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Comment by jcbrand | Hacker News Reader

Doesn't all of this also apply to Gold? If you bought gold at $400 and then later again at $1000, then you could apply the same non-fungibility argument against it.

And yet, currency used to be redeemable into gold. Was it then not a real currency? Didn't the non-fungibility of gold also infect the currencies it backed, thereby making them non-fungible as well?

EDIT: of course gold backed currencies were fungible. In the same way, bitcoin is its own backed currency. And hence, also fungible. QED ;)

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I don't think so, because when we were on the gold standard, the price of gold - or the exchange rate in US dollars (?) - was fixed.

I may be interpreting the term fungible incorrectly. At a given point in time, won't one Bitcoin always be exchangeable for another Bitcoin?

If I purchased a BC for $1 and the current market price is $1.50, my basis is $1 and my unrealized gain is $.50, but does that gain impact something being fungible? The coin is still mutually interchangeable at that point.

I keep reading examples of trading a baseball card. If I had two Babe Ruth cards, one in perfect condition and one with bent edges, the items aren't valued the same and most likely won't be directly traded for one another. They aren't fungible.

Yes I think you're right, which is why I think the IRS ruling is 'wrong' from the perspective of people who want bitcoin to be legal tender. I think the IRS ruling is entirely 'right' from the perspective of people who don't want to criminalize bitcoin, but have an interest in preventing its use as currency. Like the US Government and the banking industry.

Yeah, that makes sense. So the analogue is flawed because Gold/dollar exchange wasn't floating back then but BTC/dollar is floating currently.

Perhaps the difference is that the IRS can theoretically tell how long you've held the particular bitcoin coin you're selling, whereas gold coins aren't so easily traceable in that way.

The IRS can't tell how long you've held a bitcoin, what price you bought it at, when you bought it or how many bitcoins you hold in total. The fact that you can arbitrarily split wallets and tumble coins means they basically have to trust what you say, or accuse you of fraud. This is similar to how you could melt down gold and lie about when you bought it and the price you bought it at.

Agreed, when the coins are tumbled like that. But if they weren't?

good luck implementing this.

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