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from the who-said-fake-money-would-never-be-worth-anything dept.
Thanks in part to Argentina's volatile financial markets, bitcoins are helping people there cut out the banks and government entirely in their financial transactions:
That afternoon, a plump 48-year-old musician was one of several customers to drop by the rented room. A German customer had paid the musician in Bitcoin for some freelance compositions, and the musician needed to turn them into dollars. Castiglione [the bitcoin moneychanger] joked about the corruption of Argentine politics as he peeled off five $100 bills, which he was trading for a little more than 1.5 Bitcoins, and gave them to his client. The musician did not hand over anything in return; before showing up, he had transferred the Bitcoins — in essence, digital tokens that exist only as entries in a digital ledger — from his Bitcoin address to Castiglione’s. Had the German client instead sent euros to a bank in Argentina, the musician would have been required to fill out a form to receive payment and, as a result of the country’s currency controls, sacrificed roughly 30 percent of his earnings to change his euros into pesos. Bitcoin makes it easier to move money the other way too. The day before, the owner of a small manufacturing company bought $20,000 worth of Bitcoin from Castiglione in order to get his money to the United States, where he needed to pay a vendor, a transaction far easier and less expensive than moving funds through Argentine banks.
Do any Solentils manage their transactions in bitcoin? What are your experiences?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday May 01 2015, @11:00PM
Have not dabbled in it, but from all the negative [wsj.com] press I've read it doesn't yet seem like a good idea -- at least not until shit hits the fan and my government imposes martial law and outlaws cash transactions.
The person closest to me who has messed with Bitcoins claimed that they lost 1600 bucks in the "investment."
At this point it seems to be about as stable an investment as walking into a casino. Fuck gambling, I could spend that money on booze and at least know for certain I'm gonna have a good time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @11:13PM
Do you like it when you drink so much booze that you kill most of your intestinal bacteria and then you have diarrhoea for a week afterward?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 01 2015, @11:21PM
Yes. I happen to be into Scheiße. It's the best of both worlds, really.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2015, @02:00AM
Mere diarrhea is for n00bs! A man's not going pro until hand-washing unexpected wet farts from underwear at work and sneakily drying them in the office microwave becomes a commonplace afternoon activity
along with the 'ouch my hemorrhoids' chair dance.
(Score: 5, Informative) by demonlapin on Friday May 01 2015, @11:34PM
The key is that the money flowing into Argentina limits how much can flow out (the wealthy launderees have the pesos to put in people's hands, but you need to intercept the hard currency before it enters the Argentine financial system). More coming in means more can be laundered. You could do the same thing with anything for which there is a reasonably liquid market, but BTC has low transaction costs and can be bought and sold electronically. No need to smuggle physical objects, just transfer BTC and watch the block chain for confirmation.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by tftp on Friday May 01 2015, @11:39PM
from all the negative press I've read it doesn't yet seem like a good idea -- at least not until shit hits the fan and my government imposes martial law and outlaws cash transactions.
Once the martial law is imposed, it's way too late to try to salvage your life savings. They'd be gone a year or two earlier in an endless spiral of inflation. The whole purpose of the martial law is to deny you your last option - to take up arms against the system. That last option becomes appealing only after you had nothing to eat for a week. Few people would be considering buying BTC at that point.
The person closest to me who has messed with Bitcoins claimed that they lost 1600 bucks in the "investment."
BTC is not an investment - not any more than buying Chinese RMB or Russian Rouble or $any_other_foreign_currency. It might be an object of speculation, though. But playing on the FX market is not for a common man who gets all his information from interested parties. He'd get fleeced.
At this point it seems to be about as stable an investment as walking into a casino.
Theoretically, BTC could be stable. However there is no benefit in that. The BTC market is so small that quite a few players are able to influence it - and profit is generated by the old "buy low, sell high" method.
I do not deal in BTC. There is no need to in a well functioning society. I have no desire to cheat on taxes, even if that is possible - the risk is not worth it. There is no other reason to bother with BTC, given that it requires a high level of computer and cybersecurity skills. And for the SHTF day... one of pretty good investments is precious metals. Namely, brass and lead, with a touch of copper. They last forever, and they are always in demand. Especially after the SHTF.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Saturday May 02 2015, @12:27AM
I do not deal in BTC. There is no need to in a well functioning society. I have no desire to cheat on taxes, even if that is possible - the risk is not worth it.
Nor to you have to. If you bought your bitcoin with fiat, you paid income tax on the fiat. When you sell your bitcoin for fiat, it will be income and taxable.
Just don't try to hide those transactions, and the IRS has no problem with bitcoin.
There are ways where your purchases can offset your redemptions that require some record keeping, just like moving money from bank to bank. Not a big deal.
http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Virtual-Currency-Guidance [irs.gov]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2015, @06:54PM
Hey, if you walk into a casino with money, they give you booze too!