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Comment by kwelstr | Hacker News Reader

In my opinion, the regulators should focus on exchanges applying KYC and make the exchanges function the same a stock exchanges. If I buy a stock in the US through a brokerage house, they have my info and every year they send me a 1099 with my profit/loss for the year that I give my accountant to add to my income tax report.

Once the exchanges are regulated like that it would be very difficult to launder money or avoid paying taxes on profits.

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There is a focus on building decentralized exchanges at the moment.

Regulation will become more difficult when these become mainstream.

If bitcoin wants to be part of the global financial system avoiding regulation is not the way.

That just basically supports the OP.

Every thread devolves to how to avoid taxes, kyc etc.

The point of cryptocurrency is to restore privacy in financial matters, not become part of the new centralized financial establishment. The OP doesn't believe in financial privacy, so there is no way cryptocurrency will ever be acceptable to him. He believes in mass surveillance of currency transfers, something which is anathema to a significant segment of the population.

Decentralized exchanges can make regulation easy. When you cash out, you have to provide the transaction on the blockchain where you purchased those coins, and at what cost basis. If the transaction was private, you have to provide the means for the government to view the private details.

You can choose not to do that, and if you do, the IRS will assume the cost basis was $0.

I'm have been buying crypto for years, and I'm perfectly happy with that - it gives me the option for privacy, but at a cost.

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