In the end, how many participants were registered in the contest? And how many submissions?
Besides, did anyone count how many merits have been given by forum users to all submissions? I know theymos have 9991, but besides these 9991 merits, how many were awarded by all the other forum members?

Thank you iasenko, that brings a lot of light for what I was looking for. OMG, only 15 members managed to get to Hero so far? WOW! They are very, very few.
It was interesting to see these 15 out of how many in total managed to get to Hero, to see a percentage, but, as LoyceV said, it would be too much work for this statistic...


Thank you as well, hd49728, I'll take a look into it!


Thank you, Loyce, I understand the difficulty of such an analysis.

Thank you all, once again. I'll close the topic now, as the subjects are solved.

I think an interesting analysis would be one which shows actually a list of top merited users by theymos. Or, a complete list of people (but also submissions - that means two statistics) merited only by theymos. Without taking into count the rest of the merits received by each participant.

In the end, it's only his decision, I don't think he'll be influenced by how many merits received a particular user from all the other forum members.

Hello,

I thought about 2 analysis for LoyceV, in case they would seem interesting. For me, at least, they actually are very interesting.

1. A list with all the members which received airdropped merits on 25.01.2018 (the date when the new system was launched) but after that didn't earn even one single merit.

2. A list with the members which didn't receive any airdropped merits on 25.01.2019 (so they had 0 merits at that date) and managed to achieve  the rank of Hero Member. Why Hero? Because this is the maximum rank that could be obtained by a member with 0 merits on 25.01.2018, as since then 670 days passed until today. Considering this means a maximum activity of 670 points, a member (in case he / she managed to earn the needed merits), could get maximum the rank of Hero, which requires 480 points of activity. Legendary requires at least 775 activity points, thus no members with 0 merit on 25.01.2018 could reach this rank.

- Small edit: for case 2, it would be also nice to see how many members had 0 merits on 25.01.2018, thus we could calculate what percentage succeeded to reach Hero rank so far.

Does anyone else find interesting if there were available these two statistics?

Thank you  as well for reading  this thread and for finding it  interesting.

Regarding "Only wallets remain to not ask for personal docs", honestly, first time I understood something else than you meant. I thought you meant something like "only wallets (aka private keys) remained to be asked (from us) by the govern". I understood now what you meant, but a story came up in my mind when I first read (and didn't understand correctly) your statement. I'll detail it below.

A piece of history: when the govern wants to hold your private keys
Although I read incorrectly what you wrote, government's intentions to hold citizens' private keys is nothing new. I don't know if wallets will ask or private info at some point - maybe some of them will. Butt I hope there will still exist alternatives.

Coming back to the govern.

Maybe many forgot, or didn’t even know, but the creator of public-key encryption was Whitfield Diffie, in 1975. And his creation was given to the people for free. The first useful application of his invention was the RSA encryption algorithm, developed later by a few brilliant cryptographs.

The public-key encryption worked almost the same way as the public / private keys work today, but its use was for encrypting private messages sent / received.

It was an era when US govern was extremely eager to track everything in people’s lives. It was obvious that the invention would be considered a national danger and so it was. NSA stated that  the respective development represents “clear risks to the national security”. The agency fought hard to hide Diffie’s invention from the public. The American publishers were threatened with years in prison if they would publish such materials, the accusation  being breaking of the law regarding the export of military weapons.

In the  end, NSA crossed any imaginable line, when it came with the idea to ask the people to allow an escrow to hold their private keys. The escrow was, of course, in government’s hands, thus it would give out all the keys whenever it was needed. Obviously, in the name of the law. For the greater purpose.

Fortunately, NSA couldn’t realize that plan. And now we all benefit.

Happy 10th anniversary from Romania!

Happy anniversary to BitcoinTalk, Satoshi, Theymos, all the forum mods & admins, all the forum users and to every bitcoiner in the world!

Cheers to you all, with one of Romania's finest beer!

Hello,

This is my third (and last) submission for the contest! I hope you like it
The previous two can be found here and here.

The picture's name is Satoshi's World and it took about 6 hours of work. I tried to capture as many as possible important elements of the Bitcoin universe - from miners, exchanges and whales to Silk Road, DRP, Mt. Gox or deep web.





BTC address: 1EwSVNB64jPad2Epp7scoZHX2mfkUHQQ2x

Thank you.

Hello, I'd like to apply for this campaign!

User: GazetaBitcoin
Position to Apply: Member Full Member
Posts Start: 110 132
Address: 1EwSVNB64jPad2Epp7scoZHX2mfkUHQQ2x

Thank you.

-Edit: I slightly modified the post as I've been promoted to Full Member.

