US to Crack Down on "Dirty Money": Time to Use Bitcoin Instead
US launches new measures against tax evasion, money laundering, and terrorism in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal. Time to switch to Bitcoin to maintain your privacy. In an effort to curb illicit financial transactions, the US Department of Treasury announced a tightening on financial regulations last week. This involved amending the US Bank Secrecy Act in order to prevent money from being hidden in offshore companies. The first rule change is targeted at shell corporations, and would require the disclosure of the true owners and would not allow their identity to be protected through....
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In physics, the definition of "energy" is "that which allows work to be done." This means that money is energy, since it can be used to do work via payments to people. The energy in money can be thought of as "economic energy". Economists call economic energy "price" and measure it in terms of "euros" or "Kenyan shillings" and so on. But, these units are abstract because their quantity changes over time. Physicists would prefer to use units such as joules or kilowatt-hours, which have a concrete basis in physical realities of mass....
It’s been referred to as a "revolutionary technology" by IBM, and a "once in a generation opportunity" by PricewaterhouseCoopers. But perhaps the most descriptive title came from The Economist when they dubbed blockchain "the trust machine". It is a breakthrough in computer science that holds the promise of reducing the cost of establishing and maintaining trust for both individuals and organizations. "Blockchain" is a relatively new term that refers to a specific type of computer database. The Oxford English Dictionary defines blockchain as "a....
If Ayn Rand were involved in the bitcoin or crypto world, she might well identify "consensus" as an "anti-concept". The anti-concept, she said, is a "rationally unusable term". It conveys an approximate sense of meaning, but lacks the precision needed to fully communicate an idea. "In the realm of cognition," Rand said, "nothing is as bad as the approximate." "Consensus" mischaracterizes the decision-making processes that exist around bitcoin. Adoption or non-adoption of network software says nothing about the broader....
A Miami, Florida, trial court recently dismissed a criminal case against a defendant who had sold bitcoin to a police detective as part of an undercover investigation. The case, Florida v Espinosa, has been already been cited by some potentially important precedent for future cases, particularly those where bitcoin's status as "money" or "currency" is at issue. Bitcoin industry advocates will also cite the case when arguing for legislative reform and greater regulatory clarity. But, as legal precedent, Espinosa's value may be limited. It’s a single decision from a....
Legislators in New Hampshire have filed a new bill that aims to clarify rules around digital currencies and money transmitters. HB 436, filed on 12th January, seeks to add a formal definition for "virtual currency" to the state’s laws, as well as create an exception from money transmission requirements for "persons conducting business using transactions conducted in whole or in part in virtual currency". The bill would also add a clause to the definition of a digital currency money transmitter, a designation which, if passed, would include "maintaining control of....