Hacker News Reader

It requires cheap trackability to tax.

Of course, BitCoins are easily trackable, thus doomed. It was possible, though, to design them without this property, ensuring that costs of tracking offset the potential tax gains.

EDIT: It would be fun to consider the arbitrage opportunities rendered possible by such sales tax.

View on HN

My understanding is that it's easy to track the transfer of bitcoins to accounts, but very difficult (impossible) to figure out who is behind an account unless they choose to reveal their identity. Since accounts can be generated on a whim, and with no identification, the upshot is that taxation would be unenforceable.

They do not think so[1]. It is easier to fail than with the old-fashioned money, given that all the transactions are publicly logged.

http://www.bitcoin.org/wiki/doku.php?id=anonymity

Reply on news.ycombinator.com