/biz/ - Business and Finance

Also, to answer your last question, I do believe altcoins will separate from Bitcoin, but only because bitcoin can't get its shit together. All cryptocurrencies are pretty much 99% bitcoin code, ergo any coin forked from bitcoin can do exactly the same things as bitcoin, sometimes better. The only real distinction is userbase.. which is actually quite educational when it comes to understanding what 'value' (and its consequent price) in something is. We're currently living in an era of zero-interest gangbusters money-printing; just about all asset prices have been pushed to their limits. It's not so much finding some diamond-in-the-rough, it's more logical deduction and determining where the herd will go next. Think a step ahead of the crowd and you can position yourself appropriately. Consider buying some gold/silver.

Also, I doubt any independent cryptocurrency will ever trump government fiat currencies. Doesn't mean you'll be worse off holding them, quite the opposite, but you should be realistic about how the world runs. If you're valuing bitcoin in dollars, guess who has all the dollars.. it's a struggle.

Best of luck.

>>944

Someone else new to both crypto and taxes here, what is the tax situation like for crypto, both trading and mining?

>>957

depends where you live; in the US, it's classified as property, meaning every time you buy/sell it that transaction is taxable. So keep records of all your trades so you can report exactly how much money you made/lost to the IRS.

The taxes are either short term rate (sold within a year of purchase) or long term rate (held for a longer than a year). You can find a table of current rates here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_gains_tax_in_the_United_States#Regular_and_capital_gains_tax_rates_for_2015.5B5.5D

fun fact: if your income is less than $36k, and you held an asset over a year before selling (long-term rate) you can sell that asset tax free until you hit $36k in aggregate income that year.

nothing too difficult, just make sure you keep records of your trades.

>>957

oh yeah, and mining is classified as income, so whenever you generate coins through mining you must pay income tax on the coins, based on the market price at the time you received those coins.

honestly mining really isn't that worth it unless you have access to cheap/free electricity.

>>959

Thanks, if one were normally below the filing limit would it be necessary to file when mining/trading?

I've mined a few dollars worth of Gridcoin, I get crypto to do something I normally do anyway.

>>960

No, all income you ever make has to be reported to the IRS, regardless how you obtained it. It's illegal to make money without the IRS knowing about it, basically. However yeah there are ways to claim a 0% tax rate if you're poor enough + hold the asset for more than a year, so plan your shit now and you'll be able to keep the maximum of your gainz AND not get thrown in jail for tax evasion, win-win.

honestly a few dollars worth of gridcoin, i doubt they care about that, just keep records in case they ask questions/do a dragnet on everyone involved with cryptocurrency.

>Is there any point in investing in altcoins?

Yes, to borrow from MiB bitcoin is old and busted while some altcoins offer new hotness. Or to word it more /biz/ like bitcoins high marketcap means the devs are very cautious about adding new technology and wait for it to be proven first, by doing this they are insuring bitcoin goes the way of Nokia after they refused to produce smartphones until they were proven.

>WIll they ever actually make money?

I have turned $20 into ~$3000 using a mixture to two techniques. I either find a coin that offers a new technology I think has potential and go long or I look for large acquisitions indicating someone is planning to pump and dump.

>What are the best coins to invest in in order to make said money?

Long ETH but wait for it to fall again before buying, it has seen huge growth recently and is due for a correction.

>What length of time do you expect before sizeable amounts are made?

Depends on the amount of time you are willing to put in, you can go long and wait 6 months to a year or go short and trade the waves after large shifts.

>Will altcoins ever separate themselves from Bitcoin?

Financially many can be traded for fiat without going through BTC.

Psychologically it will be a long time until the public understands it well enough to know there is more than one crypto.

>>957

Here in Rooland no one cares so long as you stay under $2k a month, legally it's treated as stocks.