Roger that si multumesc pt incredere! Voi apela cu siguranta la nevoie. Momentan insa, asteptam contestatarii

Cheers to you, mate! You are one of the blessed ones. This is also how I acted since the beginning!

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Most likely it was like that... Your reply refreshed my memory with something and I edited OP. Please see also the edited section.

Maybe this happens due to the lack of people knowledge about their alternatives to centralized exchanges... That's why I hope that reading this thread may help many others.

The earnings are taxable only when going from crypto to fiat, as I stated also inside the OP. And this should be applicable worldwide. The OP presents a particular situation from Romania, but it is the same worldwide, that's why I tried to raise awareness about being careful those trading crypto to fiat, those who gave their private info to exchanges and those who (still) didn;t pay their taxes, in case in thei country the govern issued laws for taxing profits realized from crypto to fiat exchanges.

The law is not retroactive, not it should be. But governs are coming for the traders...and they should be either law abiding citizens, or to use Bitcoin as Satoshi designed it: as a substitute for fiat money. It wasn't build for crypto / fiat speculations.

Hello,

After thinking a lot about it, I decided to translate this thread of mine for the benefit on the English speakers around the world. The thread was initially started in the Romanian section of the forum, but I think the information is relevant and should be spread to as many people as possible, in order to avoid being subpoenaed by governs or other law enforcing mechanism.

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Autor: GazetaBitcoin
Topic original: Guvernul vine! ANAF si DIICOT ii urmaresc pe traderi

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There is no joke.
I talked recently with a lawyer friend, who told me about the situation (about traders being chased by Romanian govern). To be more specific, authorities are investigating some of his clients, which have to explain some big amounts of money transferred to their bank accounts.

The traders came to the lawyer as they didn’t know how to justify their trading earnings. And the lawyer asked me if I can help him anyhow.

Basically, in Romania, the situation got worst this year after the law 30/2910 was issued. This law is about taxing the profits, including the profits from crypto, but the law enforcement is not just after those who are not paying taxes, but also after those with big amounts transferred into the bank accounts.

I told my friend that he could ask his clients to obtain any possible log from all the crypto exchanges they work with, in order to prove the acquisition price, but also the selling price. Another idea was to directly contact the exchanges, who act as companies and who are granted by the law to act as money processors, and to ask them extrasses with the transactions. If possible, stamped ones. Since the exchanges use KYC and AML, they should also offer official papers when it is needed.

My friend thanked me for my suggestions and he said he’ll try these methods.

TL;DR: governs are coming! Beware!
I was never a fan of centralized crypto exchanges, as they embrace exactly the opposite of the ideas behind Bitcoin: decentralization and pseudonymity. And if everybody would use Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies instead of fiat money (meaning that all “cryptonians” would realize only crypto-to-crypto transactions), then there wouldn’t exist any taxable earning. But nobody (or, almost nobody) acts this way. What remains though, is that the centralized exchanges maintain the idea of trusted third party, concept which Satoshi wanted to have it fully eradicated. And, if It would be used the way it was intended, Bitcoin would eliminate any trusted third party indeed.

Most of the users go to a centralized crypto exchange because for convenience, because they don’t understand the risks or because the lack of knowledge about their alternatives.
1. Convenience is understandable. Basically, you have your funds in a wallet (which you don’t own actually, as the exchange is the true owner of the money) and you can access them anytime. And you can make transactions also whenever you want.

2. Risks, however, are multiple. “Your” exchange wallet does not actually belong you, but to the exchange. Why? Because you don’t have the private keys. See what happened with Mt. Gox, Binance (twice), Criptsy, Cyptopia, Bitfinex etc. The same thing happens also if the owner of the exchange decides an exit scam. Without having the private keys, you don’t own the funds.

Another risk is determined by the fact that the centralized exchanges act as banks and collect customers’ private data, being forced by governs to have implemented KYC and AML (Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering) procedures. And the govern is the most hungry entity for personal data. Giving your private info, together with being totally careless about your own privacy / anonymity will only put in the frying pan, sooner or later, all those who used these “services”, as it happened with Coinbase clients. If the users have an evidence of all transactions and if they paid their taxes, they should be OK. Besides, everything should be OK also with those who bought at a higher price and sold at a lower prices, thus without earning any profit, but hey should present these evidences as well to the authorities. However, even the “law abiding citizens”, would certainly not like at all to be investigated by the authorities.

The main problem is about those who don’t have such evidence and with those who don’t pay the taxes. These ones, for the governs, will appear as criminals. As tax evazionists.

I agree, the question “if state doesn’t accept cryptocurrency as a form of money, why does it tax it?” is a good one. The answer is the following: because it generates earnings. Maybe, if there would be such thing as trading leaves, even the profits from selling leaves would be taxed.

