Re:ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview
by pmarreck on Friday February 05, 2016 @11:55PM
(#11046606)
> "illegal" income
I found the problem. I don't think money has an intrinsic morality. It might be the result of (what some may deem) immoral action, but the money itself should not be illegal. There is nothing about "suddenly" having a lot of money which should be automatically illegal or prevented, and people should not have to explain every detail about how they obtained the money they did.
This kind of thinking leads to things like asset forfeiture abuse, where merely having a bunch of money on your person is apparently grounds for confiscation.
You may disagree, but I'm entitled to my opinion.
Re:ZCash (formerly Zerocash/Zerocoin) technology preview
by cyphar on Saturday February 06, 2016 @02:35AM
(#11046924)
"illegal income" means "income that was acquired illegally". And I was specifically referring to money laundering (which in of itself is a fairly emotionally-charged term if you think that money can be "dirty" in a moral sense). I don't see how you could read "illegal income" as "illegal money". And yes, I agree that money doesn't have morality.
> People who want to keep ANY of their income sources private. Also see: Anyone who uses cash.
That's not what money laundering is, I really wish people would stop perpetuating this misinformation. Money laundering is when somebody takes illegal income and "cleans" it by creating fake clients that pay a front business. You obviously have to pay taxes, etc but at the end of the day you have a completely clean cut of your illegal income.
Anonymous payment methods only solve one (very small part) of the money-laundring problem: getting the money to someone who will clean it. After that, you still need to create fake clients and do your tax returns (which require believable income figures). So you're still stuck with trying to convince the IRS (or tax office of your choice) that the money you gained was legitimate.