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Ask Slashdot: How Does One Freely Use Bitcoin In the Land of the Free?
New submitter devrtm writes: It appears that Bitcoin, a currency designed with anonymity in mind, can be effectively used almost anywhere in the world, except in a few countries where it is regulated, and in one country where you can only use it if you give up your privacy. That country is the United States. I have accumulated quite a few BTC from the currency's early days where block rewards were still at $50. There was a period of time where one could get a nearly anonymous debit card, or use BTC online with merchants. Nowadays, non-U.S. payment providers no longer issue debit cards to the U.S. residents and the U.S.-based merchants accepting BTC are nearly extinct. The only way to use BTC in the U.S. is to convert it to USD. Unfortunately, that conversion requires giving up your personal information to a U.S.-based BTC payment processor, and there are rumors that signing up for those services raises red flags with certain three letter acronym organizations. I have nothing to hide, but I do value my privacy. Can one freely and anonymously live off of their Bitcoin wallet in the U.S.? I am afraid the answer is no. Does anyone have an experience that proves me wrong? Please share.
If you want privacy use cash with people who don't know you.
So you want to trade your BTC for goods and services but not pay taxes on the source of the income (aka "maintain privacy")? I don't think that will fly well in the US, which is why you don't see many outlets available.
While there are many people that are willing to exchange goods and services for BitCoin; it is not a recognized currency by anyone that actually matters (ie banks and governments). Make no mistake, just about everything is priced in a government back currency (dollars, Yen, Pounds, etc) and in addition banks and governments do not accept BitCoin as a way to cover debts and obligations.
In addition BitCoin is slow, not entirely trust worthy (you can argue the fact that one farming group controls more than 50% of the computing power used to back bitcoin is a real problem), doesn't understand the basics of monetary policy (price fluctations anyone), let alone a way to implement it. These could all be contributing factors as to why large organizations are not willing to exchange goods and services for bitcoin.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
All money is made-up bullshit.
Yes, but the US dollar is backed with the US banking system, the US government, and the US military. Bitcoin is backed by the fact that the exchange you use maybe doesn't want to rip you off today.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
There's so much wrong with the thinking behind your post that people have dedicated essays to it. I'll go with the overly simplified version:
If you treat Bitcoins as currency, you spend them. Thus, you're not holding on to them long enough for them to accrue value. If you treat them as an investment, you're not spending them, and there's no Bitcoin economy to make them worth anything.
That's why Bitcoin trading is pure speculation. There's absolutely nothing behind them except the willingness of the next idiot to buy some. They're different from Beanie Babies only in that when Bitcoin finally peters out you won't be left with something you can put on a shelf somewhere or give to a little kid.
If you could magically time markets, Bitcoin is probably one of the last things you'd try it with since it's a lot easier to trade in other financial instruments with far less risk of fraud.
oh but he is asking how to turn it into cash without paying taxes or having a record he has the cash.
he probably totally ignores the fact that once he pays the tax on the investment he is free to do whatever he wants with the money without any of the agencies caring anything - UNLIKE if he just got magically a million dollars of cash and went buying expensive things which would put him on the hitlist of dea etc.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.