Here's an interesting read from Theymos in response to Rep. Patrick McHenry's recent comments on CNBC. An excerpt: Good points by the Representative and the first two hosts, but overconfidence is the biggest mistake you can make on anything. We're not living in a storybook, and we are not destined to win.
In the US I think it's very likely that someday soon a little provision will be tucked into a must-pass bill at the last minute requiring reporting all BTC holdings via FBAR. After that, while there's currently no momentum whatsoever for it, it'd be a fairly simple matter to someday say "turn over your bitcoins, which we know you have, or go to jail" (or "we can prove you have bitcoins, but you didn't report it, so you go to jail").
The push for regulation increases constantly, worldwide. Each regulation is a reduction in freedom and a weight around the BTC economy's neck. In the end, it's not unimaginable that someday BTC will technically not be restricted for end-users, but all legally-operating on-ramps and off-ramps will be forbidden from transferring BTC to/from non-KYC wallets, not even trustless wallets. People who stay within this legally-acceptable area would be using something no better than (and with no competitive advantage over) fiat in bank accounts.
It's not unimaginable that LN nodes, even though trustless and not holding any user BTC, will be harmfully regulated. And the same could be true of other methods of scaling, most of which have centralization trade-offs. (Including on-chain scaling, where the centralization trade-off is the reduction in the distribution and economic power of full nodes.) He goes on to describe how the US government might go about attacking Bitcoin, if they were so inclined. Scary stuff! |
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loool who pays taxes for bitcoin? I think that no one does it. it's strange at least  Here's some bedtime reading for you: IRS Agent Who Took Down ‘Silk Road’ Turns His Attention To Recreational Bitcoin InvestorsI won't tell anyone to pay their taxes -- I hate taxes. But it's probably good to keep in mind that it isn't 2013 anymore. Governments are getting a lot more sophisticated about cryptocurrency. I'm not sure about other tax authorities, but the IRS is working with blockchain analysis companies, subpoenaing exchanges, and building cases. Stay safe out there! |
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Just make a clone at a 1:1 ratio called "bittercoin". Then they have to re write all the dumb ass laws again when they are done, Call it a "tearto currency"
1 bittercoin = 1 bitcoin
It is not CRYpto it`s TEARto Cute, but it won't work. Governments know full well how to write laws to prevent these sorts of loopholes. They use purposefully vague language to broadly capture all cryptocurrency-like assets under the law. That's why most ICO tokens already fell under existing securities laws in the US. And that's why the FATF travel rule specifies "virtual assets" instead of "Bitcoin." |
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Why do you think Libra is "secure?" You think your payments on Libra are irreversible?
It's pretty hard to compete with free transactions. No decentralized system can offer that -- users either pay via transaction fees, inflation or demurrage. Otherwise there is no incentive for honest consensus. some of your statement is not true look on nano coin about transactions. Nano is not secure, nor is it decentralized. It uses a variant of delegated proof-of-stake where a limited number of centralized delegated representatives vote to prevent forking or double spending. That's the trade-off. If you want reliably irreversible and censorship-resistant transactions, Bitcoin is the obvious choice. There are thousands of cheaper alternatives -- including Libra or Nano -- if decentralization and strong security are not required. |
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Our main devs decided Bitcoin should become digital "Store of Value", short of gold but in digits, instead of "A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" as stated on the title of the Whitepaper.
Facebook probably discovered that Bitcoin has difficulties in scaling so they made in no-time an answer to what the world exactly needs.
What do you think the world needs?
Digital gold or a fast and secure digital currency? Why do you think Libra is "secure?" You think your payments on Libra are irreversible? It's pretty hard to compete with free transactions. No decentralized system can offer that -- users either pay via transaction fees, inflation or demurrage. Otherwise there is no incentive for honest consensus. So, Libra can offer you free transactions. That's great. But it comes at a cost: - Your transactions can be reversed and your money can be frozen/confiscated.
- You need to complete KYC to transact on the network at all.
- Your transaction data will be sold to 3rd parties.
Even if we ignore the "digital gold" aspects, these seem like strong reasons to use Bitcoin for P2P payments rather than Libra. |
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Ages 18-34 is an awfully large group. I'd be curious to see a more detailed breakdown of opinions among those in their 30s vs. 20s vs. teens. We all know that Bitcoin is popular among millennials -- nothing new there. I'm really curious what the next generation has to say. Some of Generation Z are in their late teens and early twenties already. I wonder how they compare to millennials.
