The Tweet that wiped billions of dollars off the crypto market cap.
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My biggest concern with Crypto is that I believe it can be seized more easily than the metals themselves.
I predict that the government is happy to let crypto rise, then criminalize it over-night and seize it in one felt swoop. Especially since you're required to notify the IRS of how much crypto you have. They tried this with gold before back in the 1930's but it was obviously much harder to actually seize the gold, you were just ordered to turn it in to the bank.
I expect that in the coming 2-4 years, a digital currency will be introduced, and all Americans with any crypto will have to transfer it to their new Digital Dollar wallets. If you don't transfer it within X amount of time, you'll get hit with a minimum $20,000 fine and 5 years in prison with a federal felony. That's basically what they did with Gold and Silver bullion back in the day, I wouldn't be surprised if they tried the same thing with Crypto.
They could do the same thing with gold and silver now, but like with guns, it's going to be a real bitch to try and keep track of & seize it all, especially if people aren't willing to jump into the digital currency easily.
I don't think it would be worth zero if other people are still trading it. I'm not saying every government would do it, but even if it's just the US, the value of BitCoin is not going to drop to zero just because some Americans can't trade.
Similarly, the government needs assets to stave off the consequences of hyper-inflation from money printing. That's one aspect of what they do, but BitCoin is not an asset. The biggest threat to a new digital currency is a rival currency. Criminalizing may be necessary to force a buy-in to a Digital Wallet.
I don't understand why you think it will be worthless. Lots of things are criminalized and still valuable.
I don't see this as different. Considering volatility, you'll have gains and losses to report. The more you report, the more of a target you become.
Well, I certainly hope that no one is fucking stupid enough to take tax advise from rabid anti-communists on an internet forum. That would be really stupid. I don't even think I would take my own tax advice.
Anyways, I don't think it's going to go away, someone's going to want to exploit the fact that it exists, and get a cut of it in some way. Probably a more likely solution is that they introduce some kind of special Crypto-Capital-Gains tax, or that you can't trade crypto without an authorized wallet from a major bank. Something that makes sure the banks get to profit no matter what.
I must confess, I'm starting to come around to the slightly-paranoid-American view that registering a thing is generally a prelude to seizing the thing.
It's not paranoid, it's precisely why the government wasn't supposed to have the power to do it at all.
In the UK, they don't have a national ID system (at least they don't yet, the "conservatives" are trying to introduce one). The point that the English make is that "If I didn't violate the law, the government doesn't need to know who I am" which is actually a properly Liberal take. It's a "minarchist" kind of position.
The government is a weapon. Never point your weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot. Registering your shit gives the government the right to aim carefully at you and your shit.
Now you might say, "but this stuff makes it much more easy to enforce laws if we know where everything is and what everybody has". Yes, that's true. It's also the problem. If you believe the legal scope of the government has gone well beyond it's jurisdiction and is enforcing laws that it shouldn't even have the ability to enforce (interstate commerce clause anyone), then you don't want enforcement of those laws. It's a hard line on the government's jurisdiction even in the event that the government gave itself the right to enforce new laws outside of it's jurisdiction.
Hell, let's put it in the example of rival government agencies. Imagine if the Sheriff's Office give a full inventory of it's gear and equipment to some nearby city police force. What the fuck would they even need that information for? They might say: "to promote the inter-departmental sharing of scarce resources!" Of course, why don't they just fucking ask for it first. You don't need an active registry to be perpetually updated. The Sheriff's Office shouldn't just report to a city police department, they have totally different missions and jurisdictions.
At least they don't, right up until the state suddenly mandates that if a city police department makes a request for gear, all nearby LE organizations need to provide a listing of their equipment. They can check to make sure the Sheriff's Office isn't "breaking the law" by withholding gear that the city desperately needs thanks to all these lovely mandatory updates and registries. Now the Sheriff's office is a subordinate vassal organization that exists at the behest of the city police. There is no jurisdictional boundaries between the two, if one is a vassal of the other. Subordinate organizations don't have separate jurisdictions.
If you want something of someone else's, you ask for that. You don't have them regularly update you so that you can order it. Yes, Walmart does this, because Walmart is a retail store that is selling you shit. It exists to sell you shit. The Sheriff's Office doesn't exist to supply the city police with gear. The people don't exist to supply the state with crypto coins free of charge. Same with firearms.
If you want shit, you ask for it.
This is interesting.
Most people who own crypto and aren't just riding the wave to dump it eventually, own it because they believe it's safer than owning the likes of GLD or PHYS.
If it was proven not to be, the dip would make this one look like nothing.
It is safer than owning the ETFs in my opinion, because I don't think those ETFs are going to be able to be cashed in.
If any confiscation goes into effect, any physical metals that I have will be lost in a boating accident along with all of my guns and ammo, which is a real shame.
That being said, I think "Constitutional Silver" might be actually very useful for a short period of time because it's mostly silver... but it looks like some random coin. What are the cops gonna do, confiscate quarters... during hyperinflation? Only clever people will notice that the date on the coin says 1955. If hyperinflation spikes and the price of silver goes with it... Well, it will be like those old stories about buying a cup of coffee and a news paper for a nickle, even if the cup of coffee and news paper are officially priced at $35 total.