{"id":78659,"date":"2024-11-14T08:43:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T08:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=78659"},"modified":"2024-11-14T08:43:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T08:43:24","slug":"bitcoin-questions-needing-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/11\/14\/bitcoin-questions-needing-answers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin: questions needing answers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Katie Martin, a member of the FT editorial board, has noted the massive increase in the value of cryptocurrencies since the election of Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/on.ft.com\/494BZ3b\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in her column<\/a> for that paper this morning and concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Those of us still waiting for a clean articulation of what bitcoin is will remain frustrated. But it\u2019s getting harder every day to fight against the crypto revolution.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I think that is an entirely fair comment.<\/p>\n<p>I am musing on the same issue right now. I have these questions and would appreciate precise answers if anyone knows of them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who are the so-called Bitcoin miners?<\/li>\n<li>What legal form do they take?<\/li>\n<li>Who owns them?<\/li>\n<li>Where are they?<\/li>\n<li>Is their income taxed?<\/li>\n<li>Where is it taxed?<\/li>\n<li>What obligation, after mining, do they have with regard to the currency they create?<\/li>\n<li>What is the double entry of bitcoin creation, given I have seen it seriously suggested that it is a triple entry creation?<\/li>\n<li>What is the economic status of a cryptocurrency? Is it:\n<ul>\n<li>Currency?<\/li>\n<li>Another asset?<\/li>\n<li>Just a piece of code?<\/li>\n<li>A chimera?<\/li>\n<li>Something else?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What is the economic purpose of a cryptocurrency?<\/li>\n<li>Since the history of a cryptocurrency can be traced throughout its history - which is what the supposed open ledger guarantees - what are the so-called privacy advantages of it?<\/li>\n<li>Why is a cryptocurrency to be preferred to central bank-created currency?<\/li>\n<li>Why is a cryptocurrency to be preferred to a central bank digital currency?<\/li>\n<li>Will the crypto myth end in tears one day, as it has for some already?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am genuinely curious.<\/p>\n<p>I may not answer all comments. I am seeking to understand the arguments, which, as Katie Martin says, appear to be utterly opaque at presenting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katie Martin, a member of the FT editorial board, has noted the massive increase in the value of cryptocurrencies since the election of Trump in<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/11\/14\/bitcoin-questions-needing-answers\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78659"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78661,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78659\/revisions\/78661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}