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Did you go through KYC with the same exact ID anywhere else, ICOs, exchanges, etc.? Perhaps pinpointing who leaked or made use of your ID is possible.
This is the likely culprit. The Pepapig1844 account was probably a legitimate account that was hacked/sold. The new owner procured the OP's documents on the dark web, verified the account with them, and then engaged in fraud. This is why I avoid KYC like the plague. I gave Coinbase my documents a few years ago. I don't plan on giving them to anyone else. |
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It's more serious this time. The state-level actors are learning that Bitcoin can separate money from state, and it's growing. I believe the attack will be done politically, it will be regulatory, it might involve character-assasination of some of the Core developers/contributors, all of them together. theymos articulated it better than anyone. https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/cedkch/rep_patrick_mchenry_theres_no_capacity_to_kill/eu1xn7f/
In the US I think it's very likely that someday soon a little provision will be tucked into a must-pass bill at the last minute requiring reporting all BTC holdings via FBAR. After that, while there's currently no momentum whatsoever for it, it'd be a fairly simple matter to someday say "turn over your bitcoins, which we know you have, or go to jail" (or "we can prove you have bitcoins, but you didn't report it, so you go to jail").
Ah, the old FDR gold confiscation scenario. I've always thought that was a possibility -- how remote, I'm not sure. At least we can take comfort in the fact that bitcoins are a lot easier to hide and transport than gold. We can always renounce our citizenship and leave. |
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That's why his tweets are one sided. It only shows the negative side of it to make bitcoin look bad. It's the only way he can hype up the US dollar. Notice how he ended the tweet series: We have only one real currency in the USA, and it is stronger than ever, both dependable and reliable. It is by far the most dominant currency anywhere in the World, and it will always stay that way. It is called the United States Dollar! Someone sounds worried! I wonder if the administration is concerned that Libra could grow larger than major sovereign countries. If that happens, shareholders could have a real effect on the foreign currency exchange market and sentiment around the US dollar. It could be the cherry on top of the declining petrodollar. |
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This is a nice contrast to Trump's tweets the other day. It's a relief to see that sentiment in Congress is not completely negative, and to see acknowledgement that the government is impotent to stop Bitcoin. These were some pretty powerful statements made at the hearing today: “Change is here,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). “Facebook’s entry in this world is just confirmation—albeit at scale.” McHenry (R-NC) cautioned observers not to dismiss Libra outright, saying that cryptocurrencies were the future and that it was imperative to exert “thoughtful government oversight” to avoid stifling innovation.
Directly acknowledging the influence of Bitcoin on Libra, McHenry continued: “The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin white paper, envisioned is an unstoppable force. We should not attempt to deter this innovation. And those that have tried have already failed.”
“Some of us want to live in permissioned society, where you have to come to the government and for its blessing before you even think about innovating,” he added. “Others believe in innovation.” |
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I had already made few posts earlier that, Facebook is yet to face regulation hurdles and conflict of interest with the regulatory authorities for Libra. They had initially informed that Libra will be launching in 2020, but I don't see it coming within this timeline! So let's put Libra out of the discussion! Unfortunately, Libra has triggered government officials to push for new cryptocurrency regulations. Even if it never launches at all, it's being used as a pretense to pass draconian laws affecting Bitcoin users. It's opened Pandora's box, so to speak. |
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The state-level actors will mine it themselves, subsidized by their tax payers.
That doesn't exactly sound like an attack to me. More like an endorsement! Unless it's not Bitcoin they're mining. Yes, that's when some of the state-level actors internalize that the only way to win the game is to be in the game playing. But it won't go straight to that, and not all state-level actors will be Bitcoiners all of a sudden. There will be attacks, and it will come in stages. I believe we're seeing the first stage with all the senate inquiries in the United States. I'm just curious how they could leverage an attack effectively. It's hard to imagine them pushing a political hard fork attack, especially given how impotent those attempts have been in the past. So what's left, attacking via regulation, prohibition? The US has senate hearings about Bitcoin every time the market has a bubble. What's different this time? |
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As we already know, Trump tweeted that he does not like Bitcoin and this was triggered by the threat that Libra pose for the US Dollar. I personally think his opinion is shortsighted and he is going to throw the baby out with the bath water, when he puts a blanket ban or strict regulations on Bitcoin. There's no blanket ban on the table. All Trump did was post a tweet echoing the old clichéd criticisms about volatility and drug markets. Plenty of political officials have been saying stuff like that for ages. They're probably going to pass something to comply with the FATF travel rule, which sucks..... but it would have happened under Trump, Obama, or any other president. They're bringing us closer and closer to an Orwellian world where they track everyone's financial transactions. |
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Give us a hint. Another miner-backed fork attempt a la Bitcoin Cash, this time backed by state actors? The state-level actors will mine it themselves, subsidized by their tax payers.
