> How do governments collect taxes on transactions in Bitcoin? The answer is they don't, and they can't. Crypto-currency's strong protections on anonymity make it impossible for any state to know who is buying what, who is paying whom, who earns what, and who has what in savings.
BS! The state seems to be surviving just fine with its "inability" to track who is buying what with cash, and it could easily require and enforce documentation of large purchases (such as houses, cars, etc. as it already does btw).
> 2. Police:It would be almost impossible for states to detect certain crimes. One of the major alleged uses of Bitcoin -- though, of course, one can never truly know -- is buying illicit drugs.
Ohhhh noooo!! Cry me a river!!
You mean the batshit insane war on drugs that has destroyed countless lives will become even more ineffective than it already is?!? Please oh please, don't throw me into the briar patch!
Every one of these points applies equally to cash. Might as well write a second article titled: "Cash: An Existential threat to the modern liberal state"
BTW, there's nothing liberal about the war on drugs, the very existence of which is a cruel affront to basic human liberties.
> In a world where many transactions are anonymous, it’s unclear how governments could even compile accurate economic data, without which macroeconomic policy is impossible.
How exactly does having a public history of every transaction ever made somehow make it "impossible" to glean any useful economic data from it?
Add to it knowledge of certain transactions (such as those that go through companies), and you start to get a pretty clear picture of exactly what's going on.