The Cryptocurrency Informer

A number of newsworthy events occurred in the space this week – a Bitcoin ETP on the German Stock Exchange was announced, a web browser popular in the crypto space faced some pretty damning accusations, Coinbase announced that they will be potentially supporting a number of new digital assets, India could potentially be banning cryptocurrencies, and the launch of Microsoft’s decentralized identity system. More Info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax

Matt Metras, an Enrolled Agent at MDM Financial Services and overall crypto tax expert, joins the show to talk about the recently added IRS FAQ Question 5. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax More Information: IRS Crypto Tax FAQ

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending December 11th, 2020. This week we’ll be discussing a few of the big adoption stories of the week. More information about all of the stories discussed today can be found on Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:23) It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to frequent listeners that large mainstream corporations and businesses are rapidly adopting cryptocurrency, generally by investing into BTC. There are a couple of whales this week, one who is no stranger to Bitcoin and one who has been around for ages, but is just now getting into the world of crypto. The new whale this week is MassMutual, an insurance company that was founded in 1851 and currently serves five million clients. Not only did they invest $100 million into Bitcoin, they also “acquired a $5 million minority equity stake in NYDIG, a subsidiary of Stone Ridge that provides cryptocurrency services to institutions”, according to Bloomberg. The familiar whale this week is MicroStrategy, who has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of BTC in the past 6 months or so. According to Cointelegraph, “The company currently sits on 40,824 BTC representing over $734 million, which represents a gain of nearly $260 million from the basis acquisition price.” Earlier in the week, they announced that they were working to raise an additional $537 million dollars to invest in Bitcoin…but today they issued a press release stating that they have surpassed that goal by successfully raising $650 million – which is over 36,000 BTC. This means MicroStrategy will nearly double their BTC coffers, and secures their place as the number 1 publicly traded company investing in Bitcoin, according to the list at Bitcoin Treasuries. While exciting for advocates of BTC adoption, it’s been reported that traditional financial analysts are worried that the company is investing too much in BTC. (02:01) Adoption isn’t only infiltrating the financial world this week. In pop culture, a movie about The Silk Road, a notorious marketplace for buying and selling illicit materials, is set to release this coming February. This mainstream recognition could be good or bad for cryptocurrency adoption. If the movie is successful, it will undoubtedly increase mainstream exposure to the world of cryptocurrency. However, illicit activities, which essentially defined The Silk Road, are often conflated with cryptocurrency in general, since purchased on The Silk Road were made with cryptocurrency. (02:33) In music, the popular music and podcast streaming app Spotify may be the next big company to embrace crypto, at least according to a recent job listing. According to FXstreet, “A job offer posted by Spotify recently on Lever, an end-to-end talent acquisition platform, seems to indicate that the giant audio streaming service is looking at potentially enabling cryptocurrency payments.” (03:06) Finally, in the art world, Beeple, a popular contemporary online graphic designer, has gone all in on NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Beeple, the alias of Mike Winkelmann, is known for his long running daily abstract digital art releases. Beeple first ventured into NFTs by offering his first collection of unique art-based NFTs during the presidential election. Today, and throughout the weekend, Beeple is dropping his second collection, which will include a number of his daily art works, auctioned off in the form of NFTs. Of course, anyone can view his art for free, but as his FAQ states “This for people who are interested in COLLECTING artwork, which is a very different experience. I want people to feel like they can truly own, collect, and display this artwork in a way that feels more exciting and engaging than just viewing a picture on Instagram.” Some of the NFTs also include a physical token that will be shipped to the winning bidder. If you haven’t heard of Beeple, I would definitely suggest checking his unique art-style out. Check out this week’s BitcoinTaxes...

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending December 4th, 2020. This week we’ll be talking about Bitcoin’s all-time-high, Ethereum 2.0, and some of the tax-related questions people have been having about staking. More Information @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:26) The big news this past week is that Bitcoin hit it’s all-time high since December 2017 – or did it? Most people in this space are aware that December 2017 was when Bitcoin first reached it’s all time high price. It’s when Bitcoin gained a lot more popularity in the mainstream and when a lot more people got into the space. But, if you want to get specific about the exact price, it’s actually a bit difficult, as prices vary depending on where the coin was exchanged. Coinmarketcap actually lists the all time high of $20,089.00 on December 17th, 2017. CoinDesk has a graphic showing the all time high of BTC in December 2017 from three major exchanges… and they all have different values. Their own price index, known as the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, lists the December 2017 all time high as $19,783. So, depending on how you look at it, Bitcoin may or may not have reached and exceeded it’s all time high this week. However, much of the community did indeed celebrate on Monday, when Bitcoin reached $19,850, according to CoinDesk. Usually when discussing Bitcoin’s ATH, I personally have found it most convenient to say “nearly 20k”. If we are following the CoinDesk pricing model, that holds true. Interestingly, even though Coinmarketcap is still listing the all time high as over 20k back in 2017, they are currently holding a contest to guess when Bitcoin will reach $20,000. (02:01) Next up, let’s talk about Ethereum 2.0 – this week, phase 0 occurred, bringing The Beacon Chain into existence. The first major change that the Beacon Chain will bring is the transition from using a Proof of Work consensus to a Proof of Stake consensus, which will effectively replace mining. Proof of stake, like proof of work, is a consensus mechanism. The specific proof of work consensus model that is being used in the Beacon Chain is called Casper. Instead of miners utilizing the energy of their mining rigs to create and validate blocks, ETH 2.0 will utilize validators, who are participants in the network who have at least 32 ETH, to propose and vote on the creation of blocks. A validator is chosen pseudo-randomly or randomly to create or propose a block. Blocks are validated once a specific number of validators have stated that they’ve seen the block. Validators who propose a block and validators who then confirm they have seen the proposed block, are rewarded ETH for their work, either in terms of network fees or a predetermined network issuance. If a validator is selected and isn’t available at the time of selection, they essentially lose a bit of ETH. However, if a validator attempts to act maliciously by attempting to compromise the validity of a block, a mechanism, called slashing, is in place that siphons some or all of their staked ETH and then removes them from the network. This reward/penalty scheme is what fuels the PoS mechanism and (theoretically) lowers the chance of bad actors being involved. You can go to launchpad.ethereum.org to get more details about the process of becoming a validator, and to start staking. (03:42) With the launch of The Beacon Chain many crypto users are asking about the related tax implications. Currently, the two main questions people are asking are “how are my staking rewards taxed” and “will the future ETH to ETH 2 transition be a taxable event”. One of the BitcoinTaxes full-service partners, Andrew Gordon, released a great FAQ about the tax implications of ETH 2.0, which we’ve linked on our blog talk.bitcoin.tax. This FAQ answers both the aforementioned questions - regarding staking, the FAQ states that “Staking rewards are considered income at the time of receipt and taxed as such. The fair market value in USD at the time of...