That doesn't exactly sound like an attack to me. More like an endorsement! Unless it's not Bitcoin they're mining. |
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If I'm reading it correctly, then 67,320 DAI stablecoin tokens were withdrawn from the WEX.nz wallet. I assume the admins -- or whoever has control of the funds now -- are planning to wash it through a DEX so they can get some ETH or BTC to sell for cash. I wouldn't get your hopes up about recovering funds.  |
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It's probably for fraud and AML checks. Once the bank transfer settles -- especially wires -- they can't claw the money back. If your account doesn't get flagged for suspicious activity in those few days, then they release the funds.
Probably is the key word there because Surprise! Nobody knows because Coinbase does not tell it's clients! The money is probably being funneled into real estate or insurance companies or really again, nobody knows for sure but the money is likely not just sitting there doing nothing. Big companies move money constantly like it is water in a stream. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it's sitting there doing nothing, which is why it's FDIC-insured. Some of it may be in high yielding accounts that aren't immediately liquid but nothing outside the bounds of their numerous money transmitter licensing requirements. Coinbase occurs to me as a company that is very by the book. These providers are not "upfront" at all. There is way too much secrecy from them when their main business is providing secrecy (=crypto) for their clients. That is a big reason why adoption with Bitcoin has been so slow. The big providers themselves are up to no good. They cloak all of their activity even for the simpleminded end user it is blatant.
The providers are ass backwards. They are not providing secrecy for their clients. That is the entire point of cyrpto. I'd like to see Coinbase and Binance both replaced by better providers. There's a big difference between the Coinbase/Gemini tier of exchanges and the Bitfinex/Binance tier. I wouldn't lump them all in the same basket. |
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Today I sent a small amount of USD from my Coinbase account, to my bank account. It says I will not receive those funds for 3 full days. Any other bank in the world would make that transaction almost immediately. Why does Coinbase take their sweet time? That is cruddy. It's probably for fraud and AML checks. Once the bank transfer settles -- especially wires -- they can't claw the money back. If your account doesn't get flagged for suspicious activity in those few days, then they release the funds. It's annoying but I've never faced any issues. They've always been upfront about the delay. |
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Now I see thay have new scheme, Fortress which is owned by SoftBank (Japan bank) it trying to get victims coins by paying only $900 per BTC, which is at this time 10x less then current value. Yes, they are vultures. To be fair though, it's impossible to even nearly repay the bitcoins in full. The majority were hacked and part of what was left was sold by the bankruptcy trustee. 7.5% sucks, but it's better than all other publicized offers so far. I am not sure is there any solution for victims on the horizon, or this case will last for few more years - but what I notice from published letter is that Fortress offer is valid only until July 31. Question is why they limit their offer for such a short time?
Volatility might be a concern. The offer was based on a price in the high $11,000s. |
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How the hell that hermanproudfoot account and Peppapig is the same? Just looking on the profile of those 2 where on is being created 2 weeks ago and that Peppapig was created 3 years ago.LBC support response isnt really that convincing on my part which they havent clarified
Both accounts used the same ID documents to verify. Normally, a service would just close one account and transfer funds to the other, but in this case there are fraud allegations. I went to the police, where I was told that they could not help because they had no evidence that I owned the Pepapig1844 account. Did you tell the police this may be a case of identity theft? It looks like someone stole your documents -- maybe they were sold on the dark web -- and used them to verify the Pepapig1844 account on Localbitcoins. The police should open a case for identity theft and give you a case #. Then you should give that case # to Localbitcoins support. |
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I don`t know but the bitcoin community should be worried, first Mr.Sherman says he wants to take all the bitcoins from the people pretty much, than Trump tweets he is not a fan of bitcoin "saying it is based on this air" failing to mention the USD is also, Then this guy... (all within 2 months) Sherman's had a hard-on for Bitcoin for years. Virtually nobody in Congress feels the same way as him. It's only worrisome because I prefer the unregulated space -- there's lots of nanny state bullshit coming down the pipeline. Otherwise, it's all very legitimizing for Bitcoin. The fact that the president and his cabinet are talking about Bitcoin is pretty epic. Even if they are scared of Bitcoin, they obviously can't ignore or laugh at it anymore. |
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