Oddbean new post about login | logout It’s an interesting thought experiment to imagine if your government gave you 30 days to move your cold storage bitcoin to a regulated custodian or risk penalty, and more importantly, never be able to spend it. For those of us with a significant portion of our net worth in cold storage it would be a hard decision. There is a path where you wait it out and hope the laws become more favorable at some point but I can’t say what I’d do in that situation. I’d obviously hate to do it but I’d hate being a lot poorer too.
Complying with such an order will not save you from being a lot poorer. They will take everything so you might as well hodl.
We’re talking millions of dollars. You can honestly say you’d give up millions of dollars and go back to work as a wage slave to survive rather than use a custodian?
Yes
What?! Why not just move to a friendly jurisdiction?
Certainly an option and probably what I would do as I already have options in place. But not practical for some people. Similar to Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the war. Some who saw what was coming stayed anyway because of family ties, responsibility to those around them, businesses, love of country, etc. I’m just trying to say that it’s easy to be ideological but when faced with it, it gets complicated for those who have a lot to lose. Obviously the “right” thing to do is get out, but who and what are you leaving behind. It’s seems mad in hindsight that people don’t flee oppressive regimes but most comply and stay where they are.
Yup
If the govt bans or confiscates via tax as Lyn mentioned it’s basically all out war and game over. Political and education path seems the path of least resistance.