We’ll be taking the week off from doing news due to the US Thanksgiving Holiday – I hope you all made the most of your day during this tough year! Over on The BitcoinTaxes Podcast, we interviewed two cryptocurrency-based attorneys, Zach Ziliak and Andrew Gordon, about the current-day infrastructure of BTC and how it differs from 2017, the politics of Bitcoin with a new presidential administration incoming, and we also discussed some really excellent tax planning strategies for crypto holders. In lieu of our normal episode today, we’ll be sharing that episode with all our listeners. If you haven’t yet subscribed to The BitcoinTaxes Podcast, now is the time! We interview some of the smartest people in cryptocurrency taxation and blockchain technology and ask them the questions that a lot of people want answered! Enjoy the episode and have a great weekend everyone!

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending November 13th, 2020. This week, Bitcoin Cash is undergoing a hard fork over the weekend, President-Elect’s Biden’s transition team gains a crypto savvy financial lead, and the first decentralized philanthropy conference is right around the corner! More Info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:29) First up – the seemingly inevitable Bitcoin Cash hard fork is happening this weekend. If you’ve been following this podcast, or keeping current with all things BCH, you’ll know that there’s been an ideological split between two implementations of Bitcoin Cash. That ideological split is right on the edge of becoming an actual coin split. For those unfamiliar, Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that exists as a result of an August 2017 fork from the original Bitcoin. Subsequently, in 2018, BCH was forked into two different versions of the coin; for all intents and purposes, those two resulting coins were known as Bitcoin ABC (Adjustable Blocksize Cap) and Bitcoin SV (Satoshi’s Vision). It can be a bit confusing but, as Coinmarketcap says, “Bitcoin ABC became the dominant chain and took over the BCH ticker”. So, as of now, when we discuss the BCH ticker, we are referring to the dominant coin - Bitcoin ABC. Bitcoin SV is referred to as BSV. However, the Bitcoin ABC dominance could be in danger. Back in August, Amaury Séchet, a leading developer of BCH, released a blog post detailing the plan for a November 2020 Bitcoin Cash Network Upgrade. The plan did not sit well with everyone involved in BCH and only one day later, a statement was released by a number of notable miners that they do not accept Sechet’s vision for altering the BCH implementation. According to Bitrates.com, “The two factions are divided over a single controversial feature. Bitcoin ABC intends to introduce an Infrastructure Funding Plan (IFP), which will collect 8% of miner rewards and reallocate those funds toward development. BCHN, on the other hand, opposes that plan due to the effect it will have on mining profits.” As a result, a fork of the current BCH blockchain will occur on Sunday, November 15th, resulting in two blockchains – Bitcoin ABC (or BCHABC) and Bitcoin Cash Node. There are a few different possible results of this fork – the commonly held belief, as reported by Bitcoin Magazine, “Currently, Bitcoin Cash Node has much more hash power support than Bitcoin ABC: more than 80 percent … versus less than 1 percent for Bitcoin ABC. Bitcoin Cash Node also appears to have significantly more community support, and large Bitcoin Cash-supporting companies like Coinbase, Kraken and BitGo have also indicated support for Bitcoin Cash Node. It therefore seems likely that (the name) Bitcoin Cash will live on through Bitcoin Cash Node…(It would then probably also receive the “BCH” ticker on most exchanges…)” What does this mean for current BCH holders then? Time will tell what will actually happen – but a 1:1 ratio airdrop is very likely to occur for current BCH holders. One thing is definite - Bitcoin Cash is certainly a coin fraught with conflict, and one that is likely to confuse a lot of crypto newcomers. (03:17) Former Vice President Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States. This fact has proven to be quite divisive in the United States. That being said, the President-Elect is already preparing for his transition, and has recently appointed a crypto-savvy and crypto-friendly lead to his financial policy transition team. Gary Gensler, a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was formerly named this week – his role will be “…to oversee a team of volunteers focused on banking and markets regulators, such as the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as part of an agency review process that occurs with every transition.” according to The Wall Street Journal. Gensler is Senior Advisor to the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative. He conducts...

