Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-29 Thread Gavin Andresen
On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 12:28 PM, Neil Fincham n...@asdf.co.nz wrote:

 I subscribe to this list so I can keep up-to date with bitcoin
 development, can we keep philosophy and tax evasion out of it?


Yes, that's off-topic for this mailing list. Lets stick to technical issues
that we can solve by writing code.

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Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-29 Thread Adam Back
There are some policy decision points in the protocol (and code) that may
become centralized risks or choke points that undermine the p2p nature.  So
the extent that those can be argued to have in principle have a technical
fix, it could be quite interesting to research the necessary technology
(advanced crypto, byzantine networking argument etc) that could address
them.  eg payee/payer blacklisting by a large group of miners and committed
transaction proposal to address it.

However even for that type of thing I think bitcoin-dev would probably
rather focus eg on something that has reached the stage of having a BIP.  Eg
it might be better to discuss early stage or speculative ideas on
bitcointalk.org technical thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=6.0

taxation in particular there are examples where even the political sphere
accepts significantly anonymous taxation.  eg for europeans with certain
types of investment in a swiss bank, the swiss bank sends however many
million as a single payment across all users per european country to their
passport home country (minus 25% cut for the swiss government).  Perhaps
such things could be possible for bitcoin.  Again I think bitcoin talk would
be a good place for such a discussion if that was the OP question
indirectly.

Adam

On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 06:32:10PM +1000, Gavin Andresen wrote:
   On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 12:28 PM, Neil Fincham [1]n...@asdf.co.nz
   wrote:

   I subscribe to this list so I can keep up-to date with bitcoin
   development, can we keep philosophy and tax evasion out of it?

   Yes, that's off-topic for this mailing list. Lets stick to technical
   issues that we can solve by writing code.
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   --
   Gavin Andresen

References

   1. mailto:n...@asdf.co.nz

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Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-29 Thread Melvin Carvalho
On 29 September 2013 10:32, Gavin Andresen gavinandre...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 12:28 PM, Neil Fincham n...@asdf.co.nz wrote:

 I subscribe to this list so I can keep up-to date with bitcoin
 development, can we keep philosophy and tax evasion out of it?


 Yes, that's off-topic for this mailing list. Lets stick to technical
 issues that we can solve by writing code.


Hi Gavin, apologies if my post came across as off-topic.  My aim was to
present a use case, and ask whether or not it was technically feasible
using smart contracts.



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Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-29 Thread Melvin Carvalho
On 29 September 2013 04:28, Neil Fincham n...@asdf.co.nz wrote:

 I subscribe to this list so I can keep up-to date with bitcoin
 development, can we keep philosophy and tax evasion out of it?


Hi Neil, perhaps I didnt present the use case clearly.  It was not about
evasion, it was about voluntary donations going to the correct place, being
verified by an oracle.  I dont wish to stray off topic, so I'll leave it at
that.



 Neil


 On 29 September 2013 09:15, rob.gold...@astutium.com wrote:

  But the regulatory environment in many geographical regions in
  uncertain.   Do we need to pay capital gains?   Do we need to pay a
  sales taxs etc. etc.

 In most regions it's not only 'simple' but trivial - BTC is just
 'another currency' and accounted for exactly the same way - it doens't
 matter if you sell your hose for GBP, USD, EUR, BTC or sacks of Pig
 Dung, you still have a GBP tax issue ...

  So my idea is to voluntarily pre empt legislation by giving donations
  to govt (aka taxation) for bitcoin service providers.

 You want to volunteer to pay tax ? I'd suggest stronger medication ...

  However, there is something of a problem with voluntary donations.
  Most people are not satisfied with the way they are spent.

 80% of 'donations' end up spent on 'adminsitration' and not what they
 were donated for, this is a 'greed' issue not a 'currency' issue.

  In the UK
  a recent survey said that only 18% of people thought that tax money
  was wisely spent.

 Tax isn't voluntary or a donation. The 18% who think UK tax is well
 spent are the 18% of the population who get the tax money, not the 82%
 that pay it ;)

  Can we fix it?

 First we kill all the politicians ...

  So let's say I run a business and I make 1 million euros.  I wish to
  donate 10% of my profits to society.  But let's say I dont want that
  money to go to wars of aggression, but rather, to the fire
  de[department.

 So give it to the FD - what you do with your post-tax profits are up to
 you ;)

  At this point everyone wins.  The business person is happy to make a
  contribution.  The govt. is happy that it gets more revenue.  The
  fire dept. is happy that it has revenue to do its work.  And
  everything has gone to the right place in a kind of democratic way.

 Where does gov't come into this ? I think you're confusing 'tax' which
 you have zero control over and 'donations' which you already have 100%
 control over.

 Rob


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Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-28 Thread rob . golding
 But the regulatory environment in many geographical regions in
 uncertain.   Do we need to pay capital gains?   Do we need to pay a
 sales taxs etc. etc.

In most regions it's not only 'simple' but trivial - BTC is just 
'another currency' and accounted for exactly the same way - it doens't 
matter if you sell your hose for GBP, USD, EUR, BTC or sacks of Pig 
Dung, you still have a GBP tax issue ...

