I pay capitol gains on the appreciation in value that is realized when spending. For example if I payed $10,000 for some bitcoin then a year or so later I used it to buy gold for $20,000 because the value has doubled, I would have seen a $10,000 gain that is taxable. In my current tax bracket I would owe about 10% or $1,000.

It's true that most transactions are beyond the IRS's ability to discover. However, if they did find out then you will have no defense and will pay the principal + fines + interest. You may even do a little time in jail. You should take that into consideration before choosing to cheat your neighbors by sticking them with your tax bill.

Your right about small scale mining. It has gone to an industrial scale and entering the mining business would require large capitol investments. But anyone, anywhere is free to take a shot at it. That group in the picture has no ability whatsoever to stop you from going even bigger and eating their lunch. They have power, but not authority.

Let me compare it to a true unholy system, the "qualified investor". This law is changing right now but until this year poor people were not allowed to invest. It was illegal for you to invest a few thousand dollars in a local business.
Say a hardware store near you needs money to expand. They can seek investors, but only qualified investors. And what qualifies one to be an investor? You simply must be rich, that's all. You must have a million dollars in the bank and show that you will likely make a million in the next year. The idea is that poor people should work to make capitol gains for the investor class.  They must be  barred from investing and protected from making bad investment choices. So if I had a doctorate in economics but were poor I am unqualified. But if I had down syndrome and a million bucks I can be trusted to make the right decisions and can be a qualified investor. How fucking insulting is that. 

That is an excelent idea!  Don't take it for granted that you will be able to freely communicate in the future.
Look for encryption tools that are:
Open source - Open source software assures you that no backdoor is present in the code.

End-to-end - This means that only you and the recipient can view the message. Systems that decrypt on some server are only as good as that server.

Not associated with identity - It should NOT be tied to your email or phone number.

Strong encryption - The stronger the better. And that includes passwords that look like this: "GhjWs7$kTewwRW@!UDEXkrm8#" not like this "cooldude1996".


Here is a good example of the kind of thing you want.  https://www.surespot.me/

The battle for encryption is on in America and many are pushing for a system that does not allow encrypted communication. The Apple iPhone of terror is just one example of the misguided sense that people should not be allowed to communicate without the supervision of the government. To my mind it's antithetical to the whole idea of freedom of speech.

Such a measure threatens the security of almost every American. Because encryption is the only thing between you and the theft of your money, identity, and your ability to have a private conversation online. I can't see how current online spending could even happen in such a scenario.
 
Bitcoin would surely also be a target as it represents something even more powerful than speech. We may soon see a call to change the bitcoin protocol so that anonymous transactions are not possible. Right now they are if you know what your doing. Or maybe a rule to make all encryption illegal, that would include bitcoin. Believe it or not, that is being considered right now.

I am not a paranoid, conspiracy minded person and I do not think these efforts are part of some Orwellian takeover. The people arguing this in the government think they are doing the right thing and that they are fighting terror. In reality they are destroying their own freedom as a fearful reaction to terror, which is exactly what real terrorist hope to see happen. That is the point of terror, it is not to kill people, it is to provoke a self destructive overreaction. These efforts at banning encryption must be resisted. A well meaning fool is just as threatening as a tyrant in a democracy. And make no mistake, the advocates for this haven't a clue what loosing encryption would mean for our economy and freedom.

If you share the governments concern about terror consider who is the "real" terrorist. In North Korea it is people who suffer from the "mental illness of not respecting communism". In Saudi Arabia gay people are the real terrorists and so they are subject to the death penalty. Each government will follow suit and crack down on the rights of their opposition. Every despot in the world would love to invade the lives of rivals and destroy their ability to get out the message. And the U.S. will have zero moral ground to stand on because they would have provided legitimacy to the very idea of attacking encryption to stop the "bad guys".

Completely incorrect. You must get an overwhelming majority. If there really were only 20 miners in the world then the question becomes "why aren't you mining?" If you put millions of dollars into bitcoin, like those guys did, then you could compete with them. Bitcoin rewards for work, it's not free money, it's fair money. Any consolidation is limited to what the market will logically allow. Too much and other profit minded players start mining. True centralization is possible only when people leave money on the table, which is illogical.

That could happen. I agree that poor decision could be a huge problem. Only a consensus can change things and a dumb consensus would likely produce a dumb result. Elections have sometimes resulted in a dictatorship or horrible policy. Still, democracy is better than tyranny. That's my hope anyway. 
That may be true for some. I would not even consider using a centralized money anymore. Bitcoin has no way for a central authority to operate. No one can change the price, the supply, the distribution. No one can keep me from using it or compel me to use it. They cant change the fees or the use cases. What is left to control? 
Gavin has no more authority than you do. There is no official anything and you could create a competing chain that becomes the "real" bitcoin.
What steering wheel?

