Latest developments
Jim Harper, in this commentary, lists the latest developments in cryptocurrency land such as:
- The leading cryptocurrency, bitcoin, just became legal tender in El Salvador;
- Bitcoin adopted a recent upgrade called “Taproot,” which expands the network’s support of smart contracts while enhancing privacy. “It’s a technical coup de grâce — a real engineering delight.”
Cryptocurrency holy wars: The fight for a growing terrain
By: Jim Harper – American Enterprise Institute
How about a bitcoin tax?
Bitcoin doesn’t seem to be a credible alternative to regular currencies and in addition it is a major contributor to global warming. Its mining process, according a new Cambridge University research study, uses more energy in a year than the country of Argentina. So what are the benefits of imposing a bitcoin transactions tax?
- It will substantially reduce the volume of transactions as it will make the currency less attractive to anyone who doesn’t need it for illicit purposes. It’s value will be reduced;
- There will be little consequence for the economy;
- A bitcoin tax would raise revenue: if trading volume remains around $1 billion a day or $350 billion a year, a tax of 1.0 percent would raise $3.5 billion a year. If the volume is cut in half, due to both less trading and a lower bitcoin price, then the tax would raise $1.75 billion a year or $17.5 billion over the course of a ten-year budget horizon;
- Enforcing a bitcoin tax will be a great laboratory for experimenting with financial transactions taxes which are mostly assumed to be unenforceable.
The Bitcoin transactions tax
By: Dean Baker – CEPR