 So my idea is to voluntarily pre empt legislation by giving donations
 to govt (aka taxation) for bitcoin service providers. 

You want to volunteer to pay tax ? I'd suggest stronger medication ...

 However, there is something of a problem with voluntary donations. 
 Most people are not satisfied with the way they are spent.

80% of 'donations' end up spent on 'adminsitration' and not what they 
were donated for, this is a 'greed' issue not a 'currency' issue.

 In the UK
 a recent survey said that only 18% of people thought that tax money
 was wisely spent.

Tax isn't voluntary or a donation. The 18% who think UK tax is well 
spent are the 18% of the population who get the tax money, not the 82% 
that pay it ;)

 Can we fix it?

First we kill all the politicians ...

 So let's say I run a business and I make 1 million euros.  I wish to
 donate 10% of my profits to society.  But let's say I dont want that
 money to go to wars of aggression, but rather, to the fire
 de[department. 

So give it to the FD - what you do with your post-tax profits are up to 
you ;)

 At this point everyone wins.  The business person is happy to make a
 contribution.  The govt. is happy that it gets more revenue.  The
 fire dept. is happy that it has revenue to do its work.  And
 everything has gone to the right place in a kind of democratic way.

Where does gov't come into this ? I think you're confusing 'tax' which 
you have zero control over and 'donations' which you already have 100% 
control over.

Rob

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Re: [Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-28 Thread Neil Fincham
I subscribe to this list so I can keep up-to date with bitcoin development,
can we keep philosophy and tax evasion out of it?

Neil


On 29 September 2013 09:15, rob.gold...@astutium.com wrote:

  But the regulatory environment in many geographical regions in
  uncertain.   Do we need to pay capital gains?   Do we need to pay a
  sales taxs etc. etc.

 In most regions it's not only 'simple' but trivial - BTC is just
 'another currency' and accounted for exactly the same way - it doens't
 matter if you sell your hose for GBP, USD, EUR, BTC or sacks of Pig
 Dung, you still have a GBP tax issue ...

  So my idea is to voluntarily pre empt legislation by giving donations
  to govt (aka taxation) for bitcoin service providers.

 You want to volunteer to pay tax ? I'd suggest stronger medication ...

  However, there is something of a problem with voluntary donations.
  Most people are not satisfied with the way they are spent.

 80% of 'donations' end up spent on 'adminsitration' and not what they
 were donated for, this is a 'greed' issue not a 'currency' issue.

  In the UK
  a recent survey said that only 18% of people thought that tax money
  was wisely spent.

 Tax isn't voluntary or a donation. The 18% who think UK tax is well
 spent are the 18% of the population who get the tax money, not the 82%
 that pay it ;)

  Can we fix it?

 First we kill all the politicians ...

  So let's say I run a business and I make 1 million euros.  I wish to
  donate 10% of my profits to society.  But let's say I dont want that
  money to go to wars of aggression, but rather, to the fire
  de[department.

 So give it to the FD - what you do with your post-tax profits are up to
 you ;)

  At this point everyone wins.  The business person is happy to make a
  contribution.  The govt. is happy that it gets more revenue.  The
  fire dept. is happy that it has revenue to do its work.  And
  everything has gone to the right place in a kind of democratic way.

 Where does gov't come into this ? I think you're confusing 'tax' which
 you have zero control over and 'donations' which you already have 100%
 control over.

 Rob


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[Bitcoin-development] smart contracts -- possible use case? yes or no?

2013-09-27 Thread Melvin Carvalho
We all love bitcoin's ability to transfer value in real time across borders.

But the regulatory environment in many geographical regions in uncertain.
Do we need to pay capital gains?   Do we need to pay a sales taxs etc. etc.

At this point bitcoin is small enough for this to not be a huge issue, but
one day that may change (maybe we hope!).

So my idea is to voluntarily pre empt legislation by giving donations to
govt (aka taxation) for bitcoin service providers.

However, there is something of a problem with voluntary donations.  Most
people are not satisfied with the way they are spent.  In the UK a recent
survey said that only 18% of people thought that tax money was wisely
spent.  This is bad for govt., bad for people, and bad for the trusted
relationship.

Can we fix it?  Maybe we smart contract and voluntary donations it's
possible!

So let's say I run a business and I make 1 million euros.  I wish to donate
10% of my profits to society.  But let's say I dont want that money to go
to wars of aggression, but rather, to the fire de[department.

So we set up a smart contract that is only cashable if the money goes to
the right place (verified by an oracle).

At this point everyone wins.  The business person is happy to make a
contribution.  The govt. is happy that it gets more revenue.  The fire
dept. is happy that it has revenue to do its work.  And everything has gone
to the right place in a kind of democratic way.

Over time if it takes off, this could provide revenue for many essential
services that are needed by people, in a way that allows more democratic
freedom of choice.

So my question is whether it may be possible to use smart contracts to
achieve a better democracy that is good for people, good for govt, and good
for innovation?  My hope is that the answer is ...

Yes We Can

:)
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