[freebeard]

I know. I read the whole Satoshi Nakamoto white paper back when. I don't have those powers of concentration today. The reason I came back to the thread an hour later?? I'm obsessed.

It sounds to me, reading Zero Hedge, that the real bubble is in fiat currency:

Deutsche: "We Are Almost At The Point Beyond Which There Will Be No More Bubbles" | Zero Hedge

This is mind-numbing, so I ran it through Mac OS Summarize Text:

While a passage like that is far more likely to have been taken from a book by Lacan, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault or any other prominent POMO-ists, in this case it comes from Kocic' year end outlook which encapsulates many of the themes we have covered recently, most notably his recent take on the interplay between volatility and leverage, a topic which anyone who has read Minsky is quite familiar with, yet which Kocic decided to give it his unique post-modernist spin with the following "spiraling leverage" chart from one month ago...


...Well, considering that years and decades of endless political lies that "the future is brighter" is the reason why the world finds itself on the edge of a social, political and financial catastrophe, and which has made a handful of people richer than their wildest dreams while pushing the vast majority of the population into considering that socialism - and even communism - may be a wise alternative to capitalism, perhaps it is not so bad that for once the truth will be told and someone will have the temerity to admit that no, the future will not be better, especially when one admits that after the next crash - and the wars that follows - the future, or as it will be known then, the present, will be the worst since the world wars.

A post-modernist facing the end of post-modernism. His spiraling line on a Cartesian grid speaks volumes. It's hard for him to imagine a world without him.

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

Bipartisan 'Cryptocurrency Fairness Act' Moves to Congress | Zero Hedge

First, it creates a de minimis exemption for cryptocurrency transactions for goods or services.

Today, if you buy a cup of coffee with bitcoins, you’ll have to calculate and report any gains that you experienced and pay tax on any gains. Under the bill, any transaction under $600 would be completely exempt, so you’d neither have to worry about keeping track of gains on all the little purchases you make, nor would you owe taxes on those small gains. This mirrors the same kind of exemption that foreign currency enjoys today and we think it’s a simple and fair way to avoid discouraging the use of cryptocurrency.

Now, there are many other transactions above $600, such as getting in and out of investment positions, on which capital gains tax will be owed. Today, you are responsible for keeping track of and accurately reporting every cent of gain. This is in contrast to your stock broker, who provides you and the IRS with a 1099-B form accounting all your gains and losses. Indeed, in answering Coin Center’s amicus brief opposing the IRS’s unprecedented and overbroad John Doe summons against Coinbase users, the Department of Justice noted that, “If Congress had subjected bitcoin exchanges like Coinbase to similar reporting requirements as those imposed on an online stock broker or a barter exchange, no John Doe summons to Coinbase would likely have been necessary[.]”
[snip]
Whatever the case, the other thing the Cryptocurrency Tax Fairness Act would do is require the Treasury Department to issue guidelines for informational reporting on digital currency transactions for which capital gains is due.

A de minimis exemption that completely excludes all small transactions, as well as clear IRS guidance and informational reporting, would be a lifesaver at tax time for cryptocurrency users.