flowctrl

Because bitcoin is money, and shitcoins are not.

The network effect, the Lindy effect, and the Schelling point. If you wanted to learn about these concepts, what is the first thing you would do? :P

How is this newsworthy and why is it on the front page of HN?

Fuck that.

So many better things to do or think about on your time off. Read a good book. Climb a mountain. Hang out with friends/family. You know, live.

cough Bitcoin! cough

Another positive step in the demise of the traditional banking system.

The second half is important too: that the expected profits are from the efforts of the promoter. In other words if a company is doing work of some kind, and they are selling a token on the basis that it will go up in value due to the work that they are doing, then it is a security.

I will trust my accountant; he is after all, on the hook for how it is reported.

Thanks for posting the links! Taxtips.ca is not an official source, and note they use a ton of "may" be this and "might" be that. I will ignore that page, since they clearly do not know and are not the CRA.

The Canada.ca link is consistent with what my accountant said -- when you use crypto to purchase goods or services, it is treated as income (just like bartering), taxable in equivalent CAD value at the time of the transaction. Trading crypto for other crypto is _not_ a goods or service, since crypto is treated as an intangible asset or commodity.

The third link is also consistent with this view:

"Buying and selling digital currency like a commodity

When you file your taxes you must report any gains or losses from selling or buying digital currencies.

Digital currencies are considered a commodity and are subject to the barter rules of the Income Tax Act. Not reporting income from such transactions is illegal."

In order to be considered a "gain" or a "loss", according to my accountant, the commodity must be realized into fiat money. "Selling or buying" means selling into fiat or buying with fiat. "Bartering" means trading for goods or services -- crypto is not considered to be goods or services.

The USA is taxing every trade. In Canada (according to my accountant, at least), cryptocurrency gains are only taxable when "realized" by selling into fiat (capital gains), or spending on goods and services (income). Until that point, they are considered intangible assets and not subject to tax. A USA/non-USA (or taxable trades vs only fiat trades) switch feature would be nice, to account for the different approach to taxation.