quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
If not, is there an advantage to investing rather than buying coins? Or when you invest are you actually purchasing BitCoins that you can spend? Or is that two separate concepts?

No real difference. Some may buy a cryptocurrency to use, and others may hold it to speculate on future increases, just as you can with any currency. But fundamentally, they are the same.

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
I'm of the opinion there's no such thing as "investing" in Bitcoin. You are "speculating" in Bitcoin.

There is a lot of that in any investing. Maybe there is some line to be crossed with certain amounts of knowledge, but buying Exxon stock is still speculating, to some degree.

quote:

Originally posted by celticwolf:
Investing in BitCoin to me; would be buying GPU's and hardware to setting up a full time mining operation.

but you are competing with overseas miners who use a whole lot of electrical power and kind of have the market cornered, so to speak.

It's not like it was 8 years ago when you could mine and make money with a table-top setup.

quote:

Originally posted by Sailor1911:

IRS obtained 14,000 names and 8.9 million transactions on a "John Doe" summons filed against crypto currency exchange Coinbase. Last summer, they began sending letters out to people; three kinds; 6174, 6174-A - informational in nature, no reply required; 6173 requests responses and references criminal penalties 3 times.

Remember that you sign the return under penalty of perjury and checking the box Yes or No is covered under that.

And, if you get a letter suggesting that you should perhaps reexamine your return, you can presume that they have data on you. Recommend hiring a good tax attorney with experience dealing with the Gold Badges.

So much for that then.
Thanks for the info.

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:

quote:

Originally posted by Sailor1911:

IRS obtained 14,000 names and 8.9 million transactions on a "John Doe" summons filed against crypto currency exchange Coinbase. Last summer, they began sending letters out to people; three kinds; 6174, 6174-A - informational in nature, no reply required; 6173 requests responses and references criminal penalties 3 times.

Remember that you sign the return under penalty of perjury and checking the box Yes or No is covered under that.

And, if you get a letter suggesting that you should perhaps reexamine your return, you can presume that they have data on you. Recommend hiring a good tax attorney with experience dealing with the Gold Badges.

So much for that then.
Thanks for the info.

If you mined yourself a crypto token, you would pretty much own it anonymously. The likelihood of you successfully mining a Bitcoin token on your own is vanishingly small, so much so that each whole coin is worth about $33k today.

If someone gave you a coin from their own wallet, that could also be done anonymously. It's just a bunch of letters and numbers arranged in a code. You could, theoretically, put the code into a USB stick and hand it to someone as securely and anonymously as handing someone a briefcase of money.

Where the IRS currently comes in is with crypto brokerages and exchanges. When you buy and sell crypto on an exchange or from a brokerage, you are causing a recorded taxable event. Handing someone a bar of gold for a briefcase of money would also cause a taxable event (income from sale), but it isn't recorded at a brokerage level.

If you wanted crypto that the government didn't know about, there's probably billions of dollars worth of coins out there that have never been reported to the IRS, or mined in some country that the IRS has no jurisdiction over.

May want to spread the word about this to folks involved with crypto:

quote:

Originally posted by 1967Goat:
I'm of the opinion there's no such thing as "investing" in Bitcoin. You are "speculating" in Bitcoin.

I agree

I wouldn’t touch cryptocurrency with a ten foot pole. On the other hand, my barber thinks it’s the greatest thing ever and is sporting a brand new SS Rolex Daytona.