Well, I call a system that requires a consensus democratic. But perhaps he has a more nuanced definition of democracy. My point is that nobody is making you do anything unless they convince most everyone to go along with a change. It does suck to try bringing all these competing interests to a decision, but that has always been the plan. We could just change the code so that one person or a bank would decide on all changes. But who the hell would want bitcoin if that was the case? 

Welcome to democracy. The system was always supposed to work this way. It was designed to be extremely change resistant and only change when a huge percentage of users agree to the changes. If you don't agree with the proposals then you should do something. Anyone can mine or run a node of their choice, and no one has any more control than what you could have. This is a trust-less system. Only the completely predictable math in the protocol controls the supply, distribution, etc. If you want to change anything just make a version and convince the overwhelming majority of users to follow you. That is what others are doing.

I honestly do not think such a thing will happen. The reason is because the millions of threads warning of a takeover never include a plausible way for it to happen. Until I see that I will continue to ignore these threads the way I have for years now. Banks may not like it, but what can they do about it?

Bitcoin is dead again? Yeah, OK.
I see nothing happening that is not exactly what was expected and consistent with the way the protocol is supposed to work. ETH I know nothing about other than, like all alt coins, it was created to address some perceived problem. I think ETH has no cap and so will eventually burn out. Like all almost every single alt. It is the beanie baby effect. They were valuable for a brief time. Then the producers made a million of them and sold them to suckers. That can't happen with bitcoin because fortunately we will never have a bitcoin CEO.

Perhaps Satoshi went dark for the same reason Mohamed was buried in an unmarked grave. It is not the man that is important, it's the message.

I use the app just called "bitcoin wallet" for android. I like it a lot and you hold the private keys.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.schildbach.wallet

It does sound familiar. 

At least we all have one thing to counter this type of attack, our brains. When I hear someone talking about what he did or what she said instead of the issue I assume this is not about the truth. It is an attempt to persuade me based on my feelings about his/her actions. That does not work on me. I base my financial decisions on mathematics rather than emotion. I kinda think this is true of all serious people and that FUD only works on the weak and fearful.

I can't see a FUD campaign bringing down bitcoin because the people who ignore it are going to be more successful and that will eventually argue more powerfully than childish attacks.

Bitcoins are money you actually own and have complete and sole authority to spend. It is the safest, fastest, and cheapest way to send money to anyone in any country.

Debit cards let you access money that the banks own, but that you may uses in a way consistent with their rules. Simply hand over all the information to allow anyone to access your money. Leave it at a website, send it around the world to payment processors, put it out there. What could go wrong?

Credit cards Allow you spend bank owned money that you don't even have. You have the opportunity to go into debt and spend far more than you ever intended on a purchase.

Guess which one I use when shopping online?

Too strong a statement, IMO. I assume you mean "failed state", which has a specific meaning.  However you should consider moving "NSA spying on everybody" into the fail category. Fear comes from insecurity. Like the paranoia that leads to thinking everyone is a threat and must be controlled. Successful, healthy governments trust their people and represent them. Dictatorships spy on their people.

I also think Obama care is in no way a fail. Our healthcare system has consistently ranked dead last in the developed world. We pay far more for drugs and every medical service. Then we receive far less care for that money. It's not single payer yet, but at least we are trying to build something that measures up to the rest of the world.

For what it's worth. I think I remember the other halving events have been non-events. I think this gets baked in months before it happens. 

I don't know where you guys got your law degrees, but in the U.S. that is absolutely no defense at all. "Because it has no national boundaries"? So gold has no tax also? And as far as double taxation  consider this. If I earn a dollar then I must pay tax on that income. Now if I hire you for that same dollar then it is taxed again. In fact if that dollar floats around the economy for years paying lots of people then it is taxed over and over again, not just once. Basically any wealth you make is taxable. Even if you find a gold ring with your metal detector (I think I have read this example) technically you must pay tax on that ring.

But doesn't it depend on the project? I have frequently done the things on this list and it has worked. I have convinced several local places and I now shop with them. 
1. Ask a locally owned outlet to use bitcoin and help them set it up. All you have to do is show them a service like BitPay.
2. Write an email to a website and tell them you will be a customer if they take bitcoin.
3. Create a fun contest with a $20 bitcoin prize.
4. Volunteer to give a presentation about bitcoin.
5. Have some bitcoin stickers or cards printed up and distribute them.
6. Set up a friends phone with a wallet and give them a bucks worth to play and learn.

Yes. I buy guns with bitcoins. So what? There is nothing sketchy about it.
You will get a background check and it will be more supervised than anything else you have bought. It must be shipped to a federally licensed firearms dealer who will then meet with you in person. If you think that you can just buy a gun online and have it sent to you, then you have been watching the ignorant clap-trap found in the TV news. Thouse of us who shoot hundreds of rounds a week and own lots of guns are the people who know, not some reporter who has never been out of cab range from a city.

Here is my favorite bitcoin gun site, but there are many.
http://shop.centraltexasgunworks.com/

That makes sense. Great work man!