Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via Bitpay

Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by akerl_ on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:35PM (#18528102)

This plan doesn't cause Ohio to hold any bitcoins in their treasury: they're reconciling them for USD at time-of-payment via BitPay.

And sure, they could support paying in all kinds of things. But Bitcoin has a decent wave of popularity among humans, so they're taking a swing at supporting it, similarly to how a variety of online retailers have. It seems like a weird case to see them add support for a popular method of payment and respond "but why not gold".

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by freedomben on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:40PM (#18528136)

There's also a concern of practicality and pragmatism. Gold can't be sent electronically; USD and BTC can. Liquidity is a pretty strong reason.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by _asummers on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:38PM (#18528122)

The point I was making (though I didn't really say) was not that gold should be used, but that someone can simply convert their own BTC via the normal means to USD and then pay with that, same as you could sell your gold. Why even offer this service? Are there REALLY enough people interested in paying their taxes in BTC that this service is in any way worth providing?

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by freedomben on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:42PM (#18528148)

> someone can simply convert their own BTC via the normal means to USD and then pay with that, same as you could sell your gold

I don't know if you've tried to sell gold, but it's a little bit more involved and difficult than exchanging BTC/USD

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by _asummers on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:47PM (#18528188)

But that's what this service seems to be doing, right? BitPay's raison d'etre seems to be that service exactly.

Edit: misread the parent comment.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by freedomben on Sunday November 25, 2018 @02:03PM (#18528297)

Not sure I understand your question. BitPay exchanges BTC for USD, not Gold for USD. Gold typically requires a physical exchange of goods, and can't be done electronically.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by _asummers on Sunday November 25, 2018 @02:53PM (#18528639)

I originally misread your comment.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by freedomben on Sunday November 25, 2018 @03:00PM (#18528683)

haha cool, no problem. Thanks for the discussion btw :-)

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by tedunangst on Sunday November 25, 2018 @07:12PM (#18529959)

You can also own gold through an ETF or some other vehicle, which is pretty easy to trade.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by dragonwriter on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:40PM (#18528131)

> Why even offer this service?

As stated in the article, it's one of several symbolic gestures being made in an effort to market the state as “tech friendly”.

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Re:Ohio will accept Bitcoin for corporate tax payments via B... by _asummers on Sunday November 25, 2018 @01:46PM (#18528177)

How does this accomplish that though? What tech people are trying to pay their taxes in BTC? The best way to make your state more attractive to tech business is to improve schools and services that actually affect people, not offer bizarre programs like this. I very clearly have priors that I think this is absurd, so maybe I'm just not looking at things charitably. I just don't get who this is for, and I expect it to be underused when it comes tax time.

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