Utah passes constitutional tender act

[caveden]

Have you seen this?
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/03/utah-passes-constitutional-tender-act/

Quite interesting and promising.
BitcoinUSA is in Utah, isn't it? Will its owner consider making gold/silver exchanges for BTC as well?

[Stephen Gornick]

Have you seen this?
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/03/utah-passes-constitutional-tender-act/

The bill has implications across the country. Utah is the first state to pass legislation to counter the Fed, but a dozen others have already proposed similar bills, including Iowa and South Carolina.

 http://blogs.forbes.com/richdanker/2011/03/11/utah-signals-dollar-distress

Quite interesting and promising.
BitcoinUSA is in Utah, isn't it? Will its owner consider making gold/silver exchanges for BTC as well?

Lots of innovation in Utah.  Including WingCash:
  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4232.0

Regarding buying precious metals with bitcoins, there is a precious metals seller or two who frequent #bitcoin-otc IRC ( http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-otc ) who accept bitcoins.  

The Bitcoin-otc order book doesn't currently have any precious metals offers though:
  http://bitcoin-otc.com/vieworderbook.php  (at least not serious offers, ... slush has an offer to buy 1 ounce of gold for 1 BTC )

These threads are also good reading:
  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3409.0
  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4280.0

[xc]

Fascinating...I wonder if it will allow for gold/silver-denominated bank accounts presumably at Utah state banks.  Not revolutionary, but it's a welcome sign that the American populace might be becoming more receptive to Bitcoin and full-blown economic secession.

[Stephen Gornick]

Fascinating...I wonder if it will allow for gold/silver-denominated bank accounts

Banks, even outside Austria and Switzerland, will quickly get up the curve of offering gold-denominated accounts once their corporate customers demand them. They will find that a substantial demand exists at the retail level also. Here, modern technology will be very helpful. An ordinary citizen will be able to use a gold-denominated account for day-to-day transactions by means of a debit card, without the need to carry round expensive sovereigns or double eagles.

  http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/thebearslairview?art_id=10471

s/gold/bitcoin/ = WIN

[Stephen Gornick]

s/gold/bitcoin/ = WIN

I just realized that to some degree we today already have a bitcoin-denominated debit card.

I can leave $0 in my PayPal account and then just before making a purchase I can use CoinCard to add funds to my PayPal account using bitcoins.  I can then use my PayPal debit card to complete a purchase.

Of course, this isn't efficient either timewise or when considering fees.  CoinCard's fee for doing that conversion is 3%, or $1 + 1% for transactions $50 or more, and then getting funds back into bitcoins isn't the easiest or cheapest either.

However Bitcoin truly is leading the charge.  This combination might possibly qualify as the first commodity-denominated debit card option available to us.

[Stephen Gornick]

And what happens when your subjects no longer want your fiat currency?

A recent crackdown has brought the unofficial foreign exchange market in Hanoi to a standstill.

Many gold shops in Ho Chi Minh City have ceased buying and selling dollars publicly to avoid stepped up government oversight.

A dealer in Hanoi told Thanh Nien that he only does business now with regular clients.

“Strangers may be police officers in disguise and I would be in trouble,” he said.

 http://www.vnnnews.net/vietnam-launches-crackdown-on-dollar-black-market

Vietnam's communist government on Thursday stopped issuing Gold Trading licenses, and vowed to ban gold-denominated bank accounts – now holding some $5.4 billion for Vietnamese savers hit by 12% inflation and repeated devaluation's of the Dong currency.

 http://news.goldseek.com/BullionVault/1299852417.php

[caveden]

The blog says the legislative has already approved it, why do you say it will have to wait for another legislative session?

Today, the Utah Senate passed HB317, a bill which will legalize gold and silver as tender within the state of Utah and exempt the exchange (purchase) of such specie from sales and capital gains taxes. Having already passed the House, the bill will now be sent to Governor Herbert to be signed into law, should he so decide.

[mndrix]

Have you actually read HB317? This is the nuts-and-bolts of what it 'really' does:

The bill also exempts gold and silver from sales tax and capital gains tax.  I don't know Utah law at all, but my reading of the bill suggests these are changes from prior tax law.

[Stephen Gornick]

HB 317, the "Utah Legal Tender Act," was signed into law.

banks should now be free to offer their customers accounts denominated in legal tender gold & silver coins, so that consumers will be able to make purchases based on those accounts, using their debit cards, checks, ATM cards, etc

 http://constitutionaltender.blogspot.com/2011/03/utah-governor-signs-gold-silver-legal.html

Also:
  http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/29/news/economy/utah_gold_currency/