Daily Archives: February 5, 2022

In May 2021, Joshua and Jessica Jarret requested the IRS a refund of $3,293 of income tax paid in 2019.

The couple filed a legal complaint with the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.

They obtained 8,876 Tezos tokens through staking, and they claimed to the court that any tokens gained through proof-of-stake should be considered "new property" created by the taxpayer.

The Jarrets argued the Tozen tokens obtained should not be taxed until sold or exchanged.

IRS has offered to refund the couple's taxes paid on rewards gained trading Tezos.

The precedent opens the debate in defining and taxing cryptocurrency assets.

The IRS form 1040 verifies if taxpayers "received, sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of any financial interest in any virtual currency during the last year."

The IRS is trying to move on to cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, there's still confusion about terms and how they can tax them.

Previously, the IRS defined virtual currency transactions as one that included the "receipt of new virtual currency as a result of mining and staking activities."

The IRS definition goes against the recent case in which they offered a settlement.

Cryptocurrency holders have plenty of doubts about the new IRS policy and how it would affect their earnings.

It is unclear if the IRS plans to update their official guidance regarding cryptocurrency. Nevertheless, crypto owners could start a new positive movement.

According to Crypto & Blockchain journalist Kamran Rosen, "sources close to the matter say the couple (Joshua and Jessica Jarret) plans to pursue the case further in court to obtain longer-term protection. This would undoubtedly set a national precedent for the growing taking industry, currently estimated to be around $18B."

"With half of all Bitcoin owners filing taxes on their crypto for the first time this year, the decision is likely to be one of the most closely watched of the 2021 tax filing season," Rosen published.

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Cryptocurrency news: IRS announces it won't tax crypto, but only in these cases - Marca English

As cryptocurrency can help investors broaden their portfolios and diversify their finances, it can also help investors contribute to a wider range of organizations, charities and causesresulting in a more engaged and more impactful type of giving.

Published on February 3, 2022

Philanthropy is going crypto. The global conversation about money was shaken when cryptocurrency entered the scene. More investors are adding cryptocurrency to their portfolios, and its time to consider how cryptocurrency can support and sustain other elements of financial managementnot just buying or selling. Cryptocurrency gives consumers greater autonomy, and therefore, control when it comes to their money. Its nature as a fully digital currency makes it easier to send money, and it provides a greater sense of privacy for the buyer.

As cryptocurrency can help investors broaden their portfolios and diversify their finances, it can also help investors contribute to a wider range of organizations, charities and causesresulting in a more engaged and more impactful type of giving.

Cryptocurrency investors already have a generous spirit, but many are surprised to hear this because of the stigma surrounding cryptocurrency usage. According to Fidelity Charitable, 45 percent of cryptocurrency investors donated $1,000 or more to charities in 2020. By contrast, only 33 percent of their peers in the overall global investor population have given that much.

Thanks to the control and flexibility that cryptocurrency offers its users, generosity can become a regular part of money management. The primary way that cryptocurrency will transform philanthropy is by making it an automated experience that gives the consumer full control over how the funds are managed.

There is a real opportunity to tie the wealth creation possibilities of cryptocurrency with a mission to positively impact the world. Its time for cryptocurrency users and companies to understand that decentralized finance is about more than wealth creation. It can also be about generosity, philanthropy, and contributing to the greater good.

Forging a new path for philanthropy in the digital age requires the right technological tools. At Sandclock, we believe that bridging the gap between blockchain as a technological invention and blockchain as a method for philanthropy will require ultra-programmable money. Before cryptocurrency can become a vehicle for philanthropy, it must leverage yield generation strategies that split yield from principal. It is through this process that users achieve high rates of return that compound their yield and create micro-endowments.

Blockchain-based money markets like Aave, Curve, Yearn and Compound have grown exponentially in recent years. According to DeFi Pulse, over $100 billion is currently locked in various decentralized finance protocols. Various protocols offer yields on stable coins ranging from a modest 5 percent to 20 percent in most cases, with substantially higher APYs in newer blockchains like Solana, Terra and Avalanche.

But the key to making it work is a set of advanced algorithms that interact with various money markets on various blockchains. This allows users to generate yield on deposits and empowers them to use the platform as a blank canvas to create infinite strategies, allocating their principal and yield as they see fit.

Users can choose for their principal or yield to auto-compound, while the rest can be used to donate. Consumers can invest into dollar-cost average vaults that will buy crypto based on a predefined schedule, create DAOs that provide exit liquidity to NFT floor undercutters and give funders fractional ownership of the bought pieces or establish perpetual endowments that support global refugees through prepaid cards.

