Second Canadian town set to accept tax payments in Bitcoin

It looks like another town in Canada might let its residents pay municipality taxes in cryptocurrency.

The local council of Richmond Hill voted on July 10, 2019 to enter into an agreement with a cryptocurrency payment services provider to let residents of Richmond Hill pay property taxes in Bitcoin, Financial Post reports .

Cryptocurrency payment platform Coinberry is said to be working with the municipality to provide the tech – this marks the firm’s second partnership with a local council.

Earlier this year, Coinberry partnered with the municipality of another Canadian town, Innisfil in Ontario.

“We believe that the demand for a digital currency payment option is only going to grow in the coming years, especially amongst millennials”, said Richmond Hill Deputy Mayor Joe Di Paola in the report.

“Our Council was aware of Coinberry’s successful implementation of a digital currency payment service with the Town of Innisfil , and since there was no cost and no risk to the City of Richmond Hill to do the same, it made the decision that much easier for us.”

At present, the local council is examining the feasibility of the technology required for bringing the Bitcoin tax payments to life. It’ll take a few more months for anything to materialize, though. Municipality staff are to report back at the end of September.

At that point, we’ll know more about how and when Coinberry’s tech will be implemented – assuming it goes ahead.

There’s no real problem paying taxes in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency for that matter. But imagine paying a property tax using a Bitcoin address that you forgot to change. Imagine also that you used that address to pay for some naughty stuff off the dark web. Hey presto, you’ve doxed yourself.

It will be interesting to see how many people take Richmond Hill up on this new payment option. Particularly when companies like Microsoft and Steam have lost interest in supporting Bitcoin as a payment option due to poor uptake.

Justin Sun seeks Andrew Yang’s attention with another cryptocurrency UBI pitch

Justin Sun, the founder of blockchain platform TRON , and current CEO of BitTorrent , is appearing a little desperate for the attention of US Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

Sun reinforced his desire to work with Yang to make Universal Basic Income (UBI) a reality during a livestream on Tuesday , just after promising to reschedule his $4.6 million charity lunch with Warren Buffet “very soon.”

Yang’s plans to establish a UBI were revealed on September 12 , when he announced plans to give away $120,000 through the course of the next year as part of a pilot program for this key policy plan .

One day after Yang’s announcement, Sun seized on the opportunity to latch onto Yang’s popularity by signalling his desire to work with the presidential candidate to help him fulfil his pledge.

The entrepreneur is seemingly looking to position himself as a cryptocurrency luminaire on a mission: becoming the link between the world of digital currencies and institutional investors, but really, it’s seems to be pure marketing based on latching onto UBI hype.

Sun’s relentless self-promotion has surely helped him grow his own profile far beyond the digital currency space (for better or worse), but it’s fast becoming tiring for the rest of us.

Want more Hard Fork? Join us in Amsterdam on October 15-17 to discuss blockchain and cryptocurrency with leading experts.

Facebook’s ‘cryptocurrency’ Libra reportedly facing EU competition probe

Facebook ’ s controversial ‘ cryptocurrency ’ Libra is facing a competition probe by the European Union Commission , according to a document seen by Bloomberg .

The European Union ’s antitrust regulators are “currently investigating potential anti-competitive behavior ” amid concerns Facebook would monopolize the payments realm and unfairly shut out competitors .

Unsurprisingly, regulators are worried about Libra creating “possible competition restrictions” on the customer information that will be exchanged and the use of consumer data .

This investigation follows on from another preliminary probe led by the EU that’s looking at how Facebook could potentially use its power to shut out the competition .

The Libra Association, tasked with overseeing Facebook ‘s digital currency , is described as “an independent, not-for-profit membership organization,” and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland .

As such, Switzerland ‘s privacy regulator, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), is expecting to receive details on Libra by the end of this month, Reuters reports.

It comes after David Marcus, Facebook ’s Libra project lead told US senators earlier this year that he expected the Swiss agency to be the ‘ cryptocurrency ’s’ privacy regulator. But, at that time, the FDPIC had yet to be contacted by Libra ’s organizers.

Back in July, the FDPIC requested additional information from the Libra Association.

In the meantime, a US congressional delegation is expected to visit Switzerland to discuss the upcoming project this week.

Hunter Jones

Hunter Jones

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