All posts made by Stephen Gornick in Bitcointalk.org's Wall Observer thread



1. Post 2154518 (copy this link) (by Stephen Gornick) (scraped on 2020-04-04_Sat_10.58h):
Quote from: Coinseeker on May 15, 2013, 10:48:33 AM
Im not a law expert so grant me that.  But in most developed countries, sending anonymous payments to anonymous users, tax free, and/or using an alternate currency within those borders is absolutely a violation of law.  It is in the US for sure.

FinCEN just provided guidance stating that Bitcoins can be used to pay for purchases from merchants.  

This is irregardless of the merchant remaining anonymous and/or the customer operating anonymously.

So, anonymous payments to anonymous users is most certainly not something FinCEN has indicated that it has any problem with.   Now, of course, if that transaction incurs a tax obligation, simply because it was paid using Bitcoins does not remove any obligations, so taxes would still be do.  But that doesn't make using Bitcoin illegal.

Care to clarify your statement?  


2. Post 2154726 (copy this link) (by Stephen Gornick) (scraped on 2020-04-04_Sat_10.58h):
Quote from: Coinseeker on May 15, 2013, 11:02:01 AM
Keyword being LEGAL tender.

You are misunderstanding the term "legal tender".

Quote
A medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender

So that doesn't mean using anything else to pay is illegal, it simply means I cannot force you to pay in anything other than the medium defined by law as legal tender.   If you and I want to trade using seashells (which are anonymous, and can be traded anymously), that is not using legal tender but it most certainly is not prohibited by law.