[P2P-F] Bitcoin @ EFF

Mon Jan 24 14:16:38 CET 2011

I understand the US aspects pretty well.

The people making the transaction need a dollar equivalent to be able  
to report to the IRS. Superfluid created a process through which  
people could negotiate that value after the transaction (the seller  
wants it smaller, the buyer wants it bigger).

Currencies that have dollar equivalencies (Berkshares, etc.) don't  
have to bother with this.

On Jan 23, 2011, at 10:11 PM, Michel Bauwens wrote:

> european LETS faced the same tax issues in the 80's-90's but they  
> all seemed to have solved them ... but they do pay some kind of taxes,
>
> do we have an expert on these aspects here?
>
> On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 12:16 AM, Douglas Rushkoff  
> <rushkoff at gmail.com> wrote:
> Fascinating. Sounds like he got the same attack that Paypal did in  
> the early days, when the banks went after the company for earning  
> its profit on the "float."
>
> The thing that could bring Bitcoin to its knees in the US is the tax  
> law. Ultimately, the network operator would be responsible for tax  
> reporting when people are making exchanges of value and not using  
> cash. I found all this out while working with the Superfluid guys.   
> If I administrate trades for you like ebay does, in US currency, I'm  
> not obligated to produce 1099's. If I don't do the value exchange in  
> dollars, I must report the dollar equivalency to the IRS.
>
> This law has yet to be enforced, but it surely would be if any of  
> these currencies scaled up.
>
>
> On Jan 23, 2011, at 11:59 AM, magius wrote:
>
> > Bitcoin and Opencoin are "sons" of David Chaum's Digicash both.  
> Chaum
> > is one of the most important cryptographers and freedom fighters in
> > the world and invented in the eighties the first digital cash, that
> > was refused, attacked and destroyed by credit card companies
> > societies, that instead wanted to propagate a model not based on
> > anonimity. The big difference between them is that Bitcoin is a
> > complete currency system instead Opencoin is the system to make a
> > currency (a digital mint). Bitcoin you need to use as-it-is, with
> > Opencoin instead you can create your own currency system.
> >
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