> However, processing Bitcoin payments is a completely different experience. There's no paperwork (just code), no set-up cost and everyone can get started in no time.
So true. That's what I love about Bitcoin: once you understand the technical working, there is nothing to it. It's all simple rules instead of fees, interest rates and chargebacks. And all that you own is actually really and truly yours. No bank could possibly take it from you when they go bankrupt.
zhoutong is a known scammer. Do not do business with him. He needs to be banned on HN as well.
Edit: I'll quote what I said in reply to someone else:
Zhoutong is a scammer, he operated an illegal bucket shop known as Bitcoinica and tried to hide the true nature of the operation just so he could close it down at its peak and steal several thousand BTC from customers trading futures on his platform,
He then tried to cover up the theft by selling it to the people who run Intersango and tried to blame them for the missing Bitcoins. He also tried to blame "hackers" for it.
In addition, users are suing him for close to half a million dollars for his lies. His defense is hes claiming he was 17 at the time (early 2012).
It's really unfortunate that the link you referenced contained too many wrong understandings and misrepresentations. A little research can make the following clear:
1. Bitcoinica was a regulated financial service provider before closing down.
2. I sold 100% of it in October 2011, ~5 months before the first breach.
3. There has been no conclusive evidence about the last hack.
4. I was not a defendant of the said lawsuit. I have not provided any defence regarding the lawsuit.
You're a credible person, but I hope you have credible sources to post here.
I have tried my best to discountinue my involvement on Bitcoin projects while keeping supporting the currency. I'm genuinely creating value through startups and you should be able to see this through my effort in NameTerrific.
I do not understand why anyone would use an account created 9 hours ago and named as a variant of my legal name to criticize me personally without conclusive evidence, other than in an attempt to destroy the reputation of an 18-year-old entrepreneur, who is also a victim of the mis-management of his former startup after acquisition.
EDIT: I'm open to any discussions about your opinions and ideas. Feel free to email me (email in my profile).
Without Fees? Nice try. The article doesn't cover this at all. I think it means "Without the High Fees of Credit Cards". Bitcoin has fees and the article mentions this. If anyone would actually like to write an article about avoiding BTC fees, I'm interested in that.
In practice it's not easy to avoid the fees. Maybe I need a custom client? Not sure. But I know what you're saying is true. If someone could explain how that would be awesome.
IIRC you weren't forced to by the default client in the past. Fees are actually optional, but there is no motivation for miners to include your transaction if you pay none. Hence the client tries to make you pay a fee. If you pay a higher fee, that means it goes through sooner since miners will of course priorities high-fee transactions.
I recently moved my domains to NameTerrific, and I would definitely recommend them. I love the management interface and they're very simple. Much, much better than the bloated GoDaddy.
This isn't entirely related but I'd be interested if anyone knows the tax implications of _spending_ bitcoins. What happens if you receive bitcoins when they're worth 10 USD and then spend them when they're worth 20 USD. What tax rules apply here?
The same problem can happen with any foreign currency. So the normal foreign currency accounting rules apply.
IF you're operating as a business:
When you receive 1 BTC at 10, assuming your accounting currency is USD, you should record a 10 USD revenue and a 1 BTC cash inflow (shown as 10 USD in balance sheet).
If the value of 1 BTC rises to 15, for example, you need to make an adjustment to the Unrealised Foreign Currency Gains and Losses account to reflect the change. The BTC cash account should be shown as 15 USD in balance sheet (with the same 1 BTC holdings) and there's an unrealised foreign currency gain of 5 USD (a temporary contra-expense account in equity section).
When you finally spend the Bitcoin at 20 USD, close the "unrealised" account to the "realised" account, and increase the realised gains to 10 USD. Now you should have a 20 USD expense, 0 USD cash balance and a 10 USD realised foreign currency gain. That's 10 USD worth of "net" expense.
So, 10 USD revenue and 10 USD "net" expense. Everything is balanced. That's 0 USD closed to P/L.
IF you're a consumer:
It should be treated as 10 USD capital gain because you disposed the asset at a higher value than the cost base. Equivalently, you can claim a capital loss if you dispose the asset at a lower value than the cost base. However, whether this is acceptable in your country depends on your actual circumstances.
On the serious note I think the tax implication is similar to foreign currency income/investment. (Sorry I don't know the ins and outs of international commerce and can't give you a definite answer.)
Technically it's trivial to use Bitcoin to hide income. However NameTerrific is a GST-registered company so we (have to) openly collect taxes from Australian residents, even for Bitcoin payments.
It is only trivial to hide income using Bitcoin if you never plan to spend your income. Otherwise, you have the same problem you have with paper money should you be audited or otherwise attract government attention.
Not really because there wasn't any advertising happening around the Bitcoin idea. However we did a soft launch within the Bitcoin community when the payment solution wasn't ready, and that gained some initial adoption (with 100% Bitcoin payments).
Domain market is extremely competitive. But for domain registrars that accept Bitcoin, I'm quite confident that NameTerrific is simply the best. That's probably why the adoption rate is quite high.
EDIT: Just to clarify, we're seeing much more credit card orders coming up recently so it seems that the market for Bitcoin is quite limited. I guess even the largest Bitcoin merchants (like WordPress) may not have a large absolute figure for Bitcoin use. However, to us, accepting Bitcoin is somehow a symbol of "geekiness" so it's a good thing to continue.
There's a lot in that thread to sort through, but...
The exchange that zhou founded had about 60,000 bitcoins stolen in two instances. Plenty of evidence pointed to an inside job, probably by zhou himself.
This link provides Zhou's explanation of what 'really' happened, where he claims a Chen Jianhai, Chinese multi-millionaire with ties to organized crime who hunts for ancient relics and artifacts in his spare time, was the 'real' thief.
The events following the acquisition of my previous startup Bitcoinica gave me a big hit on reputation. This made really frustrated as well.
Basically I sold 100% financial interest in October/November 2011 and I stopped all involvement in the company after April 2012 when I started NameTerrific. The new management was unable to process refunds to affected customers and a series of chaotic events blew up. Many were made up (especially the insider job theory about the last hack) for profit (for example, the owner of the exchanger who wrote the story retained $40,000 funds illegally and refused to provide any information needed to reclaim the money).
Your domains will be safe as I had absolutely no intent to operate any unethical business. Bitcoinica was controlling at peak $1 million in assets during my management and nothing went wrong at that time.
Zhoutong is a scammer, he operated an illegal bucket shop known as Bitcoinica and tried to hide the true nature of the operation just so he could close it down at its peak and steal several thousand BTC from customers trading futures on his platform,
He then tried to cover up the theft by selling it to the people who run Intersango and tried to blame them for the missing Bitcoins. He also tried to blame "hackers" for it.
In addition, users are suing him for close to half a million dollars for his lies. His defense is hes claiming he was 17 at the time (early 2012).
So true. That's what I love about Bitcoin: once you understand the technical working, there is nothing to it. It's all simple rules instead of fees, interest rates and chargebacks. And all that you own is actually really and truly yours. No bank could possibly take it from you when they go bankrupt.