Thus, we get to the question “how do we preserve our privacy?”.

3. Lack of knowledge about alternatives is one of the main reasons for what the crypto newbies head towards centralized exchanges. But alternatives exist.
A first solution is represented by the peer-to-peer decentralized exchanges, where the transactions are performed directly between the users, they are fully anonymous, and the role of the exchange is merely to help users to contact each other, without holding their money / private keys.
Besides, the cash-in / cash-out Bitcoin ATMs may be an alternative, because in this case there is no need to reveal personal information. Indeed, these terminals don’t use a friendly price for buying / selling crypto. But privacy has a price, though.
Finally, you can perform peer-to-peer transactions with people you know, or with people with high reputation in the field, but also with persons you don’t personally know, similar with Amazon / Ali Express transactions.

All of the above are suggestions for those willing to exchange crypto with fiat money. Only when doing this intervenes the pseudonymity and the exposure. However, while the transactions are entirely crypto-to-crypto, the anonymity can be preserved better. Besides, all of the above do not represent an advice for how to avoid taxes. Every citizen should pay his taxes. But working with centralized crypto exchanges is not just exposing the users to to governs, but also endangering their funds.

I’m closing here by admitting the contribution of centralized crypto exchanges in raising the awareness about cryptocurrencies. Perhaps, without them, fewer people would have heard about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The exchanges had and have an overwhelming role inside the ecosystem. But still, they may bring huge prejudices. Now, whoever chooses using them, can do it by fully understanding how they work.

Edit: just after writing the topic it came into mind another example of traders being chased by governs.

Also in Romania, after the first crypto exchange was closed BTCxChange, the owner made the paperwork for fully shutting down the company. Practically, in such a case, the site (operation) is shut down, but the company still exists in the registries until it is fully closed.

Max Nicula, the owner if the defunct BTCxChange stated recently that even today, 1.5 years after closing the exchange's site, he is unable to fully shut down the firm because ANAF (the Romanian version of IRS) started an investigation when he requested to close the operations. What is very important, he was requested to provide to the authorities all his customers names and data, which is also what happened at Coinbase. In that case, the company was requested forced to release the clients' data in order to function, while in this case the company has (still) to give out this data in order to be shut down.

Even more intriguing is that compared to Coinbase, where was applied a decision of a Court, in BTCxChange's case ANAF came with only a formal request. Max Nicula said he didn't keep the clients' data after closing the site, therefore the investigation is still ongoing, the company is still not closed, but that's another story.

What is important is that Coinbase history repeats and I suspect there are hundreds of other similar cases worlwide.

Edit 2: for more dangers associated with KYC please read also a topic which is complementary to this one: Why KYC is extremely dangerous – and useless.

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Translations (in chronological order):

• Română: Guvernul vine! ANAF si DIICOT ii urmaresc pe traderi, translation by GazetaBitcoin
• Pidgin: Governs dey come 4 traders!, translation by Agbe
• Polish: Rządy biorą się za handlowców!, translation by cygan
• German: Regierungen nehmen es mit Händlern auf! / Vorsicht vor CEX!, translation by Buchi-88
• Spanish: ¡Los Gobiernos ya vienen a por los traders!, translation by Porfirii
• Filipino: Pag habol ng goberyno sa traders!, translation by Peanutswar
• Indonesian: Pemerintah akan "mendatangi" para trader!, translation by Husna QA
• Portuguese: [TRADUÇÃO] - Os Governantes estão chegando p/ os traders!, translation by gagux123
• Russian: Peгyлятopы идyт зa тpeйдepaми!, translation by FP91G
• French: Les gouvernements s'en prennent aux traders !, translation by iwantmyhomepaidwithbtc2
• Bengali: সরকার ট্রেডারদের পেছনে লেগেছে!, translation by Learn Bitcoin
• Urdu: !حکمران تاجروں کے لیے آ رہے ہیں, translation by JunaidAzizi

Well, maybe theymos can take a look here and decide if the current behavior is the expected one.

I remember now you said that, but I didn't have that in mind when I created the thread... However, doesn't seem consistent to be able to vote, but not to post. Besides, in the section's description and in theymos' thread with rules for IT isn't stated that voting is possible for ranks below Full Member.

Neither to me, that's why I started the thread

Hello,

In addition to my previous thread about posting in Ivory Tower section (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5201467.msg53075162#msg53075162), bug which was fixed soon by theymos, I come back with a new question.

Is it normal to be able to participate in a poll held in Ivory Tower while having a rank lower than Full Member?