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending November 6th, 2020. This week has been quite intense, from a US political perspective! If you are an American, or follow American politics, you know that this week has been the US Presidential Election – and one of the most nail-biting ones at that. Big things are happening in the world of crypto as well. Namely the price of BTC is absolutely skyrocketing. Are these two events connected? Let’s find out! More Information @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:37) The big story this week isn’t (exactly) crypto related, but is too big to ignore on this week’s episode. The United States is currently in the midst of a presidential election, and it’s certainly been one to remember. As of recording, the fate of the election hinges on four states: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Nevada – all four states that the former Vice President Joe Biden currently has a lead in. It seems as though the writing is on the wall – it’s very likely that Joe Biden will become the next President of the United States. So, how does this relate to cryptocurrency? Of course, neither Biden nor Trump included any type of cryptocurrency related issue in their presidential platform. Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen discussed her admiration for Bitcoin, but it wasn’t a part of her platform either. Cryptocurrency is more and more becoming mainstream, but it’s not at that point yet…unfortunately. The only democratic candidate that mentioned cryptocurrency during the primary elections was Andrew Yang. However, with mainstream adoption continuing at its current rapid pace, we are likely to see an intersection between politics and cryptocurrency sooner than later. (01:32) There are a few notable ways we can link this election cycle and crypto/blockchain. A number of Senate seats are up for grabs in this election, and some of those senators have either a cryptocurrency related past, or are actively involved in shaping crypto and blockchain related legislation. GOP Senator Kelly Loeffler, for example – is the former CEO of the crypto exchange Bakkt. Her involvement with cryptocurrency is undeniable, but her time in Congress has yielded zero actual legislation or even mention of crypto. Coindesk has a great extensive list of all of the current Senate and House races involving candidates with some sort of cryptocurrency or blockchain relation, so be sure to check that out if you are interested. Some of these candidates are pro-crypto and blockchain while some could be considered anti-crypto and blockchain – realistically though, the majority of these politicians probably don’t know a ton about the world of crypto. (02:31) The next way we can link this election discussion to cryptocurrency is the discussion of utilizing blockchain technology to vote. Realistically, any type of widespread implementation of this is a long way away – however, there are certainly proponents of it, and those proponents are using this point in history to make their voices heard. That’s primarily because this election had a record number of mail-in ballots due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic – those mail in ballots have proven to take an increasingly long time to count. Of course, in such a big election, this delay has put many on both sides of the isle on edge. Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss said on Twitter “The technology and cryptography exists to allow us all to vote online in a fraud-proof manner. We could all know the outcome instantly and w/ mathematical certainty. Yet voting entails paper ballot & requires in person or snail mail casting. It’s as if the Internet doesn’t exist.” Cointelegraph reports that “Binance’s chief executive Changpeng Zhao or CZ and Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin are in furious agreement that a new blockchain-based voting system is required to improve democratic processes in the United States.” Of course, any advocate for crypto and blockchain adoption would want to see these great...

This week, MicroStrategy is swimming in gains, Iran is embracing cryptocurrency in the face of sanctions, and PayPal’s cryptocurrency service has already rolled out to some users. More Info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:27) As you probably have heard if you are a frequent listener of this podcast, many companies are investing in Bitcoin in a big way. Back in August, the largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company Microstrategy purchased 21,454 BTC at an aggregate purchase price of $250 million dollars. Shortly after the initial investment, they purchased an additional $175 million dollars’ worth of BTC. These purchases were stated to be part of a capital allocation strategy to invest in alternate investments or assets to maximize long-term value for shareholders. With the recent price increase of BTC, which is currently floating around $13,500, their strategy is already paying off. Coinfomania reports that “MicroStrategy’s 38,250 BTC haul acquired at an average price of $11,111.11 is now worth $525.5 million. That represents a $100 million gain within the space of two months.” That’s a lot of profits - so much profit, in fact, that it reportedly dwarfed three and a half years of earnings for the company. Of course, crypto can be volatile, which any investor of this size understands – but the amount of gains in such a short period of time is certainly going to be attracting other large companies to invest in a similar fashion. (1:42) Companies aren’t the only entity investing in cryptocurrency, as we have seen with many countries and talks of centralized currencies throughout the world. Iran, a country currently hit with heavy US sanctions, has recently amended legislation that would allow cryptocurrencies to fund imports. Last year, Iran legalized cryptocurrency mining, but prohibited cryptocurrency trading. According to a Decrypt report, “The edict, put forth by the Ministry of Energy and Central Bank of Iran (CBI), requires the country’s legally registered cryptocurrency miners to sell the tokens they mine to CBI. However, the country has yet to announce the rates at which it will compensate miners.” There are certainly political implications here, which may or may not overshadow the role this plays in global cryptocurrency adoption. Something like this will almost inevitably play a role in how the rest of the world embraces, treats, and legislates cryptocurrency. (02:32) Finally, an update to last week’s story about PayPal getting involved in cryptocurrency services. If you missed it, last week PayPal revealed that they would let users buy, sell, and use crypto for purchases. PayPal stated that the services would be rolling out soon, and there have already been reports of users buying multiple cryptocurrencies through PayPal. A Reddit user posted a screenshot showing off the mobile interface, exclaiming that the process was “1000x easier than any other crypto purchase I’ve made and with zero fees”. The user has some Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum in his account. Reportedly, users who signed up for early access are able to utilize the PayPal crypto services starting today, although it’s certainly not yet been made available to all users. Regarding the fee structure, it looks like the no-fee buying and selling is temporary, as PayPal’s own fee page lists a flat rate of .50 USD for any sale or purchase under $24.99, and then a percentage based fee between 1.5% and 2.3% for amounts above $25. As discussed in the original story, the reception to PayPal getting into the crypto game has been consistently mixed. Many see it as a huge step for adoption, while others see it an impediment to cryptocurrency users actually owning their own crypto. Certainly, it’s possible to view it both ways – as with most things in life, not everything should be viewed as simply black or white, good or bad. That’s it for this week’s episode of The Cryptocurrency Informer. Don’t forget – if you want to read more about...

