Bitcoins - fad or trend?

[tdtwedt]

The IRS Is Puzzled: Why Out Of 500,000 Coinbase Users, Only 900 Reported Gains Or Losses

The biggest problem, however, and the reason why the IRS is unlikely to relent is that as the IRS said, it detected a "reporting gap" between the 500,000 virtual currency users Coinbase reported between 2013 and 2015 and the less than 900 bitcoin users reporting gains or losses for each of those years.

That would imply that less than 0.2% of coinbase users bothered to report anything on their tax forms. One can see why the IRS is angry.

And, worse for those who believe they will be able to get away with their cryptoprofits unscathed by Federal Taxes, following last week's hearing, a federal judge is poised to allow a limited investigation into those gains to proceed over the company’s objection that the agency is on “a massive fishing expedition” meant to make itself look tough in the eyes of its critics in Congress, according to Bloomberg.

"It’s legitimate for them to investigate whether people are making money on their bitcoin purchases" and paying taxes on any gains, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in San Francisco told lawyers for Coinbase at a hearing last Thursday. "I have to give tremendous discretion to the agency as to how they investigate," she added later.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-1 ... -or-losses

[Long John]

"Bull" means bullish. You're not bullish any more, and doesn't sound like you're long, either. Go all in on the Next Bitcoin, Tom. Money where your mouth is.

[SilverDoge]

The IRS Is Puzzled: Why Out Of 500,000 Coinbase Users, Only 900 Reported Gains Or Losses

I can't believe 900 people sold their bitcoin back for dirty fiat. That is the real mystery. You know they are regretting that decision, if they sold back in 2015 or 2016.

[tdtwedt]

The IRS Is Puzzled: Why Out Of 500,000 Coinbase Users, Only 900 Reported Gains Or Losses

I can't believe 900 people sold their bitcoin back for dirty fiat. That is the real mystery. You know they are regretting that decision, if they sold back in 2015 or 2016.

Sounds to me like the IRS has everyone's information that uses coinbase and is going to look through the completed tax returns to compare the data. If there is a mystery maybe they can figure out the solution.

[Bucketeer]

"Bull" means bullish. You're not bullish any more, and doesn't sound like you're long, either. Go all in on the Next Bitcoin, Tom. Money where your mouth is.

WOW!

John, I am still bullish and long on Bitcoin, but I will admit that I'm getting tired of riding the bull. I've been riding the beast for almost 4 years, you've been in the saddle for less than 1. You had a lot of questions about Bitcoin, that I and others answered, before you bought in. You've been rewarded for taking a risk.

I''m not a poker player. "All In" isn't something I do. I "Wade In" into a position, and then I study it. That's why I'm generally bearish on ICOs or new coins. You can make good money if you trade the hype, but I'm not a trader.

Let's talk about Tezos. If you go back in the Alt-Coins topic, I think you will find that I was the 1st person to mention Tezo, and if you read on, I also became the 1st person in the topic to say that there too many negatives in Tezo, and that I was't going to buy in.

I'm not a pumper/dumper. I was the first person to mention Qtum in the forum, it had a good run, and I took a lot of crap for telling people that it was overpriced at $12. It ran up to $18, and is currently priced at $11.40. Qtum has the potential to become HUGE. My focus now is building a solar-powered staking rig, for Qtum.

I check the price of Bitcoin in the morning with my coffee. Sometimes I'll check it at night.

This past weekends action in BCT & BCH must have been torture for you. I traded 1 BTC for 5 BCH and 100 SALT on Friday, and while I was amazed by the price action this past weekend, I also had a good laugh about it.

BTW...don't buy SALT because I did. I don't completely understand their business model, and I have some problems with their plan. However, I'm smart enough to know that any economy needs lenders.

There are a lot of people sitting on a fortune because of Bitcoin. I'm sitting on a $100K gain. Many people want to monetize their returns, but they don't want to sell and pay taxes. They will borrow against their assets, and SALT is ready to lend.

All that said, I'm a conservative player. I own BTC, BCC, ETH, QTUM and SALT. I don't make 10-1 bets but I'll consider them when offered. I've studied Warren Buffet, and the one and only thing I've learned from Warren is to "buy it and never sell it".

I believe that BCH is the future of Bitcoin, and I'm slowly moving into that economy.

Come down to Orlando, I'll buy lunch

[Bucketeer]

I'm a Bitcoin Bull, but I believe BCH is going to replace Bitcoin.

I believe we may be having a friendly disagreement:

Bhawhahahahaaaa. That's a good one Trav.