I'm asking after I noticed today the thread started in IT by yogg (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5202453.0), for electing the winners of the Coldkey contest. I am not able to post any reply inside the thread (as I'm not Full Member), but, however, I was able to vote in the thread's poll. Is this normal?

Thank you.

Thank you Mikeywith for the heads-up!
Thank you, as well, Philipma1957, for clarifying that.

Din ce cunosc eu si din gandirea mea, ANAF nu ar trebui sa aiba datele clientilor unui exchange in mod implicit. Ci doar explicit. Adica la solicitare expresa.

Pe acelasi considerent, nu ar trebui sa aiba nici datele clientilor Lidl, in mod implicit.

Ok, ca le poate obtine, e alta poveste. Insa in mod implicit ei nu ar trebui sa le aiba si, teoretic, ar fi necesara si o hotarare judecatoreasca irevocabila pentru a le primi.

Ei verifica activitatea firmelor, nu a clientilor firmelor. Pentru clientii fraudulosi ai firmelor exista alte organe ale statului - Politie, DNA, DIICOT etc.

ANAF ar trebui in prima faza sa fie interesata de finantele / actele firmelor. Daca este interesata de finantele contribuabililor, e alta discutie. Si daca e interesata de finantele contribuabililor ar trebui sa le ceara acestora socoteala, nu firmelor de la care au cumparat ceva. Faptul ca cer unui exchange datele clientilor e similar cu a cere datelor clientilor Cora care, sa zicem, au cumparat ceva substantial (100 TV-uri scumpe). Daca ti s-ar parea aberant sa ceara asta de la Cora, la fel de aberant e sa ceara acelasi lucru de la un exchange. De la un exchange non-crypto de ce nu fac asta?

Si aici intervine problema semnalata de mine. Si anume, ca nu sunt prea interesati de exchange in sine, cat de clientii exchange-ului. Si de ce cer datele lor de la exchange? Pentru ca le-ar fi mai greu, poate, sa le obtina direct de la populatie. Si actionand asa, fara o hotarare judecatoreasca, nu denota decat ce am scris si in OP. Guvernul incepe sa fie interesat de cetatenii implicati in crypto. Si actioneaza "la mica ciupeala" (momentan) in felul in care au facut-o cu BTCxChange. Insa este posibil ca asta sa fie o campanie mai ampla si poate demarata deja si la alte exchange-uri crypto, iar "bitcoinerii" sa nu stie.

In cazul Coinbase a fost necesara o decizie a instantei (https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/29/coinbase-internal-revenue-service-taxation/). La fel ar trebui procedat si aici.

Deci prezumtia ca "Ei au datele clientilor pentru ca au acces la datele contabile! Sunt ANAF!", nu ar trebui sa fie corecta. Ei ar trebui sa obtina acele date in instanta. Similar cu a obtine datele pacientilor unui spital. Insa faptul ca sunt interesati si ca apeleaza la amenintari pentru a le obtine mai usor decat in urma unui proces, ridica mari semne de intrebare.

- la cate exchange-uri s-or fi dus deja?
- cate le-or fi dat deja datele clientilor, fara nicio hotarare judecatoreasca?
- cate le vor da aceste date pentru a evita sicanele ANAF si pentru a evita sa fie tarate in tribunale? (Unde, mergand pe exemplul Coinbase, se presupune ca vor fi oricum fortate sa predea datele - un fel de "spune-mi de vorba buna, ca, altfel, oricum imi vei spune silit".)
- cati clienti sunt "curati" (oameni care sa aiba chitante, loguri, orice fel de acte pentru tranzactiile de cumparare / vanzare si care sa si depuna declaratia de venit)?

Un motiv in plus pentru aceste miscari este faptul ca abia in 2020 traderii trebuie sa depuna declaratia respectiva (pentru profiturile crypto). Este posibil ca guvernul "sa se pregateasca" deja si sa stie cine ce impozite are de platit. Poate de aceea vrea deja datele clientilor - sa nu mai stea sa verifice la anu' dupa depunerea declaratiilor daca sunt si corecte; sa stie deja de pe acum cine trebuie sa dea si cati bani, iar in 2020 sa trebuiasca doar sa-i inhate...

Este posibil ca fix asta sa fi urmarit de fapt - sa obtina datele clientilor.
Este foarte posibil sa le fi cerut deja si altor exchange-uri, dar sa nu se stie de acest lucru. In cazul acesta s-a aflat deoarece a divulgat Max Nicula informatia.

Ce s-a intamplat la Coinbase ar putea fi o poveste prevestitoare si tot mai multe guverne sa someze exchange-urile sa predea (benevol sau apeland la forta de coercitie a legii) datele personale ale clientilor...