He's a legal troll a parasite on innovation not to different from patent trolls, don't entertain him.
345 karma · joined March 14, 2013
Tho' I highly doubt bureaucrats in IRS or similar would rollover so quickly and put themselves out of a job!
Giving the state (or 3rd parties) even more control over currency and every day use that could be gained by a state run bitcoin like currency is very scary proposition IMHO giving them even more power.
and blockchain.info is down too
Imagine a state being able to charge sales tax at the point of each transaction! Or more disturbingly know exactly who buys what for how much and when if tied together with government issued ids and wallets. Or instantly calculate taxes due on income.
Its actually quite scary :(
In fact bitcoin technology or derivative could be used unfortunately to take even more control from people and economies! Its probably a good thing that in most countries politicians would balk at this since they wont be able to get brown envelopes if everyone in the state uses coins
Nothing as interesting has come out since 90s, all we had since are "social networks" and "flappy bird" sigh
My house was all build using concrete block with only the roof and interior flooring made of wood,
This winter we had some crazy gales here with gusts up to 100 miles+/hour no issues :) I would not feel comfortable with too much wood in homes around here due to the extremely wet and damp climate on the west side of Ireland, house is airtight and well insulated with heat recovery system and solar water heaters
Sigh
It is not that much more expensive to build a solid concrete block home, insulate and airtight it well
I realise wood is more plentiful in US than here in Europe, but imho i wouldnt feel safe living in a wooden home.
Russian speaking troops without any country marking (shoot at one and the world would quickly find out who they belong to) but are speaking Russian and driving trucks with Russian numbers plates are occupying Crimea and blockaded Ukranian military bases.
And are now pushing for an Anschluss style referendum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stimmzettel-Anschluss.jpg
I highly doubt the Ukranians would have blockaded their own bases "for the laugh" or want a part of their country annexed by Russia.
Whichever way the state controlled Russian media tries to spin in, "the boots on the ground" paint a different picture as to what the Russians are being told.
Either there is a conspiracy between all the news channels of the world to portray Russia as a bully which is silly and doesnt pass Occams Razor test or the Russian tv has gone into full propaganda swing.
I hope the irony of calling the west and Ukraine "fascist" is not lost on Russians when Putin and co are using every trick and behaving in a manner that would have made the 3rd Reich propaganda ministry proud.
What has risen in the last ~15 years is a much more cynical, evil, ugly and nastier version of what USSR was.
Hell my parents still watch Russian channels and it doesn't take long to realise that there is some sort of mass psychosis taking place in the old country, fuelled by state controlled media.
I actually feel very much sorry for those brave souls that do speak out, seeing as to what happened to all those journalists that did so, you are right ending up in a Siberian gulag aint the worst outcome.
If I was in Russia now i would shut up and plan my exit strategy, as most of those who could afford did so.
Currently working with Elavon for credit card payments (cant disclose exact rates, but much cheaper than Stripe),
completely avoiding Paypal who can go and f&*k themselves,
and getting several of the larger customers to pay via SEPA bank transfer or bitcoin which have nearly no fees.
"You have the option to pay either 8.9% flat or 5.9% plus $.95 per transaction. "
Wowza, thats steep!
edit: Sorry but experience has been different here in west, in another lifetime I worked on an "innovation partnership" with EI, it was nothing more than a way to funnel state money to politically connected "friends", the business idea was crippled from day 1 but that didnt matter the objective was transfer money, which as as a taxpayer was sickening.
Sorry for being cynical but I have many years of experience in business here, and seen it all in my interactions with state bodies. Maybe in Dublin they manage to put on a better show or things changed in last few years.
Its afterwards when the fun begins especially if you are in IT where Revenue might not know how to tax you and you need get a written judgement (So they don't accuse you of not paying taxes).
For example I would love to start a bitcoin related business but afraid of what decision they might make (according to newspaper last week they are still deciding)
Overall starting business here is not too bad, its growing and expanding that is hard, and misconception that Ireland is low tax, it is not nor is it a cheap place to live. Everytime i hear americans complain about sales taxes I say you seen nothing yet :D
We have a lowish corporation tax of 12.5% yes paid on company profits, but everything else is very high!
For example out of a ~€39000 salary last year after all taxes i was left with €25000, things get rapidly worse from there if you want to move money from your company to yourself, people can check http://www.deloitte.ie/tc/ for ideas of what income taxes people pay here
As a director one could take a company loan (illegal above certain % but dont think anyone checks) but this would be liable to witholding tax of about 20%
Capital gains is 33% here.
And of course VAT of 23%..
tl.dr: the taxation structure here works great for large corporations who can hire expensive accountants to launder literally billions thru' Ireland to warmer climes BUT for anyone running a normal small business, expect to hand over 20-40% of your earnings
and anything left after you pay income taxes for example, is heavily taxed with loads of stealth taxes (tv license, house tax, soon water tax etc etc) and of course 23% on anything you buy (essentials like food aside, some of these have lower VAT tax rate)
We have our share of a bureaucracy (example: took 6 months to get reply from Revenue as to what VAT to pay or not on sales of hosting packages, 23% sales tax (VAT) on customers from EU-28 was the answer eventually)
and you quickly realise there are 3 types of companies here:
1. Large corporations setting up shops to launder money onto somewhere warmer in Caribbean, these often dont hire many people or pay much in any tax despite moving billions (example Apple in Cork)
2. Small indigenous companies who dont receive much support, run by small families who never really grow to become large companies EU or worldwide, ask anyone outside of Ireland to name an Irish company beside Ryanair! And no Guinness are UK company
3. Zombie companies still clinging on from the haydays of the last boom, supported by taxpayers bailing out the banks, surviving thanks to the inbred gombeenism that is still prevailent despite the largest recession in any of the developed countries since 2007, see this great lecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LCofepdUzE
he should have transferred the bitcoins to bitstamp when transfers worked and cashed out.
There is also localbitcoin
some people used mtgox to trade, but I can not understand why since their fees were high, trading engine slow and buggy and well there are better alternatives
Only ways to get bitcoin:
1. Mine them (very very hard and getting harder)
2. Get paid in bitcoin for product/service
3. Buy them on an exchange for fiat
4. Be given bitcoin by early adopters
Until its possible to get paid (salaries), pay suppliers, pay taxes etc the exchanges are needed to convert traditional currency to bitcoin and vice versa.
Anyways the writing was on the wall for a long time, i stopped using them over a year ago, bitstamp are professional while mtgox were amateur cowboys with no support.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=356026.msg3835542#ms...
As KYC questionnaire a company has to answer here is alot longer than above, I am not sure if allowed to post it, but it is very thorough