Please don't kill our illegal golden goose.

"But we said the magic Constitution words, so our money is both completely real money but not real when it comes to taxes and other laws that shouldn't apply to us because Libertardianism!"

I do find so many things that Libertarians want are basically cheat codes for laws so they can get away with shit. If they'd come out and admit it, I'd have at least a little more respect for them.

Yep.

Wouldn't that just make them republicans who gave up on trying to repeal the laws?

I can appreciate the resistance to the blanket IRS subpoena. I'm not expert on the subject, but it seems like Coinbase and other "on-ramp" currency and payment handlers should have to follow the same reporting rules that banks, credit unions and savings & loans do; I think it's something like any daily aggregate of transactions over $10k have to be reported to the IRS.

Yup. A quick google tells me that the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act of 1970 covers this, for all businesses, not just banks. It also includes any suspicious activity, whether or not it reaches the $10k threshold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act

You'd think these yahoos would have figured out how to set up computer-timed transfers of $9999.99 within the set time frame so it wouldn't fall into the reported transaction category. I'm sure loads of "legitimate" institutions used that kind of strategy all the time.

I think that kind of regular transaction would fall pretty clearly into the, "any suspicious activity" category.

This is called "structuring", and the Feds have a pretty low bar.

That's correct.

Also, if you think algorithms and agents are fooled by deposits coming in pennies or dollars under the "10k" threshold... then you are correctly misinformed.

Have you ever wondered why you 'know' the amount is 10k, and we tell the banks to fill out paperwork for 10k, and it's just plastered everywhere that it's 10k?

We will never be unemployed.

"You are correctly misinformed." Sad but true.

I saw this as more of a privacy concern than anything. I bought some bitcoin through Coinbase last year, but the IRS probe only asked for records up to 2015. I'm a long term holder, I don't spend so no tax reporting necessary yet. When I do decide to cash out, I'll report my capital gains (or losses).

I find the whole cryptocurrency idea quite interesting. Especially the underlying blockchain technology. Seems like that is the real innovation, Bitcoin is just an example of what it can do and the tech is being researched to do much more than just work as a currency.