Cryptocurrency investors know this: The decentralized finance world hasnt been sufficiently battle-tested yet. Innovators and regulators are both still figuring out how to protect the investment community and leverage the benefits of cryptocurrency at the same time, moving forward in innovative ways without neglecting the potential issues of the technology.

The good news is that platforms like Sandclock are working toward compliance goals so that more users can adopt cryptocurrency as part of their investment portfolios. Sandclock is also one of the first to pursue SOC-1 and SOC-2 certification and work with well-established insurance providers to protect users funds in case of an unexpected loss, only furthering the stability of the investment.

As cryptocurrency companies and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols continue to grow, so will generosity among their users.

Connecting with users desires to leverage cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech for wealth creation while also catering to their human drive to support global causes will be the key differentiating factor for generosity-based cryptocurrency in terms of adoption and growth.

Alexander Hughes is the chief legal and compliance officer at Sandclock.

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How Cryptocurrency Will Change the Way We Give - Worth

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has made his contempt for cryptocurrency clear, calling it worthless during the great crypto boom in October 2021. But now, he says, he has stopped even calling them currencies.

Currencies have rules of law behind them, central banks and tax authorities, Dimon said in an interview with the Greek news outlet Ekathimerini. I call them crypto-tokens.

Strictly speaking, Dimon is only partly correct. In economic theory, the kind of currency he meansbacked by governments and their agenciesis often called fiat money. But before there was fiat money, there was currency as a broadly agreed medium of exchange: Cowrie shells, for instance, were once used as currency so widely across India, China, and Africa that the modern Ghanaian currency, the cedi, comes from the local word for cowrie shell.

Currencies dont necessarily need to be backed by central banks to function as a medium of exchange; in fact, the champions of crypto say that the value of cryptocurrency lies precisely in that lack of centralized control.

Where Dimon has a point, though, is in the other two functions of currencies: to facilitate exchange for goods and services, and to store value. Bitcoin may buy you a coffee in El Salvador, and ethereum may buy you an NFT listing on OpenSea, but such use cases are still rare. The main thing crypto can be exchanged for is fiat currency.

And while cryptocurrencies do store value, they do it less reliably than the dollar or other fiat currencies. The price of bitcoin fell 46% between November 2021 and January 2022. If a fiat currency was ever that volatile, its users would be in severe trouble.

To that end, Dimon also claimed he didnt understand crypto assets and suggested other people dont either: Youve seen that, in the last couple of months, they have lost half their value in the US market, he added.

When Dimon calls cryptocurrencies tokens, he is casting them as specific kinds of tradable or fungible assets with limited utility. Crypto-enthusiasts think of tokens as a subset of all cryptocurrency. Dimon is telling them that cryptocurrency is already much narrower and more limited than theyd like to believe.

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Jamie Dimon is no longer using the word "cryptocurrency" - Quartz

Cryptocurrencies, generally, have been a spectacular asset class to own throughout the years. But Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), in particular, is in a league of its own. The smart-contract blockchain's native coin ETH has skyrocketed more than 24,000% over the past five years. This type of return was certainly life changing for the lucky ones who were prescient and bold enough to have gotten in at that time.

However, cryptocurrencies are still a nascent and evolving technology. And there are now more than 17,000 different tokens investors can choose from, providing plenty of opportunity to find the next big winner.

If you missed out on Ethereum, you'll want to seriously consider Cardano (CRYPTO:ADA). It has the potential for outsized returns in the years ahead.

Image source: Getty Images.

Cardano was launched in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson, giving it a tremendous amount of credibility. The blockchain is named after Gerolamo Cardano, an Italian polymath, and its native token ADA is named after Ada Lovelace, who's known as the world's first computer scientist. ADA can be used to pay transaction fees on the network, to stake in order to earn rewards, and for governance in the future.

Like Ethereum, Cardano is a blockchain that enables the use of smart contracts, or self-executed computer programs, that run if certain conditions have been met. They eliminate the need for middlemen, leading to the possibility for major disruption.

Smart contracts allow for decentralized applications (dApps) to run on top of Cardano's blockchain.This functionality differs from Bitcoin, which was created to simply be a global, electronic cash system.

As of the evening of Monday, Jan. 31, Cardano's market cap was $35 billion, making it the world's sixth most valuable cryptocurrency.

