European system is extremely praised in my country but I think that it's because local people are very lazy and want to have an amazing life without leaving their sofa.
To be fair, about European system I like that if you lose a job, you are not completely out of money and if you need a medical help, you don't have to worry about anything but at the same time, on an individual level, it looks terrible because if I'm healthy, my family is healthy, we are very hard workers but pay half of our salary into taxes, that doesn't sound fair, especially when a lazy neighbour gets all the benefits on my and my hard working family's expanse. You have a valid point here and it makes perfect sense, especially when this is so correctly applied on Bitcointalk. I guess no one wants to give up on their money here.

Remember, centralized forums will freeze your account and demand KYC. Keep your sig campaign money in non-custodial forums only.

Seems the META board has turned into a humor hub lately after seeing some funny topics. Okay, let's look into the reality of imposing a tax on signature campaigns, it will mean that the forum will create some kind of centralized mentality because what difference does it makes from centralized authorities that takes taxes from our earnings and use it to generate revenues that will also assist those who are not privileged to earn.

However, there is still going to be a lot of irregularities if such rule is established. I think that theymos is interested in making the forum as free as it can to everyone and not concerned about placing strict rules or regulations that might begin to chase some users away from the forum. Perhaps, signature campaigns doesn't last forever so what will happen if there comes a time when a lot of users won't be in a signature campaign?

No worries. The fund will be sent to the escrow address of LM, and then LM will distribute it to the users who used to reach LM for accepting them in sig campaign for % commission. Of course, for a % commision from them  :D

Next thing you know we'll be hearing about tariffs on merits.

Well I for one ain't no sucker. I know there's one born a every minute but I ain't one cuz I know some bullshit when I see it and this right here is it ladies and gentlemen. We've heard about how new taxes will solve Bitcointalk's problems for a while now but look who's been saying it: the politicians, man. My daddy didn't raise no sucker, no sir, and you can pull these illegal taxes outta my free ass.

Seeing a few of the replies of this thread, I've just PMed theymos and mprep so unofficial rule 36 is added as follows:

"36. When replying on a thread make sure you haven't read, and even less understood, anything about the previous discussion. Otherwise you shall be severely punished."

This is a fair rule that is consistent with the daily practice of the forum.


I'm actually parodying the left-wing forum users.


There you have it, Europe is wonderful for foreigners. If you come illegally, it welcomes you with open arms and gives you benefits from day one.

Some say that giving money unconditionally to everyone will lower the forum’s quality. In my view, it won’t decrease the quality; rather, it will make the forum more fair and enjoyable. It is very important to support those with fewer opportunities. Honestly, redistributing a small portion of income generated from signature campaigns and avatars is like taking a small slice of cake for someone else—it doesn’t harm anyone. Yes, there is a risk that someone might create fake accounts to take advantage—but a simple verification system can prevent that. Wealthier or more active members might feel a slight “tax burden,” but this is completely acceptable for the sake of social justice. Therefore, redistributed income and a small tax system are not harmful to the forum; on the contrary, they are a strong, fun, and effective step toward equality. Let’s all work together to make the forum more equitable and enjoyable!

Great response, buddy. You would have earned your first merit from me if you actually had understood what the thread is about. But I hope that the aforementioned rule 36 will be added soon, so that the forum rules are in line with responses like yours.