Bitcoin as form of payment for government services

[Xester]

I went to verify and research if it is really true that bitcoins can be used to pay government services. I was surprised that there is one country that I have found that will accept bitcoins as a form of payment in exchange for government services. This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

http://www.coindesk.com/swiss-city-bitcoin-payments-government-services/

What are your thought about it?

[positivezero]

I went to verify and research if it is really true that bitcoins can be used to pay government services. I was surprised that there is one country that I have found that will accept bitcoins as a form of payment in exchange for government services. This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

http://www.coindesk.com/swiss-city-bitcoin-payments-government-services/

What are your thought about it?

Yes it would be very possible to used bitcoin as a form of payment for government services, but for now, it cannot be used since government don't actually accept bitcoin. Though some countries accept it but i dont know if they used bitcoin as payment for government services. If this could happen soon, then it would be very nice and for sure bitcoin will become more famous, used by all people and bitcoin will be legalized to all countries.

[Zadicar]

It depends on the government if it would adopt bitcoin as a payment but i dont think it would be succesful or those people on the top would agree into this because we all know that bitcoins price isnt stable at all and those funds for their made services would possibly increase or go down and with no fixed rate.It would be really a complicated thing for me.

[Barbut]

I`m not surprised with this, Switzerland is Switzerland, what we can think about this, when I saw swiss city it was immediately clear to me what is this all about. Swiss is couple decades ahead of many other countries, in last year there was so many news about swiss and crypto world. There is even some news about how their government helps blockchain, they will probably be the first country that will accept bitcoin, or some other alt coin (i dont know how much swiss coin is connected with swiss government?).

[Senor.Bla]

I went to verify and research if it is really true that bitcoins can be used to pay government services. I was surprised that there is one country that I have found that will accept bitcoins as a form of payment in exchange for government services. This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

http://www.coindesk.com/swiss-city-bitcoin-payments-government-services/

What are your thought about it?

This is not really news, since it is almost a year ago that they have started. It is also is not a country, but a city or region and not to big. Besides being an experiment it is more of an attempt to attract business. They have some startups and people from the financial and crypto world. It did not make any difference in price or legalization, but it certainly did not hurt Bitcoin. You can assume to see more news like this in the future as governments will see it as a possibility rather then a risk. But as they did not replace their payment method and just added Bitcoin as another one, they could stop accepting Bitcoin over night without consequences. So if Bitcoin replaces the local currency it would be big news, but i do not see this in the near future happening.

[European Central Bank]

This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

it's a cool little vote of confidence but why would it increase bitcoin's price? no one is gonna buy something to pay a bill. the bill will end up costing you more. people don't wanna spend bitcoin on the fun stuff, let alone the boring stuff.

[Kprawn]

What do you define as a "government" service? The only "government" service I know of is income tax and you have to pay that. The local

government services are utility bills, like water, electricity, refuse removal and sewerage. In some cities some are already paying these bills via

payment processors. The government supports their own reserve currencies and in some governments Bitcoin is not recognized as a currency.

[agustina2]

Just added to my knowledge (thanks to the article) that companies like Xapo, ShapeShift and Monetas are located in and around Zug. So basically nothing surprising if they will have some bitcoin payment for government services in their area.

But in the events like that, surely other entities and institutions will open their mind for other idea on how will bitcoin will have good effect if meant for any type of payments that will be made whether for government or misc things.

[dothebeats]

Right now here in my country, we can now pay for several services from the government using bitcoins but there serves as an intermediary for the deal. They pay for service charges but then again, we're talking about convenience here at our fingertips. But that would really be a cool thing if a government fully accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment to the services they offer.

[webtricks]

Happy to see some government accepting bitcoin. It is indeed possible for governments to accept Bitcoin as mode of payment as far as they treat it investment or near money in place of real money. In this way, Bitcoin can be recognized as government's asset and will not lead to fear-say anonymous enivronment.

[Sled]

I went to verify and research if it is really true that bitcoins can be used to pay government services. I was surprised that there is one country that I have found that will accept bitcoins as a form of payment in exchange for government services. This is a very big news to all bitcoin users since it will spell out another price increase in bitcoins and a start of bitcoin legalization.

http://www.coindesk.com/swiss-city-bitcoin-payments-government-services/

What are your thought about it?

This is great. Bitcoin is getting more popular and stronger and now governments are starting to embrace bitcoin as their another kind of payment option and also another kind of currency, you are right this news can help for the price to keep on increasing. I hope my country will do the same in terms of accepting and using bitcoins.

[sakinaka]

This is of course the next step ahead I think. When you think about the government, all what they want is people paying their taxes. God knows I am not fond of paying the taxes, but now that with time I understood that it will be hard for me to somehow launder my bitcoins, in the sense that I could not change them in fiat money and pay my taxes with it, as I would get spotted. So I would need to declare them as an exceptional revenue and pay a tax on this and then pay a tax on the wealth possession. That way I would just pay the normal tax on the wealth. And that would not bother me that much considering how long I imagined many scenarios so that I could officially use my bitcoins to buy real estate. Considering I have been used that it would be very hard, paying something but being able to use them makes me happy, even though I have to pay a tax !

[bitbunnny]

Some progresivne countries like Netherlands or so are more keen to allow to pay for governments services with Bitcoin. I agree this is big step ahead and important thing for Bitcoin in terms of acceptance and equality with fiat money. And also the sign that that government recognises Bitcoin. But I don't think this will become mass practice.

[merlinsbeard]

Once the government recognizes bitcoin as payment, they will also recognize it as a taxable asset.

I don't think anybody wants a 5% tax on exchanges or transactions.

[nelson4lov]

While Switzerland has been one of the very few countries to accept and use bitcoin, I'm not that surprised to see government utilizing bitcoin over there. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too hopeful just yet that more countries will follow suit. Government has always wanted to be in control of Citizen's activities (including payments for goods and services) and that is one area bitcoin comes against.

Well, Let's hope for the best.

[Yakamoto]

While the concept might be ok, as I have said in other places, something like this would only be a good idea if there is a very explicit caveat that they would not regulate Bitcoin at all and it would exist within its natural state with no interference from the government, aside from accepting it as payment for their services.

[xuan87]

It is great that to see a government with an open mind to a new technology, it is great to see we are able to pay tax using bitcoin in that country but I would not used any of my bitcoin to pay the tax, I afraid after I payed using bitcoin the government will start to investigate everyone that owned bitcoin

[nara1892]

that is nice to hear such news. the thing is in government service. it is really good. but I think it is not that easy to legalize bitcoin in order to change the payment method or just add it. it does not really matter anyway. and probably it will motivate the other country to follow this country's stepfoot.

[unamis76]

Old news, but I don't remember seeing it. Very interesting indeed. I searched for a follow up on this and apparently the pilot experience wasn't much widely used, but successful, so they continue accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment, which is amazing!

Right now here in my country, we can now pay for several services from the government using bitcoins but there serves as an intermediary for the deal. They pay for service charges but then again, we're talking about convenience here at our fingertips. But that would really be a cool thing if a government fully accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment to the services they offer.

What's that intermediary company?

[shinscarlet]

It is great that to see a government with an open mind to a new technology, it is great to see we are able to pay tax using bitcoin in that country but I would not used any of my bitcoin to pay the tax, I afraid after I payed using bitcoin the government will start to investigate everyone that owned bitcoin

LOL, How you can affect the whole government to turn its face and investigating the bitcoin users there because you were paying the taxes? there must be something wrong with your transaction which you have done earlier didn't it? otherwise it will be fine. If government want to investigate the bitcoin users, they just don't need to allow their citizens to pay the taxes through bitcoin!