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A comment on Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, and bytes.

Re:Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, a... by plg on Sunday February 23, 2014 @04:32PM (#7287695)
Ironically, the most cost efficient way of acquiring BTC today may well be to go out into the world and earn dollars (e.g. a job) and then use them to purchase BTC from an exchange.
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Re:Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, a... by wmf on Sunday February 23, 2014 @05:03PM (#7287807)
People forget that this was intended all along. Mining exists to secure Bitcoin; Bitcoin does not exist to serve miners.

Back when people used gold coins very few of them were miners either.

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Re:Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, a... by vertex-four on Sunday February 23, 2014 @08:42PM (#7288654)
No, the most cost efficient is likely to go out into the world and earn BTC (e.g. a job). It's just that it's a bit difficult to find people who have BTC to pay you with at the moment.
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[deleted]
Re:Bitcoin mining the hard way: the algorithms, protocols, a... by vertex-four on Sunday February 23, 2014 @10:36PM (#7288962)
No, it is not, in most countries. As bitcoins are considered a good, it is generally considered barter. A contractor can accept whatever they want in return for their services, and there's specific taxation rules set out for it, at least in the UK.[0]

An employment arrangement, however, might require that a reasonable currency (either the legal tender of the country, or whatever the court decides is reasonable in countries which do not have a legal tender) is offered. Certain laws might allow the employee to opt in to being paid in Bitcoin anyway; BitPay supports this in the US via their Payroll API[1], and I have yet to hear of any legal challenges to it.

[0] http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/special-situations/sampl... [1] https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-payroll-api

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