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First Government Office in the US To Accept Bitcoin As Payment (orlandosentinel.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike quotes the Orlando Sentinel: If cash, check or credit card seems too old-fashioned, Seminole County, Florida Tax Collector Joel Greenberg said this week his office will begin accepting bitcoin as payment for new IDs, license plates and property taxes starting next month. Greenberg said accepting bitcoin and bitcoin cash as a payment method will promote transparency and accuracy in payment.
"There's no risk to the taxpayer," said Greenberg, who has often raised eyebrows since his 2016 election by moves including encouraging certain employees with concealed-weapons permits to carry a firearm openly as a security measure. "Blockchain technology is the future of the whole financial industry."
A spokesperson for a neighboring county's tax collector said they had no plans to follow the move. "Frankly, I think the currency is so volatile that I donâ(TM)t think it makes sense."
And an official at a nearby county said bitcoin payments were "not on our to-do list", adding that no one in the county had requested the ability to pay their taxes in bitcoin.
"There's no risk to the taxpayer," said Greenberg, who has often raised eyebrows since his 2016 election by moves including encouraging certain employees with concealed-weapons permits to carry a firearm openly as a security measure. "Blockchain technology is the future of the whole financial industry."
A spokesperson for a neighboring county's tax collector said they had no plans to follow the move. "Frankly, I think the currency is so volatile that I donâ(TM)t think it makes sense."
And an official at a nearby county said bitcoin payments were "not on our to-do list", adding that no one in the county had requested the ability to pay their taxes in bitcoin.
right
BitPay is guaranteeing the exchange rate for long enough for the transaction to go through. So the tax office never actually takes Bitcoin - BitPay takes BitCoin, and sends cash to the government office. And presumably, BitPay gets a cut somewhere in there.
It's more or less like adding a new credit card processor, as far as the receiver of the payment is concerned.
A thousand pounds of wood moving at 300 feet per minute. Don't get in the way.
I mean, I'm all in favor of government being more proactive, responsive, etc, but this is ridiculous.
And, by the way, didn't the other story today just say that quantum computing is about to break encryption in 5 years?
The government department is not accepting bitcoin at all, it accepts the cash equivalent as transacted through bitpay. They are not nor do they have any intention of accepting bitcoin.
This perspective ignores the cost (and thus environmental harms) of traditional currencies (digital or federal reserve notes).
The cost of traditional fiat currency regardless of whether we are talking about ones and zeros in a computer or a printed / minted one are more significant than typically understood. It's not just the printing that has a cost. It's the movement of that money that comes at a price. If you talking printed or minted money there is the physical transport costs and production costs. This is in part due to high manual security costs (armored trucks, personal, banks, vaults, etc). Then if we start talking about wire transfers, credit cards, etc you have to take into account the high costs here as well. Where do banks make a buck? Fees. And those fees are particulalry true for wire transfers. By the time all is said and done an international wire transfer will likely cost $55-120 USD+. I know I just got one. it was something like $63 to send and 15 to receive. From Sweden to a US bank account. The item cost $106.97. The wire cost almost as much. The credit card would have cost a lot less- but not anywhere near the 1 cent that a payment via Dash would have cost or even a "high" fee of Bitcoin at maybe 40 cents. The immediate fee for the credit card would have been over $3.76 USD (3% plus 25 cents a transaction). $116.97 was the total bill with shipping. Then there is another 3% due to the cost of charge backs and fraud. Security is simply non-existent with fiat currencies like it is with crypto currencies. Then there is potentially another 6% you'll likely have to tack on soon because governments are getting rid of cash. In many cases small businesses are forced to turn to purchasing goods using a credit card thus the total added cost to the goods you sell ends up being around 12% (maybe even higher). My company has been saving around 40% on transaction and related costs via the use of crypto currencies.
The reality is the federal reserve notes you have in your pocket are subsided by taxpayers. Crypto currencies stand and fall on there own merits. I've only ever really gained in the long term from my use of crypto currencies. Crypto currencies have gained in value far more than they've lost and crypto currencies are more valuable than the "investment" value hype.
Government relies on Bitpay cover the risk associated with volatility. Bitpay will make nice benefits or huge losses depending if bitcoin is rising or crashing vs USD. Is it just government promoting speculation?
Perhaps... except that Bitpay only guarantee the rate for 15 mn, and bitcoin transaction can make much more time to be processed. Hence government also takes a share in the volatility risk.
There likely is no risk, the country is probably using the same sort of bitcoin payment processors that various merchants do. When using these services the recipient never sees or touches a bitcoin, they only receive fiat. When someone indicates that they want to pay with bitcoin the payment processor is given a dollar amount, they do a real time conversion to bitcoin and provide a payment address and a coin amount, when that coin amount shows up at the address the recipient is notified and the recipient's account is credited for the exact dollar amount they original specified. The taxpayer was never exposed to any bitcoin volatility risk. The taxpayer merely paid a payment processor's fee, just like when they accept a credit card and pay a fee.
Joke's on them, I'm going to pay everything in Dogecoins. Let's see them haul five million dogecoins for tax payment.
#DeleteFacebook
Your bank is screwing you. I do a wire transfer from HSBC in Hong Kong to either Germany (3 weeks ago) or the US (1 week ago) for $14.65; now, the receiving bank charged ~$23 (Germany) and $25 (US). When I receive wire transfers from the EU or the US to HK, I pay $14.65. So you're getting screwed - find a better bank. Wire transfers - flat fee - for less than $15 on my side...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
CCTV of every face connected to using computer currency.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Your bank is screwing you.
Must be in the USA. Virtually all US banks screw you over on wire transfer fees which are multiples of what it costs in most other countries... because they can.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Florida requires a concealed carry permit. You can not get a permit for openly displaying a firearm. Only cops have that privilege. So here we have a tax collector that feels tax collectors can openly display a weapon. What happened to the law being equal for all people all of the time?
Greenberg said accepting bitcoin and bitcoin cash as a payment method will promote transparency and accuracy in payment.
I don't think BitCoin is what he thinks it is.
I refuse to sign