This week, PayPal announces what we all expected, Binance Jersey swims with the fishes, Kraken re-opens in Japan, and Reddit Moons get legitimized. More Information @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:25) The big, and not very surprising, news of the week has to do with PayPal. The payment processing giant has finally unveiled its plan to let users buy, sell, and use crypto for purchases – and it’s going to be rolling out quite soon. According to Reuters, and plenty of other news sources, PayPal “will allow customers to hold bitcoin and other virtual coins in its online wallet and shop using cryptocurrencies at the 26 million merchants on its network.” The ability to buy and sell crypto, will apparently be rolling out within the next few weeks. As for using crypto as a payment, that will be happening early 2021. Following that, PayPal will expand these services to Venmo. This of course, is a huge deal for mainstream crypto adoption. PayPal reported 346 million active users in the 2nd quarter of 2020 and Venmo reportedly has over 50 million users. (01:15) Now, as with any development in crypto, there is indeed some negative feedback surrounding this announcement – and perhaps, the negativity is justified. As of now, it seems as though PayPal users will have little control over their crypto…so no transferring the crypto in or out of your PayPal wallet. Of course, in the world of crypto, this is a very dishonorable move. The classic crypto traditionalist saying is “not your keys, not your coins”, which refers to the private keys that give someone true ownership of their cryptocurrency. However, one could argue that perfection is the enemy of progress here – less tech savvy people are going to have access to cryptocurrency now more than ever, and private key encryption can be a tough concept to grasp for complete beginners. Perhaps though the backlash against the inability to truly own the crypto you buy on PayPal will be loud enough to eventually change PayPal’s approach. Or, perhaps any crypto beginner who joins the world of crypto via the PayPal on-ramp will, over time, learn more about cryptocurrency, including the importance of owning your own crypto. Either way, it’s impossible to argue against the effect that this level of mainstream adoption will have on the cryptocurrency ecosystem, which has been thriving for quite some time. (02:18) Next up, Binance Jersey. For our Americentric listeners, no…Binance Jersey is NOT a Binance that is only for residents of New Jersey. Binance Jersey was created to expand Binances presence in Europe, and “currently provides secure and reliable trading of Pounds Sterling (GBP) and Euros (EUR) with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), in addition to asset management services to users.” However, this week Binance announced that Binance Jersey will soon be a short-lived memory. According to an announcement from Binance Jersey earlier this week, the UK tax haven-based exchange will be closing deposits on October 30th, closing trading services on November 9th, and then completely shutting down on November 30th. Binance claims this shutdown is occurring because the services offered through Binance Jersey are now available on Binance, but according to CoinTelegraph, “the exchange aimed to make Binance Jersey a “major driving force” in European markets, the statistics show that it fell short of its goals”. (03:14) As one exchange closes, another re-opens. Kraken, a popular US-based exchange, has resumed trading in Japan after 2 years of being closed down. Japan is one of the largest markets for cryptocurrency trading, and Kraken had shut down their services back in 2018 due to the cost of maintaining business. On Thursday, Kraken announced they are resuming services for Japanese residents, including spot trading for BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, and LTC. (03:39) Finally, some potentially good news for Redditors. The cryptocurrency that is gained for posting quality content, or being a bot that spams...

This week, OKEx is having a bad day, and a decentralized file distribution token hits the market. More info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:25) As most of us in the crypto space can attest to, exchanges are a dime a dozen. There are some, like Coinbase (Pro) and Binance, that most people in the space of heard of and/or used. There are others that never quite penetrated the mainstream crypto audience like the aforementioned exchanges. OKEx, although perhaps not a household name in the United States, certainly ranks up there with some of the aforementioned exchange giants. On CoinMarketCap, OKEx is listed as the 11th exchange, based on traffic, liquidity, and trading volumes – not to mention, they are the self-proclaimed world’s largest futures trading platform. Plus, they are one of the largest exchanges in China. All that to say that OKEx has certainly earned it’s position as one of the giants in the world of cryptocurrency exchanges. As the cliché goes though, the bigger they are, the harder they fall – and it certainly seems like OKEx is falling pretty hard today. (01:14) Two big events occurred for OKEx today – all withdrawals were suspended, and the founder of the exchange, Mingxing Xu, was reportedly arrested. OKEx is understandably attempting to save some face and act like everything is alright. According to a press release from OKEx: “As of 3:00 am UTC today, Oct. 16, OKEx has suspended digital asset withdrawals temporarily. We would like to assure users that the security of funds on OKEx has not been affected. Additionally, all other operations on OKEx are functioning normally.” This news obviously doesn’t bode well for any OKEx users that have coins currently held on the exchange. (01:50) Regarding the alleged arrest, Cointelegraph reports “OKEx founder Mingxing Xu, also known as Star Xu, has reportedly been questioned by the police, Chinese news agency Caixin reported today. According to the report, the executive was investigated “at least a week ago” and has also been absent from work for some time.” There are reports that the arrest and the suspension of withdrawals are not directly related, but the timing certainly seems to indicate otherwise. Hopefully this will get sorted soon, but it’s one more in a long list of exchanges currently being accused of illicit behaviors. (02:23) There’s been a lot of hype this week about FIL, aka Filecoin. Filecoin is an ICO from a few years back that raised over $200 million dollars – however, this week, the coin has gone live. Filecoin calls itself the “decentralized cloud” with a superior network and a dynamic distributed storage network for data, Coindesk says “The new token is very likely to make history as the fastest newly live blockchain to reach a market capitalization of over $1 billion”, and Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees says “this is easily one of the most professionally built, carefully-executed, and *valuable* projects that has emerged from the ICO era.” (03:00) A good amount of hype, and it’s certainly interesting to see the launch of an ICO that wasn’t actually some sort of scam. So, aside from buzzwords, what exactly is Filecoin and what does it do? According to the Filecoin documentation: “Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network that stores files, with built-in economic incentives to ensure files are stored reliably over time. Users pay to store their files on storage miners. Storage miners are computers responsible for storing files and proving they have stored the files correctly over time. Anyone who wants to store their files or get paid for storing other users’ files can join Filecoin. Available storage, and the price of that storage, is not controlled by any single company. Instead, Filecoin facilitates open markets for storing and retrieving files that anyone can participate in.” The Filecoin blockchain has a native crypto, FIL, and the storage miners are paid FIL to store user data. With the launch, a number of exchanges have listed FIL – however, as of...

