Thursday 28 March 2013

... but you can use fiat to pay taxes!

One of the critiques I've heard regarding Bitcoin, in particular from fans of the Austrian school, is that you can use fiat money to pay taxes, and that gives it value. I remember Niels van der Linden making the argument.

Well, it looks like whatever relevance there was in that argument, it's been rendered invalid as well. Apparently, in the USA now you can pay taxes with Bitcoin. Or at least the infrastructure is in place. The solution is being pitched as something that provides lower fees and lower risk of fraud. The municipality will still receive US dollars, but the transaction will be facilitated with Bitcoin. Solutions with this forex functionality have been available for about 1.5 years  (or I've known of them for this long, they may have existed even before that), and have been used by commercial and non-profit organisations. Now the municipalities can use them too.

This is just yet another example of how a lack of imagination is used as an excuse for sloppy arguments.

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