Cardano operates somethingcalled Ouroboros, claiming to be the "first provably secure proof-of-stake protocol." This validation process, requiring ADA holders to stake their coins in order to approve transactions, is much more energy-efficient than proof-of-work. Also, Cardano can currently process about 250 transactions per second (TPS), far greater than the 30 TPS that Ethereum can do.

When it comes to the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies, there's a pressing problem known as the "blockchain trilemma." In the industry's young history, it has been extremely difficult for individual blockchains to achieve decentralization, security, and scalability at the same time. Bitcoin and Ethereum face the scalability issue right now, although solutions are in the works.

Cardano, in an attempt to ensure it can overcome the "blockchain trilemma," deploys a peer-reviewed development roadmap. This strategy no doubt takes longer, but it helps to minimize mistakes. The network is currently in the process of implementing its last two phases (out of five total).

The fourth phase, the Basho phase, is for scalability, with a plan to add multiple side chains to expand Cardano's capacity. If added successfully, Cardano will theoretically be able to process 1 million TPS, greatly increasing its potential for use in dApps, including those for decentralized finance protocols.

The fifth and final phase, the Voltaire phase, is for governance, a process needed to make the blockchain fully self-sustaining. This will introduce a voting and treasury system, allowing participants to have a say in Cardano's future development.

The ultimate viability of cryptocurrencies hinges on there being real-world use cases. So far, Cardano shows promise in this regard. It's already being utilized in various sectors. Credential verification in academia, supply-chain tracking in agriculture, and client onboarding in financial services are some examples.

In the world of dApps, Cardano is shaping up to be a top blockchain if it can execute on its growth strategy. The recent launch of SundaeSwap, a decentralized exchange, demonstrates Cardano's potential.

Cardano is attempting to improve upon Ethereum's weaknesses. And it all comes back to the focus of its developers to solve for speed and scalability, both of which are essential in order to grow the network's utility -- and most importantly for investors, its value.

Don't be discouraged if you missed out on Ethereum's monster price appreciation over the years. Cryptocurrencies are a young, undeveloped, and unproven asset class, so there's still a huge opportunity to attain outstanding returns if you know where to look. Cardano is a promising blockchain that's gaining substantial traction, and it makes for a solid crypto investment today.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Missed Out on Ethereum? Buy This Cryptocurrency Now - Motley Fool

Many college students are turning to buying and selling cryptocurrencies to help cushion their finances while balancing unstable part-time jobs and limited work hours as full-time students.

I would 100% recommend crypto investing, business major Matias Gonzalez said. Its the perfect form of investing for college students. I initially decided to invest because I saw that it was an opportunity in which I could put in very little but gain a lot.

Gonzalez was introduced to Dogecoin by a friend who told him Elon Musk had begun tweeting about how Dogecoin was the future. His tweets led to many people investing in it and later seeing it surge past 0.70 cents in May 2021.

There are many methods for getting a good return on cryptocurrency investments. Some try to get in early and buy as low as they can. Gonzalez initially bought several Dogecoin at about .05 cents a coin and since then has seen a 400% return on his investments. He thought about selling, but said its safer to leave it until its worth much more.

Others, like recent BYU graduate Branden Foley, like to watch what cryptocurrencies are trending. As soon as they start making a quick jump in value, they sell them at their peak to try to avoid ever being at a loss.

I doubled my money with Shiba, but I made sure to get out a week ago. Then I got a bunch of Loopring and made a ton of money too, Foley said. I mostly read articles that make sense and that I like. I dont make decisions based on what people on Reddit say because a lot of times its just crazy people on there.

Sebastian Barrera studies digital marketing at Ensign College and he likes to find online articles on what cryptocurrencies celebrities are investing in.

Theres a lot of celebrities out there that are big fans and investors of cryptocurrency, Barrera said. Tom Brady has made it clear that he completely believes in Bitcoin, and Mark Cuban has even said that Dogecoin is one of the strongest cryptocurrencies.

According to BYU economics professor Christian vom Lehn, the future of cryptocurrency still remains uncertain.

Many approach cryptocurrency with two differentideas, that it is the future of currency or that it is a great investment opportunity, vom Lehn said. In the long run, those are at odds with each other.

Vom Lehn said if cryptocurrency is to remain valuable in the long run, the value of currency will not change much.

The investment opportunity in cryptos lies in making a bet that these assets will become a big part of the future of money and currency and transactions, vom Lehn said. Based on what weve seen so far, that bet feels very risky to me.

There are still many unanswered questions as to how one can know what specific cryptocurrency to invest in. Regardless, some students have found even if they dont have much money they can still afford to invest a little.