This week, Square Invests $50 million into Bitcoin, Coinbase is losing employees because they don’t want to get political, and the extended tax deadline is less than a week away! More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:28) On Wednesday this week, Square Inc purchased 50 million dollars worth of Bitcoin, or around 4709 BTC. For those unfamiliar, Square is the company started by Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Twitter. Square is responsible for a number of financial products and services, including Cash App. Dorsey is a vocal advocate of cryptocurrency, which Wednesday’s gigantic purchase of Bitcoin is certainly illustrative of. On Twitter, Dorsey said “More important than Square investing $50mm in Bitcoin is sharing how we did it (so others can do the same)… And FAR more important than that is us investing directly in open source development, opening access to patents with COPA, and making bitcoin more accessible and useful to millions of people with Cash App.” Square INC released a whitepaper to provide details about HOW and WHY they purchased the $50 million in Bitcoin: “Treasury purchased the bitcoin over-the-counter with a bitcoin liquidity provider that we currently use as part of Cash App’s bitcoin trading product” The whitepaper states that the Bitcoin is held in their proprietary cold storage aptly named “SubZero”, which is also used to protect the Bitcoin of CashApp users, and protected by “a Crime insurance policy to protect against internal or external theft of bitcoin both in hot wallet and cold storage.” As for why the company decided to invest in Bitcoin: “We view bitcoin as an instrument of global economic empowerment; it is a way for individuals around the world to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future.” Opinions of this investment are generally pretty positive – most people in the crypto space concede this is a good move for the future of crypto. More and more companies are investing in crypto in a big way – see the Microstrategy investments in August, for example. Of course, there are those outside the space that can spin even news like this into something negative. Some critics asked why news of such an investment, or the investment itself, hasn’t pushed the price of BTC up much higher. However, as of recording, Bitcoin has indeed broken $11,000 and seems to be holding. (02:30) It’s fairly difficult to not mix politics and cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency itself has political and philosophical attributes built it – namely, decentralization. This week saw Coinbase taking a hit for attempting to stay apolitical during one of the most politically charged years in modern times. For some backstory, near the end of September of this year, the CEO of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, released a blog post essentially stating that Coinbase doesn’t want it’s employees getting political because it can cause trouble to their team dynamic. The blog post is linked in our summary at talk.bitcoin.tax, but here are a couple sentences from the article, summarizing Armstrong’s stance: Referring to societal issues and social activism, Armonstrong stated that “We don’t engage here when issues are unrelated to our core mission, because we believe impact only comes with focus…they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division.” In the post, Armstrong concedes that this may not be a popular stance, and he understands that many could disagree with him. It’s certainly a bold stance, and one that does seem in opposition to the stance many companies have taken in 2020. Clearly, a good chunk of his employees were not on board with this approach – in a follow up blog post released yesterday, Armstrong said that about 5% of Coinbase employees have left the company as a result of the apolitical stance, and a number of other employees are in talk to depart as well. Interestingly, Armstrong highlights that underrepresented...

