Illinois Considering Cryptocurrency for Tax Payments

A very interesting article I came across by Stan Higgins of Coindesk.com claims that legislators in Illinois have proposed a bill to accept tax payments using cryptocurrency. The state won't hold onto the cryptocurrency, rather it will convert it into USD within a day. The original article can be found here.

Bill 5335 states: "Amends the Department of Revenue Law of the Civil Administrative Code of Illinois. Provides that, in addition to any other method of payment provided for by law, the Department shall accept payment for any tax imposed by the State and administered by the Department by cryptocurrency. Provides that the Department shall convert such payments to United States dollars at the prevailing rate within 24 hours after receipt of the payment and shall credit the taxpayer's account with the converted dollar amount."

It will be interesting to see this develop and if it will pass in Illinois. Many bills come up for a vote and many never get passed. If this bill passes, it shows how cryptocurrency adoption is becoming more widespread and trusted. It can be a huge step for blockchain technology.

One issue I see with this bill is due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency can fluctuate significantly in 24 hours. If the government takes 24 hours to convert the crypto into USD the amount paid by the taxpayer can vary.  If the tax payer is trying to pay a specific amount, it can not be done so reliably using crypto. This can be avoided if the government credits the taxpayer the amount the crypto was worth at the time the taxpayer sent it. That way, the taxpayer would know exactly how much they would be paying rather than hoping the market doesn't crash in 24 hours.  

The original bill can be found here.


While you're here, check out this awesome Bitcoin mug:

https://www.cafepress.com/cryptoexpress.239690774

VEN Prediction

Disclaimer: I am currently invested in VEN for the long run.

Ven has been one of my favorite projects in the cryptocurrency space since I started researching it in December 2017.  It is a relatively new cryptocurrency and still has much to prove.  However, I see huge potential in this project.

Currently (03.04.2018) the price is hovering in the $4-$5 range.  This is well below the all time high of around $9.

Current Chart:

As we can see, it is currently in a downtrend. It is always hard to predict short term movements in the market.  However, I believe in the long term, Vechain will be priced much higher in the future.

Many companies are starting to adopt Vechain. Recently, BMW and Vechain officially announced a partnership. A large reason why the price of VEN is not higher is because the Vechain Enterprise Investor Pool is currently selling VEN directly to their partners.  This artificially suppresses the price of VEN because it is not being bought on the open market. VEN tokens will only be available on the open market once the Vechain Enterprise Investor Pool sells their remaining VEN.

I believe this would lead to a significant increase in the price of each VEN token. I also believe this could take some time and may not happen until 2019.  For this reason, I am holding VEN for the long term.

Remember to invest responsibly and only invest what you can afford to lose.  Nothing is certain so only invest after you have done sufficient research into what you are buying and understand the risks involved.

Here is a link that shows some of Vechain's accomplishments: https://steemit.com/minnowsupportproject/@shaheerbari/vechain-potential

Let's Talk About Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee has been playing a huge part in the cryptocurrency field for quite some time now.  He has a host of accomplishments and is generally well respected in the crypto community.

Charlie Lee is a former software engineer at Google and former director of engineering at the popular digital currency exchange Coinbase.

Most importantly, however, is Charlie Lee's success in creating the popular cryptocurrency known as Litecoin.

Litcoin is currently priced in the low $200 range with a market cap of $11.5 Billion and is the 5th largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap.  Litecoin is also one of the oldest cryptocurrencies. It was released in 2011 when the cryptocurrency community was relatively small.

Obviously, Charlie Lee has done a lot to further the adoption of cryptocurrency.  However, he is not without scrutiny.

Charlie Lee sold all of his holdings in Litecoin this past December.  He also sold a portion while it was reaching all time high price levels of around $350 per coin.  Here is Lee explaining when he sold:

Charlie Lee has often been accused of manipulating the price of Litecoin through his tweets and public appearances. Furthermore, a lot of investors lost trust in the Litecoin project when the founder of the coin sold all of his stake. Not to long after Charlie Lee announced that he sold all of his coins, Litecoin lost half its value.

Lee also claimed that after he sold, he donated all of the profit to charity.  This is hard to verify, but if true, is very commendable of Lee.

All in all, I believe Charlie to be a positive force within the cryptocurrency community.  I hope he does not stray away too far from the Litecoin project or crypto community.

Here is a link directly to Lee's announcement on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/7kzw6q/litecoin_price_tweets_and_conflict_of_interest/

Here is a brief bio on Charlie Lee: https://medium.com/the-mission/brief-bio-on-charlie-lee-the-litecoin-creator-bb9e8df7e8fb

The Mind of a Crypto Enthusiast

As I've mentioned before in my About Me page, I was first introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general by my brother a few years ago. He has been involved in the space for much longer than I have.

I wanted to share some of his insights with the readers here at World of Crypto.

I asked him a few general and some specific questions and the knowledge he shared is valuable.

The first question: "What are some things that people commonly overlook when thinking about starting a crypto mining rig?"

Response: "A lot of people don't account or understand how power hungry and demanding these rigs really are, and the heat that they produce. Like right now your rig is consuming 12 AMPS on a 15 AMP line, and that's after a 30% reduction in tweaking the voltage on the cards."

The heat is something I can personally attest to.  A mining rig WILL heat up what ever room it is in. It is best to put it somewhere remote if you have the space for it. Definitely do not put it somewhere you will be spending a lot of time in. The heat will make it unenjoyable.

Second Question: "What are you holding?"

Response: "I have Bitcoin, Ethereum, Vechain, Stellar, and Nano. I want to add Litecoin to my portfolio really bad, and NEO. I'm just waiting to get in on a good dip but it (NEO) refuses to stop going up."

Follow up question: "At what price do you think you would buy NEO?"

Response: "I'm willing to be patient. Like if it hits $80 I'm in. I doubt it will though."

Check out this article on NEO: http://bitcoinist.com/why-invest-in-neo/