The social media mogul – Facebook is pushing forward its plans with the blockchain development as the company has now announced a new Blockchain group which will be headed Davis Marcus who is the former head of Messenger at Facebook as well as a board member at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange ‘Coinbase’.
On Tuesday, in a post on his , Marcus said:
After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I have decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge. I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage Blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.
As reported by , Facebook announced a major overhaul in its 15-year history while promoting long-time Facebook executives to tackle new responsibilities like working and exploring the blockchain technology and its solutions, and appointing heads for the existing services like WhatsApp and Messenger.
The publication notes that such a decision from Facebook arrived after its recent exposure to the Cambridge Analytica Scandal wherein data of millions of users was compromised to influence political elections of U.S President Donald Trump. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently classified the company’s operations into three different categories: a “family of apps” group, “central product services” and “new platforms and infra.”
It is however still not clear as to how Facebook plans to implement and deploy the blockchain technology or its related solutions to its platform. One of the most obvious applications could be the encrypted data storage. It is said that the new blockchain group formed under the leadership of David Marcus will comprise less than a dozen employees including James Everingham, vice president of engineering at Instagram, and Kevin Weil, Instagram’s vice president of product.
Earlier this year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had made his intentions clear about and cryptocurrencies as the company has been fighting against the major menace and challenge of fake news being propagated through the Facebook platform. At that time, Zuckerberg said:
My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues. We won’t prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools. If we’re successful this year then we’ll end 2018 on a much better trajectory.”
Earlier this year, the company also banned crypto ads on its platform calling them as a means to “promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” Facebook’s decision of banning crypto ads was followed by other tech giants like joining the bandwagon.
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Today’s edition of bitcoin in Brief showcases the continued rapid pace at which the cryptocurrency revolution is disrupting all segments of the business world, from the adult entertainment industry, to stock exchanges and even social networks.
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Stripper Promotes bitcoin for the Adult Industry
Brenna Sparks, the exotic dancer last featured in the news about a Las Vegas club where , has published a blog post in an adult entertainment industry portal explaining the advantages of cryptocurrency to her colleagues. While she notes it can help with privacy, fixing piracy and other issues, the main advantage is helping people in the business avoid paying almost 50% to middlemen.
Sparks writes: “Every time you perform or make content and distribute it, you’re losing up to half of your earnings to who-knows-what on fees alone…Nothing is more discouraging than to watch yourself give up nearly half of your earnings ‘just because’…Although greed does play a role, what plays an even bigger role is discrimination. The reason this issue exists is because common payment processors like Paypal, Google, Stripe, etc. will not allow you to perform a transaction related to any adult work, and Banks like BofA or Chase will close your account if they suspect you do adult work…Cryptocurrency offers a simple solution – ultra-low fees, no discrimination, and instant transactions anywhere in the world. No bank, company, or government can tell you what you can or cannot use your money on or where you can use it, and no more ultimatums that studios and performers have grown accustomed to.”
Facebook Explores Blockchain
Facebook has formed a new team of top executives to explore the uses for blockchain potentially available for the company to improve its business. This according to multiple sources familiar with the matter cited by Silicon Valley media . The team is headed by David Marcus, the former head of Facebook Messenger until this move. The company did not provide any details about the applications they will be working on, however, Marcus is former president of Paypal and currently seats on the board of Coinbase, so speculating about cryptocurrency-enabled payments via messaging is not totally out of the question.
Kin Forks Stellar
While Facebook is just exploring, other social app developers are already implementing. The Kin Ecosystem Foundation, the governance body for Kin which will be integrated into Kik as the primary transaction currency, has announced that it will build its own blockchain based on Stellar. This while continuing to use ethereum for security and liquidity to token holders. “Most crypto projects to date have been technology-driven first and product-driven second. Kin has always been the opposite,” said Ted Livingston, Founder and CEO of Kin and Kik. “After working heads down alongside the best minds in the industry we came to the conclusion that a hybrid solution of Ethereum and our own fork of Stellar would benefit the Kin Ecosystem, both short and long-term. Our goal is for Kin to be the most used cryptocurrency in the world, and this will help get us there sooner.”
Kik Messenger has over 300 million registered users, and is mostly popular with teenagers. It is known for features preserving users’ anonymity, such as allowing registration without a telephone number. Kin was meant to be an ERC20 token but the developers were frustrated with Ethereum’s performance and . Its ICO last year raised nearly $100 million from more than 10,000 investors from 117 countries.
ICE to Launch bitcoin Platform?
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), the parent company of 23 regulated marketplaces including the New York Stock Exchange, has reportedly been working on an online trading platform that would allow big investors to buy and hodl bitcoin. This according to , citing emails and documents viewed by the newspaper and four people briefed on the effort who asked to remain anonymous because the plans were still confidential. Details of the platform that Intercontinental Exchange is working on have not been finalized and the project could still not come to fruition, however, this news serves as another signal for Wall Street’s strong desire to tap into the bitcoin market.
Sex Scandal Brings Down NY AG
Speaking about New York, the state’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has resigned just hours after the news about a violent sex scandal broke. As you may recall, Coinbase recently the investigation into the operations of bitcoin exchanges launched by the NY AG in sharp contrast to the which took a brave stand against the American regulatory overreach.
The New Yorker magazine reported that four women complained about non-consensual physical violence by the AG. “In the privacy of intimate relationships, I have engaged in role-playing and other consensual sexual activity,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “I have not assaulted anyone. I have never engaged in non-consensual sex, which is a line I would not cross.”
