[TacticalCoder]

My favorite part is this:

> Meanwhile, groups of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have questioned what they call SEC’s “regulation via enforcement” approach. They have asked why the agency’s actions against crypto firms seem less focused on “compliance and customer protection,” but were instead “calculated for maximum publicity and political impact.” Others have observed that the SEC’s strategy “does not protect the public.” Indeed, this suit does nothing to protect the public. Like those in complaints that have come before, its allegations are factually incorrect, contrary to law, and the wrong way to create policy in the United States.

To me the SEC and Gary Gensler are going to get their arses handed to themselves once again.

[donmcronald]

> “calculated for maximum publicity and political impact.”

I'm not a fan of crypto currency, but a big part of my dislike for it is how difficult it is to actually use it. I don't mean technically though. I mean legally.

In Canada, all crypto transactions are considered taxable events. Did you sell a couch on Facebook Marketplace using Bitcoin? Time to calculate your capital gain or loss from a vaguely worded set of guidelines.

It's all political IMO. The real value in crypto is having a currency that isn't subjected to the whims of governments and the people that control monetary policy alongside the massive payment networks like Visa and MasterCard. Controlling the flow of money allows pseudo bans on things the people that control those systems don't like.

My hot take on the whole thing is that half the goal is to make it well known that all the remaining exchanges perform strict KYC and that crypto transactions are trivially easy to track while being extra complicated to report on your taxes (at least in Canada). Once that's done crypto currency doesn't have much value to anyone.

[lmm]

> In Canada, all crypto transactions are considered taxable events. Did you sell a couch on Facebook Marketplace using Bitcoin? Time to calculate your capital gain or loss from a vaguely worded set of guidelines.

Even if it were a real honest-to-god currency it would be the same though, right? That's how it works here in Japan at least - buy a couch in dollars, now you have to calculate capital gains against your average cost basis for dollars (which I guess includes every dollar you earned in your whole working life, if you lived in Canada before you moved here?)

[modeless]

No, transactions in national currencies are exempt if under a reasonable cap. So you don't have to separately declare every time you bought Starbucks overseas or whatever.

[toenail]

It sounds wonderful when the biggest worry you have about money is how to file your taxes. If that were true for most people on this planet bitcoin would probably not be needed.

[dale_glass]

> It's all political IMO. The real value in crypto is having a currency that isn't subjected to the whims of governments and the people that control monetary policy alongside the massive payment networks like Visa and MasterCard. Controlling the flow of money allows pseudo bans on things the people that control those systems don't like.

What a surprise that the government isn't about to make it convenient to evade its authority.

> Once that's done crypto currency doesn't have much value to anyone.

It already doesn't. The lofty early promises have long fallen flat and all that is left is a game of hot potato. It's not utility, it's just a lottery, which economically speaking is negative utility.

[lottin]

> The real value in crypto is having a currency that isn't subjected to the whims of governments and the people that control monetary policy alongside the massive payment networks like Visa and MasterCard. Controlling the flow of money allows pseudo bans on things the people that control those systems don't like.

Would you say the same is true of arms trafficking or contraband in general? Personally, I can't think of a reason why a society wouldn't want to control who and what goes into and out of its territory.