Security News > 2023 > January > Decarbonizing Cryptocurrencies through Taxation

As many cryptocurrencies crash and the FTX bankruptcy moves into the litigation stage, regulators are likely to scrutinize the cryptocurrency world more than ever before.

Most ways of taxing cryptocurrencies would be inefficient, because they're easy to circumvent and hard to enforce.

Most important, any state that implements the tax should target all purchases by citizens in its jurisdiction, even if they buy through exchanges with no legal presence in the country.

Because most people buy cryptocurrencies from one of only a few large exchanges-such as Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken-auditing them should be cheap enough that it pays for itself.

Because the value of many cryptocurrencies rely largely on speculation, they are dependent on future buyers.

Taxing environmentally harmful cryptocurrencies can gain support across the political spectrum, from people with varied interests.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2023/01/decarbonizing-cryptocurrencies-through-taxation.html