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Some college students say cryptocurrency is the future - The Daily Universe - Universe.byu.edu

With differing degrees of utility, adoption, and promise, the market of cryptocurrencies has managed to garner attention

Cryptocurrencies are trending worldwide. It seems like ages when only a select range of investors was keen on investing in crypto. In present times, there is hardly any person remaining who hasnt thought about investing in cryptocurrency. With differing degrees of utility, adoption, and promise, the cryptocurrency market has managed to garner attention from every corner of the globe. The attention and popularity that the digital currencies enjoy have surely made investors decipher as to which are the best cryptocurrencies to invest in. On that note, here is the list of the top 10 cryptocurrencies gainers to buy and hold throughout 2022.

Avalanche, along with Solana, is another example of a crypto that has a clear purpose, as opposed to meme coins like Dogecoin, which have no purpose at all. Avalanche is one of the many projects seeking to unseat Ethereum, as one of the most widely used blockchain platforms, according to the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. A US$220 million fund was just launched to fund the development of Avalanche, which boasts of much faster transactions than Ethereum (4,500 transactions per second versus Ethereums roughly 13 per second).

As the oldest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is continuously keeping its place as the first cryptocurrency with the best growth potential in 2022. Financial institutes as well as other industries have started accepting payments in Bitcoin through crypto-wallets.

Ethereum has launched Ethereum 2.0 to be the fastest-growing cryptocurrency in the volatile cryptocurrency market. Ethereum 2.0 is here to solve the remaining problems and concerns of Ethereum to win against multiple competitors and attract crypto investors towards crypto wallets.

Binance Coin is maintaining its position as one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies in crypto wallets owing to its world-famous Binance Exchange platform. It helps to establish a competitive peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading business since its launch in 2019. It is gaining popularity for its zero trading fees, multiple payment methods, and escrow service protection.

Unlike some other forms of cryptocurrency, Tether is a stablecoin, meaning its backed by fiat currencies like U.S. dollars and the Euro and hypothetically keeps a value equal to one of those denominations. In theory, this means Tethers value is supposed to be more consistent than other cryptocurrencies, and its favored by investors who are wary of the extreme volatility of other coins.

LUNA tokens are used for staking and mining stablecoins by burning, depending on the current rate of the cryptocurrency. Terra uses seigniorage which provides flexibility thanks to algorithms. Stablecoins in Terra are not backed by anything and are produced only when the equivalent amount of LUNA is burnt. This allows not only creating stablecoins, but also hedging assets. For example, if the LUNA rate grows by 50% against the dollar, then 1.5 times more TerraUSD coins will be issued. Likewise, if the LUNA rate drops by 25%, then you can redeem more coins for UST.

Fetch.ai is a decentralized machine learning platform for applications like asset trading, according to CoinBase. For example, one of Fetch.ais applications helps users of the crypto exchange Uniswap automate their trading. FET is an Ethereum-based token that powers Fetch.ai. Its gained more than 1,500% in the last year. Fetch.AI is using its technology to back real-world applications, says Ahmed Shabana, managing partner for Parkpine Capital.

XRP is one of the shiniest tokens sitting at the top of the altcoin pyramid and has shown an increase of 377% all around the year. Even though it is one of the few tokens that has seen massive growth rates, investors have high hopes for this cryptos future.

Cardano is an Ouroboros proof-of-stake cryptocurrency that was created with a research-based approach by mathematicians, engineers, and cryptography experts. It is one of the top cryptocurrencies that aims to be the worlds financial operating system by establishing Defi products similar to ETH as well as providing solutions for chain interoperability, legal contract tracing, and voter fraud.

Solana is one of the cryptocurrencies with the best growth potential in 2022. Solana is known as one of the competitors of Ethereum with the capability of processing over 50,000 transactions per second. It is also known for offering smart contracts to crypto wallets.

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Top 10 Cryptocurrency Gainers to Buy and Hold Throughout 2022 - Analytics Insight

If you use TurboTax to file taxes, you now have the option to deposit your refund directly to a Coinbase account. The money can either be deposited in USD or be sent to your account already converted to any of the 100 types of cryptocurrency available. Coinbase says the choices include stablecoins that are pegged to a real currency and fluctuate much less than typical crypto coins. You won't be charged with any trading fees if you choose to get your refund in crypto, but you'll still be able to immediately convert your money into the cryptocurrency of your choice if you opt to get it in USD first.

