A Very Cinema-graphic Passage
Off and on, I have been reading The Earth Is Weeping - The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West by Peter Cozzens. It is, of course, a very sad story,...
On Bitcoins, Tulips And IRS Tax Compliance
If you have been running a lot of bitcoin transactions in the last few years, you probably have a lot of unreported gains and losses. As it turns out the idea of using bitcoins to have all these anonymous transactions might not have been the smartest thing that ever entered into some villainous brain. The essence of the blockchain system means that there are many many identical copies of journals (I know they are called ledgers, but I think they are more like journals) that contain every single transaction with every single bitcoin ever. If a public key can be associated with you, then all the transactions done with that public key are identified as yours. There are things that mitigate this, such as the use of multiple public keys, but unlike cash which can go from hand to hand with no permanent record every bitcoin transaction is recorded – forever.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.