[Long John]

All that's fine, and there's something to be said for hedging bets. I just think one can't claim to be a Bitcoin "bull" and forecast Bitcoin's demise in the same sentence. I don't claim to be a long bull, about BTC or crypto in general. I'm very upfront about seeing crypto as a means to an end, one that I couldn't reach via traditional methods in my time frame, short of robbing a bank. The fact that I might reach it in less than one year is a source of astonishment to me. My goals are modest. I don't need BTC to reach $25K, or even $10K really. Come to think of it, the success of crypto may actually BE robbing a bank ... the traditional banking system, that is. Not many here would weep over that. Anyway, I have no problem with BCH doing well, even if it means BTC won't get to $10K in my time frame. Both the original Ethereum and its fork are doing OK for themselves.

[Bucketeer]

The IRS Is Puzzled: Why Out Of 500,000 Coinbase Users, Only 900 Reported Gains Or Losses

I can't believe 900 people sold their bitcoin back for dirty fiat. That is the real mystery. You know they are regretting that decision, if they sold back in 2015 or 2016.

Sounds to me like the IRS has everyone's information that uses coinbase and is going to look through the completed tax returns to compare the data. If there is a mystery maybe they can figure out the solution.

Coinbase and the IRS are working an agreement similar to Paypal. If you have more than 200 transactions OR have a transaction greater than $20K, you will receive a 1040K.

tdtwedt, you are very welcome to post your opinions or news link in this topic. The bulls on here chuckle about your posts. You missed the train, and your sour grapes are showing.

Go home and stack your Eagles.

[SilverDoge]

I believe that BCH is the future of Bitcoin, and I'm slowly moving into that economy.

Come down to Orlando, I'll buy lunch

LiteCoin guy Charlie Lee. Read his tweets from NOV 12th on. I think this is just another hurdle bitcoin will get over, assuming that Lightning Networks (or another solution) solves the scaling issue eventually.

https://twitter.com/satoshilite

[natsb88]

People see right through attempts to reframe past predictions and taking contradictory stances in an attempt to always be / have been right. We don't need that silliness here. We all benefit from the learning experiences shared here, whether they were net positive or net negative.

I'm not a pumper/dumper. I was the first person to mention Qtum in the forum, it had a good run, and I took a lot of crap for telling people that it was overpriced at $12. It ran up to $18, and is currently priced at $11.40. Qtum has the potential to become HUGE. My focus now is building a solar-powered staking rig, for Qtum.

So you said it was overpriced at $12 before it ran up 50% higher, and now say at $11.40 it has the potential to become huge. That $0.60 made all the difference?

Spend $17 on a Kill-a-Watt and do a real analysis of your electric costs before you drop money on a solar panel and battery. I think you are overestimating your power usage and overestimating what you will actually get out of a panel vs. its rated output, both of which will skew your payback period.

[Bucketeer]

People see right through attempts to reframe past predictions and taking contradictory stances in an attempt to always be / have been right. We don't need that silliness here. We all benefit from the learning experiences shared here, whether they were net positive or net negative.

I'm not a pumper/dumper. I was the first person to mention Qtum in the forum, it had a good run, and I took a lot of crap for telling people that it was overpriced at $12. It ran up to $18, and is currently priced at $11.40. Qtum has the potential to become HUGE. My focus now is building a solar-powered staking rig, for Qtum.

So you said it was overpriced at $12 before it ran up 50% higher, and now say at $11.40 it has the potential to become huge. That $0.60 made all the difference?

Spend $17 on a Kill-a-Watt and do a real analysis of your electric costs before you drop money on a solar panel and battery. I think you are overestimating your power usage and overestimating what you will actually get out of a panel vs. its rated output, both of which will skew your payback period.

I called out Qtum at $12 because it was nothing but hype at that time. My buy price was 31 cents, and if I sold at the top I could have cashed out $34,000 from an investment of $596. Look at it now, back at $11.59. I'm a believer. In my opinion, Qtum is going to be huge. I''m not a pump and dumper. I'm a hodler. and I play the long game.

Good advice on the Kill-a-watt. if I'm able to get the Raspberry Pi to stake Qtum, I'll probably buy one. I don't think that a Kill-a-watt is all that accurate, but my math might be wrong. December 7th will determine if this is a profitable venture or not.

Right now, I'm sitting here and trying to understand Linux. Time will tell.

[xelint]

MasterCard has filed a patent on its own blockchain-based money transfer solution

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/14/mastercard-has-filed-a-patent-on-its-own-blockchain-based-money-transfer-solution/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

[Long John]

Thank you, Bitcoin. I didn't have a good day in most respects, so it was nice to come home and see it topped $6900 today. Over $7K again would be nicer, but I'm not greedy. <--- big fat lie.

Now if silver would stop being tied to $17 like it's wearing a choke-chain with the initials JPM on it.

