You know- you make a good point here. The IRS says we have to pay taxes even on barter... which of course also includes Bitcoin. (Although Bitcoin is traceable and the fed has directly come out to ask about Bitcoin and other coin in the IRS filings for yearly taxes.) So, I was thinking about all of this slightly wrongly- it’s not so much about govt. involvement of transactions- it’s more about the ability to weather inflation and devaluation of the US dollar. As of now, it appears Bitcoin may be able to weather those storms- certainly precious metals appears to weather those storms as well (if we ignore JP Morgan’s screwing with the metals market.)

You owe when you use it. While it sits there it's just an investment but if you make any purchase with it you've basically taken out the investment as income. One loophole might be using Bitcoin to buy gold or silver which counts as an investment and in most cases isn't taxable. Since the gold/silver can't be tracked the way Bitcoin is you could spend it and not pay the tax, although I believe you would technically still owe it since you've converted an investment to usable income.

> exists on DARPAnet

> isn't controlled by jews

pick one