[zoshi]

Cash is opaque, yet governments have been funding themselves via taxation for thousands of years.

If government charged a flat rate for its services, tax evasion would become impossible. One would simply show a proof of payment. This would only be ~$10k/year in US according to its current tax receipts and population. Property tax is also impossible to evade.

[iamben]

Yes, but most people don't keep cash in a box under the bed - they keep it in a bank. This means my elderly mother's house doesn't get broken in to on a regular basis by people trying to take her life savings.

Furthermore, her cash in a bank is protected by the government, and there are safeguards in place to help protect her from people trying to scam anything she has saved away from her. There are also mechanisms in place that when things 'go wrong' she's looked after.

I'm not arguing for or against cryptocurrency, but there is some value to having a society where those that earn more help those that earn less by paying more taxes. I'm also pretty happy to pay for police, and firemen, and someone to pick up my bins, pave my roads, medical care etc. etc. All too often it seems the crypto argument is "I don't want to pay taxes, it's MY money" - yeah, it hurts, but the benefit of doing so is very real.

The caveat, of course, is I say this living in a country with great free medical care, that's actually a pretty nice place to live, even if I really don't agree with some of our politicians. I appreciate not everyone lives in such a country.

[matheusmoreira]

> All too often it seems the crypto argument is "I don't want to pay taxes, it's MY money" - yeah, it hurts, but the benefit of doing so is very real.

> The caveat, of course, is I say this living in a country with great free medical care, that's actually a pretty nice place to live

Unfortunately, not every country is nice. Not every country uses taxes for the benefits of its citizens. Some countries have governments so thoroughly corrupt even the bare minimum only gets done before elections. Some countries have government officials who purchase goods and services at incredibly inflated prices so they can pocket the difference. Government officials who steal money meant for COVID-19 vaccines.

If you're from such a country, paying taxes is really no different than financing any other type of criminal operation. In these cases, avoiding taxes is a moral imperative. In these places, it's the duty of every single citizen to pay as little taxes as they can get away with.

[zoshi]

Taxation and financial privacy are not mutually exclusive. Taxation and cryptocurrency are not mutually exclusive. Cryptocurrency and banking are not mutually exclusive.

[iamben]

At no point did I say any of those things.

I did say that there is a prevailing undercurrent within the crypto space that government and fiat is bad and wrong and taxing people pretty much amounts to theft. And without some visibility into how much money someone has or is making, ensuring that someone fairly pays taxes becomes a lot harder.

As for the banking part - whilst I understand where you're coming from, cryptocurrency is nowhere near as 'safe' as a regular bank for (probably) 99% of the population. My mum can barely use Amazon...

[ajkdhcb2]

People like her can let custodians like banks store her cryptocurrency.

[iamben]

"custodians like banks" - so a bank then? Until she (eventually) gets all the same protections and benefits she already has from 'regular money' what reason would she (and many others) have to start using 'digital money' instead?

[ajkdhcb2]

Money that central banks can just print out of thin air with one click is absurd and doesn't even make sense.

The banks can give her those same protections and she will be the last to adopt it. She will hardly notice and just tap her card/phone like always