[CaptainW]

The IRS Is Puzzled: Why Out Of 500,000 Coinbase Users, Only 900 Reported Gains Or Losses

I can't believe 900 people sold their bitcoin back for dirty fiat. That is the real mystery. You know they are regretting that decision, if they sold back in 2015 or 2016.

Exactly. Couldn't the reason for so few reporting be that the overwhelming majority of holders haven't cashed out? I would venture to guess that most are either using BTC for making other trades or holding long term.
Of course even if that's the case, it won't stop the government from going on another witch hunt.

[Bucketeer]

Good post xelint.

Visa, MasterCard, and the banks are getting robbed from fraud. I gave an ex-girlfriend my ATM Bank card (Visa), and what was going to be a $30 purchase at Walmart turned into a $2500 shopping spree. I got robbed.

I've only used that ATM card for groceries from Winn-Dixie and Publix, and fuel for my truck,

Visa's fraud department sent me a text about the transaction, after the transaction was approved. I called Visa and my bank, explained the situation, and changed my accounts and my card. The ex is currently in prison for grand theft. I don't know if she has to make restitution once she gets out.

Somebody took the hit. My only cost was inconvenience for 1 day. Visa or the bank credited back my money within 24 hours. I doubt if the ex will ever be in a position to make restitution. I didn't loose any money. Visa or Walmart took the hit, which is why their credit card interest rates are so high.

The morel to the story is that I was a big dummy.

I should have given her cash for the purchase. I've loaned my ATM card and the PIN to several people here in my trailer park, and I've never had a problem getting repaid at the 1st of the month.

They usually need beer, cigarettes, personal hygiene products, and cat food. It didn't seem like a big deal with the ex, since I was already giving out the are ATM card to several people in the park. My mistake, big dummy.

The end of the story

[Long John]

BTC at $7300 at this hour. What a lovely morning. Of course it will crash again, the manipulators will see to that if organic forces do not. Then it will come back, the manipulators with more BTC and cash in their bags. Up and down we ride the bucking bull. BTC only has to lose $3000 and BCH gain $3000 for parity. I have to admit, it's a bold prediction, but for now it's going in the other direction.

As for Coinbase clients not reporting their gains, is it any different than other exchanges that trade in fiat? I suspect the IRS will catch up with the big evaders, not sure they will expend resources on someone who doesn't declare a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars. They're looking for the whales who profit hundreds of thousands or more and don't declare the capital gains. Personally, I have taken out just about the same as I have put in, and can document it. If I cash out significant profit I will have to declare it on my tax return. There may be recourse in the form of gifts, medical expenses, health savings account, other things I haven't researched.

[Long John]

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-clashic-b ... cash-fork/

Weirdness with Bitcoin Cash being reported. A "malicious hard fork" calling itself Bitcoin Cash Classic, or Clashic for short. It sounds like a joke or a prank, but someone really did mine the block. An attack by people who do not wish BCH well? Sometimes a little regulation seems like it wouldn't be such a bad thing... Anyway, Bitmex said it's selling all of its Bitcoin Cash and crediting customers with the appropriate amount of Bitcoin. It doesn't sound like the customers have any say in the matter.

[SilverDoge]

Sometimes a little regulation seems like it wouldn't be such a bad thing...

NO. Free Markets reign.

[SilverDoge]

Good post xelint.

Visa, MasterCard, and the banks are getting robbed from fraud. I gave an ex-girlfriend my ATM Bank card (Visa), and what was going to be a $30 purchase at Walmart turned into a $2500 shopping spree. I got robbed.

I've only used that ATM card for groceries from Winn-Dixie and Publix, and fuel for my truck,

Visa's fraud department sent me a text about the transaction, after the transaction was approved. I called Visa and my bank, explained the situation, and changed my accounts and my card. The ex is currently in prison for grand theft. I don't know if she has to make restitution once she gets out.

Somebody took the hit. My only cost was inconvenience for 1 day. Visa or the bank credited back my money within 24 hours. I doubt if the ex will ever be in a position to make restitution. I didn't loose any money. Visa or Walmart took the hit, which is why their credit card interest rates are so high.

The morel to the story is that I was a big dummy.

I should have given her cash for the purchase. I've loaned my ATM card and the PIN to several people here in my trailer park, and I've never had a problem getting repaid at the 1st of the month.

They usually need beer, cigarettes, personal hygiene products, and cat food. It didn't seem like a big deal with the ex, since I was already giving out the are ATM card to several people in the park. My mistake, big dummy.

The end of the story

Tom, this story is hilarious. So many life lessons in just a few short paragraphs. Crypto can solve both global problems, and keep girlfriends on a short leash!

[MaxGravy]

This last correction in BTC was around 25% so I picked up another .05. I now have .1 BTC.