Bitcoin News

Necessity Is the Mother of Invention: Using Bitcoin When the Power Goes Out

As useful as Bitcoin is, its use as a payment method runs into one serious problem: it needs electricity and an internet connection in order to function. If power goes out or the internet goes down, so does the ability to use Bitcoin as a payment. But thanks to tech-savvy Bitcoin users in Venezuela, great strides are being made in overcoming that obstacle so that Bitcoin can be just as useful as cash during a crisis. While Venezuela is often [...]

December 12, 2019 By
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Bitcoin Options Trading Is Here: What Effect Will That Have on Bitcoin’s Price?

Only two years ago Bitcoin futures trading was introduced for the first time, coinciding with a massive increase in interest in Bitcoin. The Bitcoin price pushed near $20,000 as investors, traders, and speculators piled into the market. While the price has come down since then, interest in Bitcoin remains, with more and more first-time Bitcoin buyers piling into the market. Now that Bitcoin options trading is just around the corner, what effect might that have on Bitcoin’s price? Just like [...]

December 9, 2019 By
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China Cracks Down on Crypto Exchanges as Digital Yuan Efforts Ramp Up

At one point the Chinese cryptocurrency market was one of the main drivers behind the popularity of Bitcoin and numerous other cryptocurrencies. Chinese exchanges dominated the Bitcoin world, while Chinese demand helped contribute to rising Bitcoin prices. But that all came to an end when China decided to ban cryptocurrency trading in early 2018. Not only did that ban have an effect on the overall Bitcoin market and Bitcoin prices, but it also forced many Chinese actors underground. Despite the [...]

December 5, 2019 By
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Bermuda Residents Can Now Pay Their Taxes in Cryptocurrency

The key to the more widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies, just as with any currency, is the ability to use cryptocurrencies to pay taxes. Despite some initial efforts to start accepting cryptocurrency tax payments in Ohio, other states have yet to follow suit. And it will be quite a while before the IRS decides to start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in payment of federal taxes. But not every country is as backward as the United States is. Bermuda has recently [...]

December 2, 2019 By
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CFTC Chairman Confirms Bitcoin, Ether Are Commodities

One of the biggest uncertainties facing cryptocurrencies is their legal status and the prospect of future financial regulation. With the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) providing minimal tax guidance, cryptocurrency users and investors have been largely operating in a gray area for the past several years. One of the biggest questions to face cryptocurrency investors was whether cryptocurrencies are considered securities or commodities. The answer to that question has profound ramifications for users, businesses, and investors. And now we may [...]

November 25, 2019 By
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Bitcoin Has Failed, According to BIS: Oh Really?

Central bankers aren’t the most aware people on the face of the planet. They continue to drive country after country into recession, then feign ignorance, as if inflation weren’t the product of their monetary policies. So when a central banker comments on matters of money and currency, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. That’s especially the case for the central bankers’ central bank, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). In a recent report the BIS claimed [...]

November 21, 2019 By
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The Tax Man Wants to Know If You Own Bitcoin

Following on the release of new cryptocurrency tax guidance for the first time in five years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is starting to get serious about collecting taxes on gains made from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. While the agency is trying to simplify the Form 1040 that most people file every year, it has begun to expand the amount of information it gets from other schedules, which have also been renamed. One of those new schedules is Schedule 1, [...]

November 18, 2019 By
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IRS Issues First Bitcoin Tax Guidance Since 2014

While Bitcoin has gained tremendously in popularity over the past decade, regulatory issues surrounding Bitcoin have yet to catch up. Among the most important of those to most Bitcoin investors were tax issues, with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) most recently giving tax guidance on Bitcoin in 2014. Aside from being told to treat Bitcoin as property, most Bitcoin investors had little else to go on when it came to figure out tax liability. That really became an important issue [...]

November 14, 2019 By
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Bitcoin Increasing in Popularity in Hong Kong as Protests Continue

One of the reasons Bitcoin has grown so much in popularity is because it allows people to engage in financial transactions without having to go through financial intermediaries. Each man can be his own bank, storing money, transacting with others, and even engaging in transactions across international borders. That has made Bitcoin a target for governments that want to control all financial transactions within their territory. But despite their best efforts, they have been unsuccessful. In any country that’s experiencing [...]

November 11, 2019 By
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Canadian Central Bank to Issue Digital Currency to Track Consumer Spending Habits

The Bank of Canada is the latest central bank to try to get in on the cryptocurrency movement. The central bank has decided that it, too, will look at issuing its own digital national currency. But its move isn’t to try to provide a more useful or better currency to consumers, it’s to track their spending habits in a way that the central bank can’t right now. One of the most popular aspects of Bitcoin is the fact that it [...]

November 7, 2019 By
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