This week, USPS is getting into blockchain technology, PayPal is reportedly getting ready to embrace cryptocurrency, more details emerge about Twitter’s decentralized platform, and the Bitcoin Cash fork looks increasingly likely. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:33) First up, USPS. The United States Postal Service has been in the news for a number of months, given all of the controversy surrounding mail-in voting during the pandemic. COVID-19 has certainly been a royal pain for us all, but it has also made many realize the need for improved systems in our country. One of those systems is voting, and the United States Postal Service is hoping that blockchain technology can help to evolve the voting process. According to Forbes, “USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) published a patent application filed by the USPS. The patent claims that a combination of the security of the blockchain and the mail service provides a reliable voting system. A registered voter receives a QR code by mail. A separation of voter identification and votes to ensure voter anonymity is the principal feature of the solution. The votes are stored on a blockchain attested by election officials.” There has been news of the USPS embracing blockchain technology in the past few months, but this is the first official look into how the technology would integrate with voting. Of course, the integration needs to be tested and perfected, and certainly won’t be available for the upcoming election – but this election, paired with COVID, most definitely lit a fire under USPS to get this moving. (01:43) PayPal, a company synonymous with online payments, has been a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to cryptocurrencies. However, this week saw reports that indicate PayPal is close to getting with the times, so to speak, when it comes to cryptocurrency. The Daily Hodl quotes Sandi Bragar, a managing director at the investment management firm Aspiriant: “We also like that PayPal is working with merchants to bring crypto into the fold, and we think that’s going to be really important as more of the cryptocurrencies become more mainstream in the years ahead.” In addition, The Motley Fool states that “During its second-quarter earnings call in late July, PayPal CFO John Rainey shared plans to invest an additional $300 million in new products and improvements in the second half of the year…PayPal is also working on several other online payment services, including more ways for consumers to use PayPal online at more merchants [and] the ability to pay in different ways (e.g., credit card rewards, digital currency)…” At this point, it seems like it is only a matter of time before we see some sort of interesting new cryptocurrency integration in the PayPal ecosystem – the success of similar payment services’ cryptocurrency integration, like CashApp, have more than likely made it pretty clear to PayPal that it’s foolish to ignore the behemoth that is cryptocurrency. (02:58) Social media platform giants like Facebook and Twitter understand the importance of blockchain technology. Facebook has it’s Libra Project – which, admittedly, hasn’t has a ton of positive press since it’s announcement – and, Twitter has the mysterious Blue Sky. Decrypt reports that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey released some new information about Blue Sky this week – at of all places, a Human Right’s Foundation Forum. Here are some select quotes about the project from Dorsey: “This is a completely separate nonprofit from [Twitter]…this group will be tasked with building a protocol that we can use, but everyone else can use. And then we’ll really focus on becoming a client of it, so that we can build a compelling service and business on top of a much larger corpus of conversation that anyone can access and anyone can contribute to.” “Blockchain and Bitcoin point to a future, point to a world where content exists forever—where it’s permanent, where it doesn’t go away, where it exists forever...

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending September 11th, 2020. This week we’ll be talking about DeFi: An explanation of DeFi and a couple of compelling DeFi -related stories of the week, including a protocol bug that made a minimum wage worker a lot richer, and a major exchange ‘s attempt to compete with yield farming. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:27) This week we’ll be talking about DeFi: An explanation of DeFi and a couple of compelling DeFi -related stories of the week, including a protocol bug that made a minimum wage worker a lot richer, and a major exchange ‘s attempt to compete with yield farming. DeFi, or decentralized finance, is all the hype lately. The concept of decentralized finance is really at the core of cryptocurrency itself, but as traditional cryptocurrencies and blockchains became more adopted by the mainstream, they also became more regulated and centralized. This is arguably the nature of adoption – and by arguably, you can be sure there are crypto enthusiasts who will die on the hill of anti-centralization in cryptocurrency. So what is DeFi? Here’s a TLDR courtesy of a Coinbase blog post – and yes, the irony of utilizing a centralized exchange to explain decentralized finance is not lost here: “Cryptocurrency’s promise is to make money and payments universally accessible– to anyone, no matter where they are in the world. (DeFi)…takes that promise a step further. Imagine a global, open alternative to every financial service you use today — savings, loans, trading, insurance and more — accessible to anyone in the world with a smartphone and internet connection.” By using Decentralized Apps, aka “DAPPS” aka “D-apps”, smart contracts can be formed to essentially remove the centralized middlemen and custodians that are a part of traditional finance and traditional cryptocurrency exchange platforms. “At their core, the operations of these businesses are not managed by an institution and its employees — instead the rules are written in [smart contracts]. Once the smart contract is deployed to the blockchain, DeFi dapps can run themselves with little to no human intervention…The code is transparent on the blockchain for anyone to audit…Dapps are designed to be global from day one…anyone can create DeFi apps, and anyone can use them. Unlike finance today, there are no gatekeepers or accounts with lengthy forms.” DeFi, then, clearly is a response to a traditional financial system that is notoriously exclusionary. It speaks to the core nature of cryptocurrency, which in its relatively short existence, has become more centralized, and arguably, more exclusionary. KYC, or “Know Your Customer”, an anti-money laundering implementation, for example, is the norm with centralized exchanges, whereas traditional DeFi and Dapps aren’t typically beholden to this implementation. However, as with traditional crypto, as DeFi rapidly becomes more and more mainstream, we will likely see an increase of regulations. As an illustration of this point, Huobi, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has recently launched a crypto savings product to compete with the increasingly popular, and somewhat controversial, DeFi act of Yield Farming – according to Coindesk: “Despite lucrative returns from yield farming, white-hot DeFi has been criticized for potential security risks as more investors are putting money into unaudited smart contracts controlled by sometimes unknown founders. Nonetheless, the Seychelles-based crypto exchange did not hide its eagerness to participate in the DeFi world. Just on Aug. 23, Huobi launched a new token listing platform Huobi Inno Hub for DeFi tokens trading.” This brings to light the other end of the DeFi double edged sword, so to speak. The lack of centralization, lack of custodian, and ease of entry allows anyone to participate, create applications, create cryptocurrencies, etc. This also means that protocols can be bugged, scams can occur, and people can lose a...

