if you play the loopholes correctly yes its legal, its called tax avoidance.. but if you dont do it correctly, its tax evasion(illegal)


another "avoidance" loophole
which many politicians/ceo's even use for their personal accounts
they do not get paid those "gains" as income. instead they take out a personal loan from the soon to die company where the soon to die company gives the person value(the gains) where by the person has repayment terms of say $1 a month for 100 years followed by a lump sum payment at the end of the 100 years
(affordable terms in persons favour)

because its a 'loan' the person is not in profit/gains. so the person doesnt pay tax. and then when the dying company is wrapped up, the person no longer has to pay the dying company because the terms of the loan exempts them from having to repay, the debt is written off for the person because the company no longer exists to pay

things people need to realise is this

FTX business plan was to always buy dead companies..

heres how the plan works, for many companies being liquidators

imagine a dead company has $1m good assets but $2m debt
a liquidator(FTX) for a few years comes along and buys dying company for $500k (money to dead company CEO personal bank account to retire)

what the liquidator then does is transfer the $1m good assets out of the dead brand. to a good brand.
they then:
charge the dead brand 'consultation fee's (no real money changes hands) as a invoice
which then puts the dead brand at a larger debt. and shows the good brand being owed money by the dead brand
or they do a 'paper' loan to the dead brand to also show on paper the dead brand owes good brand

they then bankrupt the dead brand. meaning the good brand shows a paper loss. even though it has gained $1m of assets($500k profit)

then. the good brand is not showing "profit" but a balance sheet of X good assets. and then X 'paper' losses from the dead brand, so doesnt have to pay tax on all its REAL gains

repeat for several dead brands

eventually they have shuffled so much good assets out of the good brand into goodbrand+1. that its time to then wrap up the first good brand in a possible sell or bankruptcy because the gains:paper losses are now in very negative numbers.. making good brand become dead brand
(liquidator becomes the liquidated)

in this topics case. binance decided not to become a 'liquidator' by buying a bad 'debt' company FTX... and so FTX ran out of time

that said. the people(FTX CEO) is personally sitting pretty with good assets in another brand elsewhere

FTFY

though mtgox caused non gox exchanges to blind sheep gox prices down in 2014, as is non ftx blind following FTX down, this is not gonna be the last time an exchange is going to upset the natural price:value balance

FTX was a company that likes to buy dying businesses and profit from it..

the trick is simple..
buy a dying company cheap.. take out any "good" asset. and then kill off the business that only has bad assets(liabilities) left.

where by they hide the good assets in a separate business.
eventually when all good assets are hidden completely outside the main company portfolio. then you collapse the whole portfolio. and clear your hands of any liability left. and then retire into a new hustle with the good assets.

its standard practice for liquidation companies, im not surprised by the method.. just by the timing.

we seen a similar thing with MTGOX.. the issue is the other exchanges blind sheep followed mtgox prices down. instead of severing the connection and letting mtgox fall by itself

bitcoin price vs value still has not hit its calculated bottom level. but its getting close.

i think its time other exchanges set aside FTX based partner exchanges rates. and not be so sheep following an exchange in demise

.. but then again.. the lower the price the better the discount to buy cheap coins. even im tempted to buy a load more even though i have more hoard than i need already

last chance for cheap coins
even i might load up more (dont need to as i have a hoard)

might aswell use the ftx drama that caused a discount

bull and bear was never a 4 year repeated cycle

first market price was 2010 and went bull into 2011. then bear into 2012 then bull in 2012 then bear in 2014 then stagnant in 15,16
then bull in 17, then bear in 18 then stagnant in 19,20. then bull in 21

yet the real 4 year cycle. has shown a pattern
halving hear
2012- ~$6-12 then slow rise
2016- ~$450-900 then slow rise
2020- ~$4.5k-9k then slow rise

year after halving year
ATH (2013,2017,2021)

year3 correction of ATH to new raised low and stagnant boring movements there after

year 4 lead upto the halving pattern of year 1 of halving slow movement

its not just that wages in taiwan are half that of american (50% discount to import rather then create domestically)

but also if they time their contracts right they can get another 10%-20% discount via playing forex movements

