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The idea is to never go off-chain, so no need to close your channel(s). And aren't you already committing cash if you're "in" bitcoin?

The tax filing doesn't sound so bad in the long run. I'm sure someone will write some nifty tool to extract whatever payments you've done.

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Arguably, the tax filing sounds like the single worst part of it. Imagine if you really used Bitcoin for every purchase you make in a normal tax year. Suddenly how much you pay in taxes depends on the path integral of the exchange rate over the entire period. That's an absolute accounting nightmare. Now you have a huge incentive to batch all of your purchases at market low points to minimize tax burden and you're stuck trying to beat the market just to buy groceries. That isn't something I want to have to think about.

Fair enough, that’s why I wrote ”in the long run”. Also, there’s always the option of moving somewhere that doesn’t have this issue. Well, unless you’re from the US and must file taxes even when you’re not even in the country, I suppose.

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