Trekk, a writer, public speaker, podcast host, storyteller, and head of Trekk Smart consulting, joins the show. Trekk shares his experience as a consultant and a consumer in the world of cryptocurrency – how psychology plays a role in increasing cryptocurrency adoption, and how over-marketing to early adopters can alienate them. Plus – what it means to be a “pro” in the world of crypto! More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Highlights (06:47): Bitcoin Education Then vs Now (08:56): A Higher Education in Crypto (15:16): The Evolution of Cryptocurrency Marketing (22:51): Psychology, Freud, and Bitcoin (40:13): Marketing Principles (48:00): Branding and Building Trust

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending September 4th, 2020. This week…Bitcoin saw a beautiful rise and an awful fall, and the IRS wants a piece of your microtask crypto income. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:27) If you are a Bitcoin trader or investor, you probably don’t need us to remind you that Bitcoin has had quite a rough week. Technically, the later half of the week, including today. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin rallied earlier in the week, reaching over $12,000 on September 1st – we also saw Bitcoin briefly bounce past $12,000 a few times in August, and it certainly seemed to indicate that the moon was in sight. However, Thursday and Friday brought some dreadful dips in the price of Bitcoin – dropping under $10,000 on Friday, but currently holding steady around $10,400. On today’s episode, we’re going to do something a little bit different. We’ll be assessing a number of different explanations as to why Bitcoin is experiencing these intense fluctuations – of course, volatility and cryptocurrency trading are no strangers, but what exactly is at play this week according to the experts? First, let’s start with a broad prediction from the September 2020 edition of Bloomberg’s Crypto Outlook newsletter that was released on Wednesday, likely bit prior to the big dip of the week occurring: “Bitcoin appears as a resting bull market on the back of gold, in our view. Limited supply vs. increasing demand is the bottom-line for Bitcoin, with macroeconomic underpinnings that support its march toward the market cap of gold, at a price of $500,000 by some estimates. Or it could fail. Declining volatility – notably vs. equities and gold — indicate Bitcoin is gaining an upper hand.” Quite an all or nothing mentality, highly skewed in favor of Bitcoin’s success, from one of the leading names in traditional finance. Addressing the beginning of the Bitcoin price drop midweek, Bloomberg released an article stating that “A strong dollar tends to dent appetite for the cryptocurrency and there are signs its popularity is fading among retail investors”, but went on to say that “long-time advocates point to increasing demand from institutional investors” and “…if the greenback softens over 5% it could be the catalyst to help Bitcoin breach that threshold again, if its fundamentals improve.” On Thursday, the crypto news outlet Cointelegraph lumped the BTC drop in with the price drop of the S&P 500 index, as well as gold. For reference, the price of gold fell over 1% on Thursday, and the S&P 500 fell 1.9% on Friday. Echoing this theory of correlation, the In Bitcoin We Trust newsletter states “Over short periods, correlations can indeed be found with the S&P 500. Over the long term, it is much less obvious. We can also say that these two markets fell sharply at the same time yesterday, because they responded to common causes, without implying a strong correlation.” The newsletter also echoes the aforementioned, and commonly held belief that the strength of the US dollar is correlated with the price of Bitcoin – the US Dollar Index (or DXY) has “been in freefall for several months, falling from 102,755 on March 19 to an annual low of 92,144 on August 31, 2020. This represents a drop of -10%.” The idea is that this drop has assisted in rallying the price of Bitcoin – but now, “The DXY has rebounded from its annual low… [and the] slight increase suggests to some that the U.S. dollar may strengthen in the coming weeks. This renewed strength may have played a role in the sharp drop.”. The Cointelegraph article also points to the fact that “miners sold off unusually large amounts of BTC in a short period” as one of the other primary reasons that the price of BTC has dropped. So, overall, the experts seem to be saying that the price of BTC and the strength of the US Dollar are correlated, and that BTC is also correlated to traditional markets like the S&P 500 and the price of gold, both of which also saw a dip...

Isaiah Jackson aka Bitcoin Zay joins the show to discuss how Bitcoin and Black America intersect. Isaiah is an award winning speaker, best-selling author, and co-host of the long-running daily show “The Gentlemen of Crypto”. His work has been featured in Forbes, Vogue, Yahoo Finance and Coindesk. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Highlights 02:39: Bitcoin & Black America; Democratizing Bitcoin 07:52: How crypto can solve inequties in traditional banking 13:38: Bitcoin as an antidote to economic inequality 23:07: Digital red lining 30:56: Projects aimed at getting communities involved in crypto https://talk.bitcoin.tax/the-cryptocurrency-informer/bitcoin-and-black-america/

Today’s episode will cover events happening the week ending August 28th, 2020. This week, the federal reserve did something very predictable, the SEC has made it somewhat easier to become an accredited investor…maybe. More Info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:28) One of the big financial pieces of news this week has to do with the United States Federal Reserve. On Thursday, the chairman of the federal reserve, Jerome Powell, gave a speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium. In his speech, he announced a major policy shift related to inflation. According to The Economist, “He emphasized that the central bank’s existing target for inflation, of 2%, should henceforth be an average: in the face of persistently low inflation, the Fed may pursue efforts to push inflation above the target. And perhaps most important, Mr. Powell noted that the Fed would no longer attempt to prevent employment from rising above its best estimate of the maximum sustainable level.” A more traditional financial analysis of this shift was provided by CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who mused that it is “a signal from the central bank that it won’t play any part in moderating growth and will continue to provide liquidity until the U.S. economy is outperforming expectations.” And that is “is incredible”. The crypto community has a slightly different opinion on the matter though. Within the community of crypto advocates, one of the primary criticisms of traditional fiat currency, especially USD, is that the federal government can and will print money whenever they feel the need. Of course, this is not possible with any cryptocurrency is a finite supply. Decrypt, a cryptocurrency news outlet, has this to say about the unprecedented move: “Here’s what’s troubling about the statement: It’s a reminder that a small group of people has absolute power over the direction of fiat currency, in this case, the world’s reserve currency. The Federal Reserve has the dual mandate to protect the labor market and to keep consumer prices at bay. The problem is that two goals are often opposed and in a world that’s increasingly leaning towards populism, central banks will choose to privilege the job market over keeping inflation targets. This means the currency loses.” This isn’t necessarily bad news for Bitcoin and crypto though – Decrypt points out that Bitcoin saw a slight price hike after the announcement, although the gains were quickly diminished. More importantly though, they say that Powell’s statements “may prompt people to hold the largest cryptocurrency after realizing… Bitcoin has a predictable issuance schedule and a cap on the coins that will ever be issued… Any changes are made by broad consensus…[and] the price of bitcoin will be volatile because of free-market forces, but it won’t be devalued because a centralized entity decided more coins will start to flood the market.” So, is the federal government playing directly into the criticisms that crypto enthusiasts regularly lob at them? Seemingly, yes. And it is very likely that crypto enthusiasts will use this event as another one of many rallying cries to get behind cryptocurrency adoption. — (02:55) In other federal government news, the SEC released some seemingly good news for aspiring accredited investors. On Wednesday, a press released was put out titled “SEC Modernizes the Accredited Investor Definition”. This press release expanded the definition of “accredited investor”, and according to the law firm Troutman Pepper, “The new definition moves beyond the long-standing reference to wealth and income to determine whether individuals may be deemed accredited investors. In addition, the definition adds several new categories of entities that now qualify as institutional accredited investors”. The press release implies that the new definition will “effectively identify institutional and individual investors that have the knowledge and expertise to participate in those markets.” Generally, legal...

