What is the source of this information? Can't find anything.

Oh God, this again.

From Tether's Terms of Service on https://tether.to/legal:

"Tethers are not money and are not monetary instruments. They are also not stored value or currency. There is no contractual right or other right or legal claim against us to redeem or exchange your Tethers for money. We do not guarantee any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers by us for money. There is no guarantee against losses when you buy, trade, sell, or redeem Tethers."

I don't know why it even matters if there is money in the bank, if there is no commitment by Tether to use it to redeem Tethers.

Incidentally, there is no mention anywhere in the TOS of any obligation by Tether to maintain bank reserves to back up Tethers. There is this though:

"No Representations & Warranties: We make no representations, warranties, or guarantees to you of any kind, including with respect to any right of redemption or exchange of Tethers for any property. The Site and the Services are offered strictly on an as-is, where-is basis and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, are offered without any representation as to merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose."

No guarantees of any kind? What about this from Tether's home page:

"100% Backed
Every tether is always backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in our reserves. So 1 USD₮ is always equivalent to 1 USD."

Isn't that a guarantee? Well it happens that there is a neat little clause in the TOS stating that if there is a conflict between the TOS and something else on the site, the TOS wins!

There is a lot more eye-opening stuff in the TOS. Read it, and consider the possibility that it means what it says.

This does not inspire confidence. This guy has escalated his ticket for an easily identifiable problem for seven months and Kraken is unaware of the issue and has to ask for the ticket number? How many unresolved seven month old tickets must there be?

Are you saying that QRL is an anonymous cryptocurrency (like Monero)?

Another "withdrawal in limbo" problem here. We're a nonprofit that received a gift of cryptocurrency and registered on Kraken in order to liquidate it. We eventually got Tier 4 status.

We made, fortunately, only a small test sale and attempted to withdraw the proceeds to our bank. That was 28 days ago. The withdrawal is still listed as "pending" on Kraken. We submitted a ticket #647966 and heard that the problem was with SynapsePay and have attempted to contact them but haven't heard boo from them or, again, from Kraken on repeated attempts.

If Kraken is sending our money out into limbo and deciding after that it's not their problem, there is something seriously wrong here! If we could at least get the money into our Kraken account again we could buy Bitcoin and get it out that way.

An interesting article on blockchain analysys of various anonymous cryptocurrencies. Researchers were able to trace Dash, ZCash, and others but failed with Monero.

https://themerkle.com/blocksci-succesfully-traces-transactions-performed-with-dash-zcash-and-other-currencies

Hang on to your principles! I assume you're ok with getting squashed like a bug when the IRS comes looking.

An amazing amount of misinformation on this thread. I'm answering for the US. I don't know about other countries.

Of course you have to pay taxes on your profits in cryptocurrencies. This is well established.

Whether you have to pay taxes on exchanges of one cryptocurrency for another depends on whether such transactions can be claimed as "like kind" transactions. Whether "like kind" applies to exchanges between cryptocurrencies is controversial. I think that the IRS will eventually rule that these transactions are _not_ like kind and I've read extensively on the issue. Others disagree.

If you choose to treat exchanges between cryptocurrencies as like kind transactions you have to declare them as such on IRS form 8824! Absolutely everyone who trades cryptocurrencies ignores this (except me, of course).

If the IRS rules that these transactions are not like kind, and you have filed form 8824, you are likely to be OK except that you will owe taxes, interest, and possibly penalties. If you haven't filed form 8824 I wouldn't want to be you.

Not a lawyer - just my well researched opinion.

Shor's algorithm for integer factoring was discovered long before there were quantum computers on which it could actually be run.

Development of an algorithm to break hash-based cryptography doesn't have to wait for real quantum computers. So far no one has the least idea of how to write such an algorithm, and there are a lot of smart people looking at it.

A "quantum" development in quantum computers?