along with this
if making domestically american companies then have to pay lots of different taxes and costs. where as importing something. they have more loopholes to tax dodge to get further discount

cycles are based on the halving events..
we are at "mid term" not the end

i personally never base "cycles" on the short term events of a ATH because bitcoin VALUE (not price) is not based on the highs.. but the new raised lows

if you ignore the highs (because not many people actually trade at the high)
and instead look at the lows. (because everyone trades at or above))
2012's ~$6
2016's ~$450
2020's ~$4k

all show the lowest value (store of value) line of bitcoin
...
the prices above the lows are speculative/random/temporary

these speculative amounts are premiums above the 'new bottom'  value
that are speculative and temporary as the markets try to find the new raise low/bottom of each cycle

and on that note doomad

liquid and binance chain also have locks and pegs to bitcoin..
so i guess you consider those networks "bitcoin" when you want to just talk about "liquid" and "binance chain" in this forum category

dont be silly, understand they are different networks that use locks and pegs to then play with different units of measure on a separate network away from the bitcoin network

LN, liquid, binance chain... are not "bitcoin"

this is where you are wrong.

IN LN and im not talking about session close events. im talking about within LN

you do realise when there is a "update" AFTER PAYMENT!!!!!!!!
even the update is not saved to your ram/hard drive in a bitcoin TX format

tha database and also the code format does have a script(signature) that complies to a bitcoin TX format. but its not saved on hard drives in a bitcoin tx format either
yes some LN nodes call the database 'buckets' where it saves values not in bitcoin format but msat format and uses alot of translators to build into a bitcoin transaction when you want to broadcast. but when you are not initialising a broadcast. its not seen or stored in a bitcoin tx format.

try to read some code once in a while

heres a little hint for you..
in the update state. it also includes PENDING payments
yep the update state is different to an agreed 'close session'

the things to be aware of because LN uses msats and bitcoin uses sats
(2 totally different units of measure) users have to rely on software that has no audit or consensus of network security to do the conversions/pegging. so the 1sat:1000msat can be depegged if enough dumb users use a corrupt wallet with code that can change the 1:1000rate
also there are other bugs that can happen between converting an onion amount to a close session bitcoin tx format amount

LN is not bitcoin and people need to be risk aware of possible bugs and malicious code where they thing they received say 20,000msat. but their software confers it to not 20sat but 2sat(or less which rounds to 0)
and users wont know about it until they are closing session and broadcast their loses because the whole time their gui when using LN is showing msat balances


"lightning funds"
well you can open a lightning channel using litecoin and other currencies..

if you are still thinking "lightning" is and only is bitcoin then you have major learning to do

https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/02-peer-protocol.md#the-open_channel-message

..
if you think when doing a LN payment(the onion routing stage) that at the "success" part, your 'value' is as good as guaranteed and trusted where you cant lose it.. you are fooling yourself.. its not a bitcoin settled amount that has "succeeded" ..

dont ever think that LN is as imutible and confirmed and settled and guaranteed as bitcoin

much like people should not trust that LBTC(liquid) or WBTC(sidechain) is as good as real bitcoin

if no one ever learns from the breaks of the stable coins and sidechains that broke their pegs.. then idiots will still lose funds and blame bitcoin because other idiots told them it is bitcoin

its ok to call LN a niche service that allows conversion and then faster payments of value of [insert coin] but dont try pretending that it is bitcoin

bitcoin security model and immutability function and its whole assistance is a different system compared to "smart contract" platforms

..
please atleast observe the reality of the network and code.. and not just admire the glossy advert someone suggested to you about LN
LN is not the same as bitcoin
much like a gold bar is not the same as gold backed paper bank promissory notes

bitcoin at 260exa is ~2m asics of 3kw= 6gw/hour world wide
quebecs 320mw is 106,000 asics

here is the thing.
electric cars use 1kw/4 miles so an average car doing 12 miles a day
(im using low numbers on purpose)
3kw a day.
which if say there was just 4 million car drivers in quebec
(im using low numbers on purpose)
is 12GW/day = 500mw/hour

so if quebec cannot cope with 320mw. then it definitely cant cope with 4million car drivers in coming years..

