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Comment by SCAQTony | Hacker News Reader

Bitcoin is unregulated, rife with exchange fraud, unappreciated by most governments, and practically impossible to tax. Arguably this is the "LimeWire" of currency, it's not going to survive if it does not make compromises and become regulated, traceable, and taxable.

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>Bitcoin is unregulated.

So are cash transactions.

>practically impossible to tax

So are cash transactions.

>unappreciated by most governments

So are cash transactions [0].

>it's not going to survive if it does not make compromises and become regulated, traceable, and taxable.

Bitcoin is a protocol, that can not "make compromises". Can Http make compromises?

[0] http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.ca/2015/03/cash-dinos...

Cash is somewhat traced and regulated. A note has serial numbers and $10,000 withdrawals from a bank triggers the Bank Secrecy Act whereas you have to produce an ID and the withdrawal is reported. Crossing a border with large sums of cash has applicable laws as well. http://finance.zacks.com/federal-banking-rules-withdrawing-l...

Cash transactions are taxed at the local level (read as gas stations, sales taxes) and reported or maintained as running record when deposited or withdrawn for the IRS to see.

Yes, cash is unappreciated by most governments.

The Bitcoin protocol or a variation will remain but changes will be made to it that the governments will agree too.

> Cash is somewhat traced and regulated.

So is Bitcoin. https://blockchain.info/

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-14-21.pdf

Enjoy.

>$10,000 withdrawals from a bank triggers the Bank Secrecy Act whereas you have to produce an ID and the withdrawal is reported

that's not because of cash itself, it's because of storing money in a bank account

No. Bitcoin will survive because it invented a system you can trust without having to trust anyone else using the system. This literally had not been done before. All your arguments are irrelevant because they are missing this central point.

As long as people who trust the system also trust untrustworthy others using the system, that perk is not going to be particularly relevant.

The technology is brilliant, perhaps I should have used "Napster" as an analogy which was eventually replaced with iTunes, Spotify and others.

I do not believe the digital currency known as Bitcoin will survive unless governments and government regulation is installed. I do believe digital currency is the future.

The simpler possibility is that Bitcoin will get suffocated due to market disappointment. Digital currencies that don't have the memory of November 2013 carved into the psyche would be able to succeed purely on technical and market merits.

Bitcoin is unregulated

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country

What exactly does it mean for Bitcoin to "not survive"? Like, there are no more exchanges and of the billions of people on the planet exactly zero will exchange goods, services, or currency for bitcoins? Like someone will offer 500 BTC on HN for $1 and no one will care?

Your assessment fails to understand Bitcoin's core value proposition, which is that it's highly resistant to centralized control and thus is guaranteed to remain a permissionless (open) network and a fungible currency. If a centralized Bitcoin did somehow manage to gain worldwide adoption, it would be indistinguishable from the current international banking system. In practice, a distributed blockchain that is centrally controlled is no different than a centralized data center like those that run VisaNet. It would have all of the same shortcomings and vulnerabilities, owing to its centralization.

What you propose is totally impractical in any case. For example, who's going to regulate Kenyans' use of Bitcoin? Every country has its own regulatory regime and no country is going to embrace regulations imposed by a different jurisdiction.

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