"A radical new architecture for quantum computing, based on novel ‘flip-flop’ qubits, promises to make the large-scale manufacture of quantum chips dramatically cheaper – and easier – than thought possible. The new chip design, by Australian engineers at UNSW and published in the journal Nature Communications, allows for a silicon quantum processor that can be scaled up without the precise placement of atoms required in other approaches."

“Our new silicon-based approach sits right at the sweet spot,” said Morello, a professor of quantum engineering at UNSW. “It’s easier to fabricate than atomic-scale devices, but still allows us to place a million qubits on a square millimetre.”

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/flip-flop-qubits-radical-new-quantum-computing-design-invented

I registered on Gemini Monday, got verified Tuesday and sold some Bitcoin, and got the money today (Wednesday). Thanks for the tip!

Has anyone been able to cash out of Monero?

I am having a truly Kafkaesque exerience. I'm tier 4 verified on Kraken, but have been unable to withdraw any funds to my bank account. No explanation so far. My bank account details are all correctly entered.

I gave my church a substantial amount of Monero. They spent 3 months getting verified on Kraken but have also been unable to withdraw any funds. They were told that the wire transfer process has to be separately verified. They are trying to jump through all the hoops but I am beginning to lose hope.

Similar problems on Coinbase. I have tried selling Bitcoin on Coinbase but the transaction has been rejected because I am "over the weekly limit", which I'm clearly not. This used to work.

And I'm having the same problems on goldmoney.com. Not a cryptocurrency but again transfer out is not working for nonsensical reasons.

I'm starting to wonder whether the whole cryptocurrency world, if not the entire financial world, is fake. What does the Monero price matter if there's no real world liquidity?

Anyone else having similar problems?

How do you even know this? There isn't and can't be a "rich list" for Monero.

Don't you mean the difficulty is increasing? The block reward drops at a very slow and predictable rate that does not depend on the hash rate - I think.

Sure it exists, it's called Monero. There are plenty of other anonymous cryptos too, but Monero is best at it IMO.

See this: https://moneroforcash.com/monero-vs-dash-vs-zcash-vs-bitcoinmixers.php

I think that these buy walls at very low prices are put there by people looking to profit from a flash crash such as occurred when a series of stop loss orders triggered a brief fall in the price of Ethereum to $0.10 recently.

Governments will never give up control of the monetary system so cryptocurrencies will never replace fiat. Governments will always pay government workers in fiat, pay their debts in fiat, and demand their taxes (including taxes on fiat-notional gains in cryptocurrencies) in fiat. Digital fiat will undoubtedly become more of a thing but it won't be a true cryptocurrency as it will always be under central control.

They have had a notice posted since 6/22 to the effect that Ethereum deposits/withdrawals are disabled due to network instability. I assume that it will come through eventually.

If you read the original post further, I point out that the terms of service contradict the "pegged one-to-one" claim. Tether specifically disclaims any obligation to redeem Tethers for money. I was referring to your statement about Tether having USD in reserve - what relevance does this have if people with Tethers have no actual claim on those reserves?

A lot of misinformation here.

It is simply not true that you don't have to pay tax on crypto transactions until you actually cash something out. If you exchange Bitcoin for (say) Monero, you have to  consider that you have sold Bitcoin for whatever its market value was that day, and declare the gain/loss. That value becomes the basis for your Monero purchase. If you want to try for the like kind exemption, good luck, but you still have to declare it.

If you have lost money in crypto in prior years but haven't declared it, you can refile for those years. If you haven't declared gains you should also refile. You will have to pay interest but at least you will be in the clear.

I have never received a 1099 from Coinbase or anyone else. If Coinbase filed 1099s they wouldn't be embroiled with the IRS now in the dispute in which the IRS wants all of Coinbase's records for all of its clients, and which Coinbase is contesting. But the fact that they don't do this doesn't let anyone off the hook.

These are not popular opinions and practically nobody does this right but that is irrelevant. The only thing that is relevant is how the IRS views it.

Again I am not a tax professional but I have reviewed the issue thoroughly and I am quite convinced that this is the way it is.