CryptyGirl is the founder of CRYPTY – apparel and accessories for crypto enthusiasts. She’s also the co-host of The Block Babes, an up-and-coming weekly livestream for sharing the latest crypto developments and economic news. Crypty joins the show to discuss how cryptocurrency interacts with Generation Z, a generation known for their passion. She also shares her story of starting a cryptocurrency apparel shop featuring unique designs that she creates herself. Plus, Crypty shares why she is so passionate about Digibyte (DGB) and the DGB community. More @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Page Link: http://bit.ly/cryptygirl

This week, it looks like the IRS is again sending out educational letters to some crypto traders, a cryptocurrency city is being built, and a crypto-political update. More info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax Full Show Notes: (00:28) First up, the IRS educational letters are seemingly being sent out to more cryptocurrency users and traders. For reference, in July 2019 the IRS send out “educational letters” to more than 10,000 cryptocurrency users reminding them that they need to be including their crypto capital gains and losses on their tax forms. The letters were referenced as 6173, 6174 or 6174-A. According to a number of independent reports, a new round of these letters are currently on their way out. Last year, we spoke with Alex Kugelman, a tax controversy lawyer, about these letters. Alex explained what these letters are and the difference between each of them: “The basic thrust is that the IRS has information that the recipient had some cryptocurrency account and may not have fully reported gains or losses from the activity. So essentially the 6174, 6174-A, and 6173 are essentially predicated on that. The 6174 is what’s been termed, or people have described as, a ‘soft notice’ – just putting people on notice of what the tax reporting obligations are. The 6174-A is a little bit more direct. The 6173 from my perspective is the letter to be taken more seriously by recipient because it requires a response. It has a response date, from what I can tell, of one month from the date of the letter.” You can listen to the entire interview with Alex Kugelman by going to talk.bitcoin.tax. — (01:52) Next up, a city that’s runs on cryptocurrency is in the works. It’s being spearheaded by the entertainer/entrepreneur Akon and is appropriately dubbed Akon City. The city is currently being built in Senegal, a country in which Akon spent much of his childhood in. Cryptocurrency plays a vital role in Akon’s plan for the city – according to Bitcoin.com: “At the heart of Akon City is the Stellar-based Akoin cryptocurrency. Akon aims for the coin to be used as a common method of payment allowing for easy exchange between Africa’s 54 countries so that citizens and entrepreneurs can engage in the digital economy with only a mobile phone.” The Akoin whitepaper states that the currency, and its accompanying multi-currency wallet is powered by a “…proprietary Atomic Swap technology [that] enables immediate trade between major cryptocurrencies, our partners’ alternative currencies, and fiat currencies; both on the platform and in the local market.” One of the main use cases of cryptocurrency is arguably the ability to transcend and overcome the imbalances and inequities associated with traditional financial systems. According to the Bitcoin.com report, this is one of Akon’s primary reasons for constructing the one-of-a kind city – he claims that crypto could “…overcome key hurdles, such as high inflation, government mismanagement of funds, and corruption.” Additionally, the report illustrates Akon’s belief that the Akoin ecosystem will alleviate the difficulty converting African currencies and the “rampant inflation” that exists. The first phase of Akon City is planned to begin in early 2021, and will reportedly be completed by 2023. The entire Akon City is planned to be fully functional within 10 years. Of course, this seems like a lofty goal that is likely to encounter a number of hurdles – but, the funding is certainly there, and cryptocurrency could be harnessed to alleviate some of the issues associated with traditional fiat currencies. Only time will tell if this will be everything it sets out to be, or if it will be plagued by the same issues we see many crypto projects plagued by. — (03:43) Finally, some brief political cryptocurrency news updates… A cryptocurrency advocate and former US representative named Cynthia Lummis, has won the GOP Senate primary in Wyoming. According to a report from NASDAQ, Lummis is favored to win in the general election...

Our guest today is Edward Kelso, CEO of Coing Fugazi. He has thousands of articles published through various news organizations and has been covering every facet of the cryptocurrency space for years. We discuss crypto from multiple views: political, philosophical, and journalistic. Kelso shares his perspective as an experienced crypto journalist and details his journey to inform the masses about what cryptocurrency really is. More Info @ Talk.Bitcoin.Tax