[drcode]

> Income from investments is supposed to be reported to the IRS.

Bitcoin income has required disclosure since 2013, this bill seems to say that even bitcoin just sitting idle in an account need to be disclosed somehow, which is a MAJOR breach of privacy. This is like saying to someone "If you own a nice painting in your house you need to let us know about it" even if it generates no income.

They are basically saying "if you value your privacy you are a criminal, even if you aren't breaking any other laws" which should scare everyone.

[tehlike]

Ish. it's not that different from status quo. 1. Government already knows all of your US bank accounts. 2. They ask you to declare foreign bank accounts. 3. Majority of countries have deals with US to inform them of US residents/citizens accounts, and many banks for this reason do not accept new accounts from us citizens. 4. US asks you to declare any monetary instrument as you enter country (above 10K) or so.

So if you think about it, they are not asking anything different from what they already do.

[garmaine]

Bitcoin is more analogous to cash. The government does not mandate people reveal how much cash they have in their possession.

[tehlike]

Cash-only transactions, maybe. But don't forget, the transactions are tracable, so technically, if you somehow transfer money to a "monitored account" that has ties to your identity (like, transfering money to DMV for your driver's license), your identity is revealed.

[drcode]

I do agree you are right about most of this...