and thats even on reserved low numbers.. yep car industry would use more then bitcoin does in quebec

oh and by the way average car mileage per day is higher and there are more then 4m car drivers in quebec.

dare you guys to try to take a onion packet (LN payment) and get it confirmed on the bitcoin network
i guarantee you it would even relay around the nodes, it wont end up in mempools and wont be put into a block.
LN payments are not bitcoin nor even measured in anything bitcoin understands

LN network can continue running with channels and making payments even if there was no bitcoin "locks" pegged to channel payments because the channels would still make payments using different currencies pegs.. so yea LN hint is in the N of LN is a different network and not bitcoin

bitcoin does not ever leave the bitcoin network. it relies on locks and pegs.. and LN has no network wide consensus to audit/account/secure those pegs/locks. so LN users need to be risk aware of methods where their co-partner of channel can use and abuse LN features to break those locks/pegs to steal funds from the other person. and yep there are many ways to lose value due to those weak mechanisms

LN is not bitcoin. im not saying LN has no niche/utility/service offering. im saying be risk aware when using it and not think that its as secure as bitcoin

just be smart and not utopian dreamy. understand the difference between LN vs bitcoin. there is alot of differences..

lightning is not a "bitcoin layer 2"

lightning is a separate network where multiple crypto's can lock value and peg in some Msats to be transfered within LN

you do not need to lock in bitcoin for LN to run. you can lock in other currencies to open a channel
yes your only able to move that channels pegged currency with others who have channels of the same pegged currency..
but you are not limited to owning one channel and you can have different channels of different currencies at the same time


truly observe the code and structure .. dont observe the over promoted social advert

liquid is not a bitcoin layer
binance chain is not a bitcoin layer
Ln is not a bitcoin layer

all three can operate without bitcoin
the units of measure transfered within the networks are not settled confirmed immutable bitcoin value

liquid - lbtc
binance - wbtc
ln - msat(ln-btc)

bitcoin never leaves the bitcoin network
all lock pegging mechanisms need to be looked at as a risk aware event of who/how they can be abused by other users/the systems of how people can lose value

learn lessons from side chains and stable coins that failed their locks and pegs. dont blindly believe when using LN it is bitcoin. because the LN security and audit and accounting model is not the same as bitcoin

some will tell you the peg(commitment) is bitcoin.. its not, if the payment is not on the blockchain it didnt happen in bitcoin
its only bitcoin if its relaying on the bitcoin network to be in nodes mempool or in a block

the payments(onions) are not data structure bitcoin can confirm. the units of payments are not even bitcoin recognised

treat LN the same as binance chain/liquid that allows bridges to bitcoin and other currencies. but dont ever consider ln as a network dependant on bitcoin or a feature only bitcoin can use.. reality is it is its own network that many currencies can use

movie producers love to add "hot topic" items into scripts/scenes to get different interest groups/communities mentioning the movie

EG certain hot topic actors from different genre type cast movies being put into one movie to encourage more people from different genres to watch the movie

sometimes the producer might have a persona interest in bitcoin and use his title to sway the screen writers to adapt a scene to mention it.
sometimes there is a company that is interested in it that sponsors a scene (product placement)

sometimes it can simply be the producer looking at whats trending in investments and deciding bitcoin seems like a modern thing to mention to spark some discussion

there is a topic on this forum that mentions many TV shows and movies that mention bitcoin.
i beleive the first big mention of a internationally show tv show was "the good wife" then came alot of the usual ones including the simpsons

you would be quite surprised how many tv shows and movies have now mentioned bitcoin for some reason or other

first of all bitcoin code is open and clear. there is no secret key no hidden code and no feature that can be locked or unlocked by any individual. so there is no "need" for satoshi to be around in regards to bitcoin code/rules

there is a social interest where some want to know satoshi's life story. some want to know his inspirations or idea's of what could have, or would need to have going forward to make bitcoin better. but thats not a need. thats a want

but again no one should have a central single person in decision power so again not NEEDED but only socially interested to hear from

