edicted

News Dump October 2021

Lost Hiker Ignores Rescuer's Calls From Unknown Number

The rescue team kept trying, but repeated calls and texts to the hiker’s phone went unanswered. So, a team of at least eight launched a pair of hours-long searches only to be notified the hiker had safely returned to their lodging location the next day, the Sacramento Bee first reported.

The hiker, who authorities have not identified, told rescuers they had no clue anyone had been searching for them. Their phone had been buzzing, the hiker said, but they repeatedly declined the calls since they were coming from an unknown number.

So much yes

Perhaps my favorite "news" story ever. No one goes hiking to answer their phone, m'kay? M'kay.

Hey if I was lost in the woods, the last thing I wanna do it talk to a telemarketer, amirite? Phone home to let people know I'm not about to die? NAH, it's fine!

Ultimate case of proud man refusing to ask for directions, lol.

50 seconds in... wow I can't believe I found this one.

This might be the only episode of the show I ever watched. Still, I was mildly entertained.

Biden's $1.85T Spending Bill Would Make Avoiding Capital Gains Taxes on Crypto Harder

The section would revise the tax code to get rid of a capital gains loophole.

Tucked into the 1,684-page draft spending bill, shared publicly for the first time today, is a small section dealing with digital assets. The purpose is to apply what are known as "constructive sales" to digital assets.

A key function of the constructive sale rule, first created in 1997, was to stop hedge funds from getting around short-terms capital gains taxes. By keeping a short and long position in the same asset, hedge funds had found a loophole: they could turn short-term capital gains into long-term ones, capping their taxes at a much more favorable rate.

The bill, if passed, would extend the rule to cryptocurrency transactions.

EXAMPLE:

"You buy [Bitcoin] at $60k. It appreciates to $100k but it’s a short term capital gain. So you buy a put with a right to sell it for $100k thus locking in the gain. Without IRC Sec. 1259 applying, you can turn a short term cap gain into long term capital gain."

Honestly I feel like rules like this being added to crypto in addition to getting rid of the wash-trading rule are being blown way out of proportion and actually don't matter that much. It only makes sense that you wouldn't be able to manipulate crypto in the same ways that securities were manipulated back in the 1970's.

Then again, perhaps I'm way off base because it only makes sense that cryptocurrency would be legally treated as currency (duh). IRS not having that because of the tax implications, but I think they'll be forced to accept this fact eventually.

It's quite obvious that not only is cryptocurrency actually currency, but also that it's a much more advanced form of currency. Trying to make it conform to property, security, or commodities law is only going to make less and less sense over time, especially as crypto goes mainstream and is legalized as foreign currency across dozens of nations. The IRS is basically trapped in a corner of their own making. Got um by the balls (in the long term anyway).

The real tax we have to worry about is the completely ridiculous "unrealized capital gains tax". But even then, I've already theory-crafted a solution to this as well. I'll share that gem some other time.

1000 CUB bet

In local news, Khal is about to lose a 1000 coin CUB bet unless the price rises to or above $1. Only 2 days left. I wish I had taken the bet as well when I had the chance. Such is the life of a developer making guestimates about when things will be ready. It always takes longer than the guess. RIP October IDO.

Of course I'd love to be proved wrong on this front.

Tick tock tick tock.

Operation Dark Huntor

GET IT!? BECAUSE TOR!? BECAUSE DARKWEB?

Yeah I just don't care the name still sucks.

A joint operation of the US Justice Department, Europol, and a host of other agencies revealed the payoff: 150 arrests spread across eight countries; over 230 kilograms of drugs and $31.6 million in cash and cryptocurrency seized, and an apparent shift in law enforcement strategy that puts more focus on dark web vendors than the sites themselves.

Is it just me or does $31.6M seem like such a completely nothing amount? Even if you price a kilo of "drugs" at $50k that's only $11.5M worth of "drugs". I feel like this is supposed to sound like a lot, but actually isn't. In the back of my mind all I can think about is if you spent $1000 on Shiba Inu last year you'd be a billionaire... lol. What a gigantic nothing-burger!

Even more alarming, their "new strategy" that focuses on vendors instead of marketplaces raises red flags for me. Sounds like a more decentralized type of attack. How long before they start going after random crypto nodes that they decide they don't like? Perhaps this is a big leap in logic and I'm being alarmist at this point in time.

Once again I'd like to remind everyone that these government agencies are going to auction off the cryptocurrency they confiscate, even though that crypto doesn't belong to them; it belongs to the communities themselves. Why does the government think they have the right to steal crypto and then dump it on the market? Shear delusion and pompousness I imagine. You own USD: stay in your lane. Crypto is ours. Send it to null or hold it forever as evidence, imperialists.

It's also worth noting that drugs shouldn't even be illegal in the first place. It is the risk of dealing drugs that creates the black market and the value proposition in the first place. If drugs were decriminalized, billions of taxpayer dollars would be saved. But they don't care about that. They are hypocrites that profit from the war on drugs by siphoning value from taxpayers and making backdoor deals to control these black markets that they themselves create. It's really mindblowing when you actually start digging deep on this issue. By all accounts many drugs were only even only made illegal out of sheer transparent racism, but I digress.

Russian people will not be allowed to earn money from crypto — Russia’s internet watchdog

Perhaps the most triggering thing I've read in a while, the audacity it takes to tell your citizens they aren't ALLOWED to earn crypto... like at all. Of course I know why Russia would take this stance: because if they allow it they know that many citizens will be able to rise up while at the same time completely evade taxes while making the Ruble completely antiquated. Still, it's pretty gross to outright tell your citizens they aren't allowed to prosper within the bounds of their own borders. So blatant and disgusting on the lowest level.

Marinichev insisted that it would never be sanctioned for Russian people to make payments using other money except for the ruble.

... said in clear terms that Russia will not soften its tight grip and prohibitive stance on crypto. He claims that, this is because the government has no interest in seeing Russian people make money with Bitcoin.

Ew.

He then argued that, while there are crypto-related laws in Russia like the one on Digital Financial Assets or DFAs, they have absolutely nothing to do with individual investors. He explained further that those laws were adopted as a result of the serious institutional demands by big businesses and other state-owned companies.

In his argument, the regulator claims that the DFA law is only targeted at big companies and therefore has nothing to do with the common Russian people, or other enthusiasts in the crypto industry.

Double gross doublespeak

Telling citizens that institutions get to have crypto but they don't. Seriously these people are disgusting. I will honestly feel obligated to help any Russian I can to get ahold of Hive should I get the chance. I have it on good authority that the people of this world are getting tired of being buried by financial servitude. No one deserves to be subjected to such hypocrisy. Rules for thee; not for me... I'm over it.