Ford Motor Company has been awarded a new patent that reimagines intelligent cars and a future motoring experience involving AI and utility tokens. Ford’s license considers that vehicles will not only actively communicate with each other but also use a token currency as a transactional aid to buy passage and preferences.
Back to the Future
The result of this innovation is to hopefully reduce traffic and optimize every driver’s journey. A number of the most prominent motor corporations are also more intelligent vehicles, but with mixed results.
Known as “Vehicle-to-vehicle cooperation to marshal traffic,” the awarded was published on March 26, 2018, by .
Envisioning that inter-vehicle comms can map out and coordinate multiple vehicles’ location and speed, the geo-location blockchain system seeks to at least partly offset “the psychology of human drivers who focus on their individual travel time preferences.”
The “Cooperatively Managed Merge and Pass (CMMP) system” patented allows for monitoring and recording driver behavior, which is then “evaluated in a collective manner by themselves [the cars]” as well as “other participating vehicles.”
In a nutshell, a vehicle entering a location’s traffic grid alerts and negotiates with all other local cars and optimizes travel for all parties. The token application allows drivers to pay for preferential right of way.
The documents also outline the system’s facilitation of messaging and transacting between vehicles. The patent reads as follows:
“The CMMP system operates with individual token-based transactions, where the merchant vehicles and the consumers’ vehicles agree to trade units of cryptocurrency.”
The CMMP tokens are also employed in validating and authorizing transactions following the request of a “consumer vehicle,” the “merchant vehicles” can either choose to occupy lanes geared for slower traffic or facilitate the consumer vehicle’s passing as they see fit.
They also say that the system will allow “particular cooperative vehicles to drive at higher speeds” in traffic lanes that are not as occupied and also to merge with traffic and freely pass as required.
The patent explains that the other vehicles participating in the system (referred to as ‘merchant vehicles’) will “voluntarily occupy slower lanes of traffic to [allow] the consumer vehicle to merge into their lanes and pass as needed.”
Intelligent Cars that Do all the Driving
The potential application of a could include being used as a means of payment at tolls, for licensing, or any vehicle-entry service.
Drivers would even be able to pay more for an extended privilege, compensating other road users for their cooperation.
“In some examples, the time allotted to the request of the consumer vehicle is based on the number of CMMP tokens chosen by the consumer vehicle to be spent at that particular time,” the patent continued.
By way of an example, if a driver of a “consumer” car is running late for a scheduled appointment, they can “request to pass any participating merchant vehicles for a duration of [ten] minutes on a particular road or highway for 60 CMMP tokens, at a rate of [ten] seconds preferential access per token.”
Ford advertised for blockchain expertise during 2017 and, although hitherto not known as a blockchain enthusiast, it is clear that the car giant is at the forefront of developing .
And to stay there, it is employing blockchain technology. As a significant component of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) network, consumers’ cars could soon be taking much of the hassle out of driving.
The post appeared first on .
Although cryptocurrencies have been around for a while now, 2017 saw new mainstream investors buying in and following the run up to $20,000, they’re quickly cashing out. At the same time, there’s a high possibility that many will face some major tax liabilities. However, how tax laws apply to virtual currencies like and is still a grey area that not many can get their heads around.
IRS Wants a Slice in 2018
According to the Internal Revenue Service (), virtual currency transactions are taxable by law. In 2014, the agency issued its first and only guidance on how tax principles apply to crypto transactions.
But Sarah-Jane Morin, an attorney in the tax practice group at Morgan Lewis, that the issue passed in 2014 is considered tax authority. While it isn’t as binding as regulations, it is all they have to go on.
Janna Herron, a tax researcher, and writer at Value Penguin that a lot of people who got into cryptocurrency didn’t even think about the tax implications.
Tax should be paid on cryptocurrencies, as they are considered property, says the . It further adds that all convertible virtual currencies fall under the category of “cryptocurrency.”
While owners of bitcoin may treat it as dollars or cash, the IRS at it similar to a house, stock or bond.
For filing your taxes, information about your digital property would be required. The IRS would need – purchase details of the currency, the amount paid, date of sale, and amount of purchase.
Simply put, if you purchased bitcoin and haven’t sold it, you haven’t realized any gain. If you have sold bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for that matter, in 2017, you will need to report the gains and losses. Here’s how.
Don’t Hide Trades
What you hide will surely take you for a ride. If you think no one knows about your investments if you aren’t reporting your gains to the IRS, you are wrong. If in the future they discover that you owe, you could be slapped with a handful of fines and penalties.
To avoid unnecessary penalties, the best procedure is to report all your gains and losses which show that you don’t intend on avoiding taxes.
Tax evasion attracts steep penalties too: People found guilty of tax evasion in America could be fined up to $250,000, a five-year prison term, or both.
Reporting Is on You
Unlike sales of stocks or bonds, where your brokerage firm or bank sends you a 1099 tax form, almost all or most cryptocurrency transactions don’t. The statement will only be issued if one has realized $20,000 in gains and performed at least 200 operations.
Even , the US cryptocurrency behemoth, releases statements exclusive to “major players.” To avoid getting in trouble, don’t wait for an official statement from the bank or your exchange.
Services that help with filing tax
Initially, it will be tedious to go through receipts, statements, and emails trying to get all your information together.
However, like most things, it will get more comfortable with time to keep detailed records of what you bought and when you bought it. This makes the data very accessible when required.
Intimidated by the list? Don’t be! There are many services and websites out there that help investors and cryptocurrency traders to help calculate their taxes. You could find out your transaction history via and .
The post appeared first on .
