Bitcoin is in the process of being "nipped at the bud", and we're doing nothing.

[luv2drnkbr]

you're not using local bitcoins correctly.  local bitcoins is for advertising.  face to face meet and exchange is still not traceable.  you dont even need to use real info on local bitcoins in order to advertize and meet a person.  you can still use MAD or multisig escrow with a 3rd party, all without revealing your identity.

[Siegfried]

you're not using local bitcoins correctly.  local bitcoins is for advertising.  face to face meet and exchange is still not traceable.  you dont even need to use real info on local bitcoins in order to advertize and meet a person.  you can still use MAD or multisig escrow with a 3rd party, all without revealing your identity.

But now we know about undercover agents targeting localbitcoins sellers.

[ebliever]

I'd love for the IRS to try and come audit me over this. I bet it would take an accountant working full time for at least a month to sort through all the altcoin penny trades, mining across multiple pools with 3 different computers, shifting BTC and altcoins across a half dozen exchanges (we get to deduct transfer and exchange fees, right?) I imagine it would make even an accountant's head explode.

And when all was said and done, I might owe like $100 in taxes, plus whatever penalty applies. It will be worth it just for the chuckles.

Go ahead, IRS. This is trench warfare, and I'm gonna bleed you to death if that's the game you want to play.

[counter]

far from nipped in the bud as you say.  More like a given another hurtle in an already bumpy road.

[softron]

I dont think thats true, there are lots of bitcoin xchangers u dont know about.

[runam0k]

There will be plenty of discussions with the IRS.  The hope is the IRS will quickly apply a personal transaction exemption (such as the one that applies to use of foreign currency whilst on holiday).

It's patently absurd that US taxpayers should have to account for every small transaction and it will be incredibly burdensome (for near zero recovery) for the IRS to audit every small transaction.

[timmmers]

Stop worrying about fiat exchange price, it's still 3-5 years away from being an accurate speculative representation of the actual utility of this technology.

Well we can see that you don't mine them. If you did, you'd realize that the exchange rate pays fo the rigs and unless you have a power company accepting bitcoins, the power they use. Current difficulty means rigs are costing into the thousands of dollars, plus other complications that often crop up which make paying with bitcoin very risky, when the exchange rate drops these rigs become less likely to break even. Who's going to pay out 10k on an ASIC to lose money? They are getting into the 3kw range now too, so power isn't negligible either.

A healthy exchange rate is good for miners. Speculators do not create bitcoins.

When normal guys don't mine, we end up with huge company owned farms ...no longer as decentralized. That's already happening.
Is that what we want, a handful of large farms producing all the meaningful quantities of bitcoins?

[timmmers]

I'd love for the IRS to try and come audit me over this. I bet it would take an accountant working full time for at least a month to sort through all the altcoin penny trades, mining across multiple pools with 3 different computers, shifting BTC and altcoins across a half dozen exchanges (we get to deduct transfer and exchange fees, right?) I imagine it would make even an accountant's head explode.

And when all was said and done, I might owe like $100 in taxes, plus whatever penalty applies. It will be worth it just for the chuckles.

Go ahead, IRS. This is trench warfare, and I'm gonna bleed you to death if that's the game you want to play.

Valid point. The cost to them to find that $100 would be ridiculous, so if they did it sooner or later it just needs to be made public how much they wasted on such nonsense and it would stop. They likely already know they can't do that kind of thing. I think it's big fish they want to net.

I'm wondering this. What about these guys who lose bitcoins? Either their PC gets lost, they forgot the details for their wallet, or like a guy over here who threw his old HDD away with 3 million on bitcoin in a wallet on it and only remembered when they hit 1k. They could prove you had them via the exchange, but you wouldn't actually have them. What then?  They'd probably assume that you cashed them in somehow, made a large gain.

[hilariousandco]

Hey bitcoin is now going to go main stream!!!

Totally legal and totally taxed

Totally legal and totally unusable

Torrenting copywrighted material is illegal.

Are torrents unusable? No, they are widely used and no one gives a shit about the law.

Same will happen here, watch.

True, but it's not good if you want to use it to buy legit things, which is the end goal.

[bbeagle]

You see a $1 bill on the sidewalk. Is it 'worth' it to pick it up, because of all the paperwork you need to file to the IRS?

This is basically what you're asking with the small transactions. The IRS doesn't care. You get $50 in your birthday card, you earn $20 baby sitting, $20 mowing someone's lawn, $20 shoveling driveways, etc. The IRS doesn't care.

If you win $1000 in a slot machine - the IRS cares. You pay $20,000 cash for a car. The IRS will be all over that.
 
Actually, my brother was trying to buy a new car from a car dealership years ago. After trade-in, he owed $6,000. He had $6,000 in cash. The car dealership would NOT accept cash - they wanted him to sign up for a loan (that he could pay off the next day without paying more than $6,000) - the car dealership (a Nissan) said they wouldn't take cash because they had to report it to the IRS and didn't want to go through the headaches.

My brother then, on principle, found a car dealership that would pay cash (a Toyota dealership) and bought from them. So, it's not only hard to spend btc, it's hard to spend US dollars.

[sweetgirl01]

You see a $1 bill on the sidewalk. Is it 'worth' it to pick it up, because of all the paperwork you need to file to the IRS?

This is basically what you're asking with the small transactions. The IRS doesn't care. You get $50 in your birthday card, you earn $20 baby sitting, $20 mowing someone's lawn, $20 shoveling driveways, etc. The IRS doesn't care.

If you win $1000 in a slot machine - the IRS cares. You pay $20,000 cash for a car. The IRS will be all over that.
 

This government is the less money they don't care because they can't get much from