CZ Defends ICOs
ICOs have gotten such a bad reputation recently that many projects today do their best to call their token crowdfunding by any other name. But now Changpeng Zhao , the Binance CEO, has come to the defense of initial coin offerings. The main argument by CZ is that ICOs enable many more projects to get funded than by traditional VC means, thus accelerating the pace of innovation. They also allow entrepreneurs to create solutions instead of wasting time on trying to raise funding in the old ways, and smaller investors can get in on the action that is normally reserved for accredited investors only.
Regarding the issue of fraud, CZ writes: “Scams exist everywhere, in every industry. I still receive phone calls and SMS telling me I won a grand prize, but I need to make a bank transfer to someone first. Does that mean we should stop using phones, SMS, and banks? The same law enforcement dealing with scams in traditional industries still applies in new industries. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel here.” And as for failures, he adds: “Most ICOs are new startup projects, and have a high rate of failure, just like in traditional startups. This is nothing new. Most ICO investors already know this.”
What do you think about today’s news tidbits? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Do you agree with us that bitcoin is the best invention since sliced bread? Thought so. That’s why we are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything bitcoin. We have a. And a. And a, a and real-time.
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Tao Jones Update: Warren Buffet is RIGHT about BTC! But WRONG about BCH!
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Prior to late 2017, very few concrete cryptocurrency mining taxes existed in the United States or the rest of the world. As the values of top cryptos like BTC, ETH, and several others began to rise in late 2017, more cryptocurrency miners became more concerned with the possibility of taxation on crypto assets and for good reason. Government agencies around the world are starting to place more taxes on cryptocurrency mining. If you mine cryptocurrency, here’s what you should know about recent tax regulations. First, we’ll look at the newly-introduced US laws. Then, we’ll look at some cryptocurrency mining taxes from throughout the rest of the world.
US Mining Tax Laws
Even though it might have been possible to legally not pay taxes on crypto mining in the past, anyone making profits off of cryptocurrency mining in 2018 (Tax Year 2019) and beyond will now be subject to taxation. Regardless if you are mining as a small side-hustle/hobby or a full-time business, there are new rules which the US Congress passed in December 2017 that change the way the IRS treats cryptocurrency.
Like-Kind Rule Era Is Over
Before the US Congress put forth a clearer ruling in 2017, the classification category of cryptocurrency assets was up for interpretation according to many tax experts. That’s because many cryptocurrency miners and traders treated cryptocurrency similar to real-estate for tax purposes by citing IRC Section 1031 (a.k.a. ).
Essentially, this ruling meaning that a miner could theoretically trade a mined cryptocurrency for another cryptocurrency without having to pay taxes. Now, however, there are no more tax exemptions. US citizens and anyone with bitcoin mining operations in 2018 will have to pay taxes beginning in 2019.
2 Main Tax Categories
Another important aspect to consider is how you report cryptocurrency mining gains as a source of income. There are currently two options in the US.
The first option is to report earnings from mining as self-employment income and income tax. With this choice, you are able to deduct expenses like mining equipment, electricity bills, and other related expenses. The tricky aspect about this is that if you mine at home, for example, you would need to have a separate electric meter to measure the energy consumed specifically for mining purposes. If you use the same electric meter for other purposes (i.e. heating and cooling), it’s much harder to get IRS approval on a provable business deduction when expenses for work and home are listed on the same bill. The main disadvantage to this option is that, unless you consume a significant amount of electricity, taxes will likely be much higher than the second option.
The second option is to report earnings from mining as “other income”. On the surface, this doesn’t seem like a good option since you won’t be able to deduct taxes on expenses as you can with the first option. However, overall taxes should actually be lower with the second option because you would essentially be listing all earnings under the hobby/secondary income stream category, which has a much lower tax percentage than the first option.
Double Tax?!
There are a couple of things to consider when paying taxes for mining profits as a secondary income stream. , the first taxable event occurs whenever a miner mines a new coin. The IRS considers this to be “income” even if the miner decides to only HODL. From a miner’s perspective, it might be difficult to put a dollar figure equivalent to a mined coin due to the constant price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies. The best way to keep track of value is to write down prices at the time you mined a given coin. However, it’s important to do this in order to be as compliant with tax laws as possible. For miners who HODL mined crypto and don’t cash in for dollars directly away after mining, this brings some uncertainty. What could have been a net profit gain today could very well become a net loss tomorrow.
In addition, whenever you profit off of a trade of any given mined coin, you have to pay a second, separate capital gains tax. It’s important to note that if you mine a given cryptocurrency and immediately convert to US Dollars, it’s not necessary to pay capital gains taxes.
What About Countries Besides the US?
Similar to the US, a lot of other countries have quickly changed their positions towards crypto taxation in wake of cryptocurrency value increases in December 2017/January 2018. Even as prices have gone down, governments appear to be more polarizing than ever before on this issue. Some nations are placing taxes on both traders and miners. Other nations are creating cryptocurrency tax havens. This doesn’t serve as a comprehensive list, but here are a few examples to consider.
***Tax regulations as of April 27, 2018 (Regulations can change quickly, so be sure to conduct your own research.)
Australia- Mining is treated like stock trading; therefore, it is taxed.
Belarus- Crypto tax breaks will officially .
Denmark- In the future, cryptocurrency companies will be taxed. Private individuals won’t be taxed.
Germany- There are no taxes if crypto is held as an asset for greater than one year. After that time, it is possible to convert crypto to Euros or other currency without having to pay capital gains taxes.
Japan- Similar to the US, crypto is possibly subject to income taxes and capital gains taxes.
Singapore- Cryptocurrency isn’t treated as capital gains; however, there is a .
Slovenia- Currently on crypto.
United Kingdom- Here’s a .
This is originally published at CoinCentral.com It is reproduced and shared here with the kind permission of the CoinCentral.com Editorial Team – our partner in your crypto success.
