Taxing Times: Crypto And A Redesigned Social Contract

For the people, by the people: is that democracy or crypto consensus?

It’s tax time again, and no doubt the American crypto community is wrestling with the complexities of filing their crypto earnings – or losses – with the IRS. On a more philosophical level, though, where do borderless virtual currencies fit within national tax regimes and the social contracts they help fund?

The Paradox of Taxing Crypto

For most people, taxation is the bluntest interface they have with their governments, and it is the essence of the social contract.
Our respective jurisdictions confer, for the benefit of our society, a series of rights and obligations upon citizens to maintain order and to establish norms by which that society conducts itself.
We all cede some degree of personal sovereignty to the society in which we live, and the social contract is enabled by our tax liabilities. Taxes fund the expenditures of a society best undertaken by that society collectively. It is far more efficient, for example, for a governing body to pave roads and create infrastructure than for individuals to carve out their own sections thereof. Taxes fund those efforts for the collective good.
In such an arrangement, however, taxes have – at least, for hundreds of years – pertained to the fiat currency issued by that relevant government and used by its citizens. How, then, do non-state issued cryptocurrencies fit into that paradigm?

The Libertarian Credentials of Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has a strong libertarian pedigree and represents, for many, an evasion of state control over their money. The first bitcoin transaction, sent from the wallet controlled by Satoshi Nakamoto to Hal Finney, famously included a decrypted note:

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.
Crypto enthusiasts have since referred to the message in bitcoin’s genesis block as the rationale for crypto’s semi-anarchic nature. Cryptocurrencies offer people the ability to make strictly peer-to-peer transactions, without a trusted intermediary, and certainly without the need for authorization of any governing body.

This has led to a revival of the “taxation is theft” ideology, espoused on a rather frequent basis by John McAfee (who is, ironically, running – again – for president).

Quote :: People and Governments. Part 3. Freedom. pic.twitter.com/VCU1951epx
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 9, 2018

The Interplay Between Libertarianism, Crypto, And Tax

https://cryptobriefing.com/taxing-times-crypto-social-contract/

Taxing Times: Crypto And A Redesigned Social Contract

The Paradox of Taxing Crypto

The Libertarian Credentials of Cryptocurrency

The Interplay Between Libertarianism, Crypto, And Tax

Taxing Times: Crypto And A Redesigned Social Contract

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