there is no "he must" return. it makes no difference


we dont NEED a social consensus about if satoshi should come back. he is a human if he doesnt want to, then thats his decision. no one should force another person to reveal anything the person doesnt want to reveal

bitcoin itself was designed in a way that someone with coin should not be NEEDED/forced/coerced to reveal identity. property/value to someone else.. if someone has bitcoin its their and only their decision if they use it or move it

when buying a house. you are not just buying a house
you are then paying a property insurance premium, maintenance costs, county/state tax

when you buy bitcoin, thats it. you bought it, no more ongoing costs to keep it

also the "multiplier" of inflation of house prices is small. yes over 10 years you could multiply your initial investment. but with bitcoins 4 year cycles the amount increases more than in housing

as other said in housing you have to buy the whole building or take a loan to pay it off in piecemeal, but then you have interest ontop you have to pay for
where as bitcoin you just buy as much sats of a bitcoin you want

what some dont realise is this

when there is alot of active trading
there could be 1000 traders an hour buying coin at stages of
20,000.01 20,000.02
where the price only moved in the region of 20,0X0.00
meaning the price only changed by $10-$100

where as at $69k there might just be 4 traders still willing to buy
69,300.00 69,600.00 69,900.00 70,100.00

where its the last few traders are making the price move by $300-$1k

other things are that if a regular minnow investor only invests $400 at a price point of $20k.. they are not then spending $1.2k when the price is $60k
what you find is they get 0.02 at $20k and only get 0.006 at $60k

..
many people think the amount of traders queued up at $69k is more users buying than at the $20k mark
many people think the amount of traders queued up at $69k are physically paying 3.5x as much fiat as they would at $20k

but this is not the case

there is a limit to how low a "sell off" can happen..
bitcoin does have an underlying value/cost bottom. that is NON ZERO
once you realise this limit of bottom you can then see things more clearly

and in the day-trade view of daily/weekly its unpredictable as to the price movements short term


but on a larger scale of quarterly-yearly you can see where certain events change sentiments

EG in spring lots decided that because fiat costs of living was to rise this year. many stopped investing in bitcoin and went on a fiat spend frenzy to stock up on lifestyle stuff before the retail prices jumped
large businesses stocked up on theyre fiat world supplies too

EG savvi businesses like tesla would stock pile steel at 2021-22 prices to not need to buy in 2023

this means it gets to a point where people have fulfilled their fiat needs, but dont want to hang onto future fiat excess income because putting fiat under the pillow means they lose value. so they will start to look into investing into inflation-hedge things like bitcoin

there are some indicators and sentiments that are showing that the mindset of fiat frenzy of spring is now turning back to investments. especially with investments being at lows which are good opportunities to buy

yes short term the price can wiggle down a bit again. but thats market randomness of short term. but looking at the hashrate competition rise, the energy cost rise and the sentiment rise.. all indicators are showing movements back into starting the LONG TERM buy appreciation and willingness

the lowest lows. are miners that can still mine for profit
the average underlying(value) cost was about $15k. but the market price did not touch that point

those mining this month are still on contracts of prices of 2021+ energy costs thus they have not been impacted yet. and thus the underlying value cost has not hit much
i personally am still locked into a deal of 2021 prices.

its the hashrate competition that has hit those low laying miners that can afford to mine. not the energy price
(this autumn quarter the underlying value cost is about $16k)

however layers above that are the less efficient miners. the ones i prefer to call hobbiests with higher costs
when their energy prices went up. yes it affected their mining costs and yes they would have been more willing to bu at the $18k market price. but their real life fiat inflation demands meant they had to concentrate on covering real life costs so their disposable/excess fiat income had to pay for fiat lifestyle stuff.. so they were not ready to put that fiat into cheap coin... until more recently

im in the UK and i have had discussions with many uk bitcoin hobbiests. and spring summer they were spending fiat on lifestyle stuff. but with UK government payouts to households to give credit to energy companies means they can now afford winter and are looking to re-invest excess/disposable fiat into bitcoin. energy prices means they dont want to mine this year as it costs more to mine. but they are happier to buy while its cheap. sentiment is moving back to investing rather than fiat prepping