To be able to take advantage of the companies' partnership, you'd have to file from the Coinbase section of the TurboTax website. All TurboTax customers can file from the page, even those using the free option for simple tax returns that only need a W-2. It does have a maximum deposit amount of $25,000 per day, but that probably won't be a problem for most people.

TurboTax will help you set up a Coinbase account if you don't have one yet, and you'll have to follow the steps you see afterwards to be able to deposit your refund to the exchange's "MetaBank." The exchange said in its blog post:

"Coinbase is committed to giving everyone instant and easy access to the cryptoeconomy... We'll continue to enable new use cases that allow customers to transition more of their financial lives to the cryptoeconomy."

Coinbase has launched quite a few ways to make cryptocurrency more available over the past year, including opening up a feature that lets you deposit paychecks to its system and another that lets you link it to your PayPal account.

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(KLAS) Young adults on social media are increasingly becoming the targets of hackers and federal data shows crypto-currency scams have skyrocketed. But there are some simple things to do to protect yourself.

Mary Peplin said she thought she was messaging a friend from high school on Instagram. She shared her phone number and clicked on a link but it turned out to be a scam. I started getting messages and phone calls from friends and family asking me, hey mary, are you on your on your instagram right now asking me for money?' Peplin said. I think I had a panic attack. I was mortified. I was crying. I was upset. I did not know what to do.

Crypto-currency scams have skyrocketed during the pandemic. The federal trade commission estimates that since october 2020, people ages 20-49 were five times more likely to lose money in these online investment scams. You want to trust your gut, Consumer Reports technology writer Thomas Germain said. If you have a bad feeling about someone youre talking to on the internet, you want to listen to those instincts.

Germain says other steps you can take include: not responding if its someone you dont know, check before you click on a link, and limit Venmo or cash app payments to friends only.

Peplin said she wants Instagram to do more to protect users like her. Instagram provided a statement that reads in part, We have sophisticated measures in place to stop bad actors in their tracks before they gain access to accounts, as well as measures to help people recover their accounts we know we can do more here, and were working hard in both these areas to stop bad actors before they cause harm.

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No one knows how long cryptocurrency's current slump will last. But the industry's long-term prospects look promising, with geopolitical uncertainty on the rise and inflation eroding the value of fiat currencies. Investors looking to get into crypto should bet on those tokens with the best chance of outperforming when the market recovers.

Metaverse tokenThe Sandbox(CRYPTO:SAND) fits the bill -- and it's my top cryptocurrency to buy in February.

While the concept is far from fully developed, the metaverse could be defined as a vast array of interconnected virtual worlds that continue existing and operating regardless of who is or is not accessing them. Some will likely be best experienced via virtual- or augmented-reality gear, but that won't necessarily be required.

Analysts at Emergen Research expect that as more companies invest in this exciting new medium, the metaverse market opportunity will expand at a compound annual rate of 43.3% through 2028 to $829 billion.

Image source: Getty Images

There are two main reasons blockchain platforms are well-suited to metaverse development. First, their native tokens (the units used to pay fees and make transactions on specific networks) can double as in-application virtual currencies. Second, non-fungible-tokens (NFTs), which are unique assets that can't be replicated, serve as digital proofs of ownership. Together, these technologies can form the backbone of a decentralized virtual economy.

The Sandbox is fully committed to this opportunity. According to its white paper, it aims to create interconnected virtual worlds where users can "build, own and monetize gaming experiences" -- a similar business model to that of publicly traded video game platform operator Roblox.

The Sandbox's content ecosystem is made up of three synergistic products. First is the Voxel Editor, a 3D-modeling program that allows users to create in-game objects. The second is the online marketplace where users can buy and sell such objects. And third is the Game Maker, a game creation engine that allows users to locate and use their objects within a specific piece of in-game virtual real estate.

According to its official roadmap, the Sandbox began public sales of virtual real estate in 2020. And it boasted 30,000 monthly active users in its beta, according to a Nov. 2 tweet. This quarter, developers plan to open their segment of the metaverse to owners who have built high-quality experiences on their digital real estate.

The Sandbox has also partnered with Warner Music Group to launch a metaverse concert hall designed to host virtual performances.

The Sandbox is not the only blockchain platform getting serious about metaverse development. The developers behind popular meme coin Shiba Inu are working on a project called Shiberse that's expected to launch in 2022 -- although details about it have been scarce.

The Sandbox stands out from the competition because of the impressive progress it has made toward making its metaverse a reality. Its developers also have solid experience in game creation: The Sandbox Franchise of mobile games boasts 50 million installs on iOS and Android devices, so this isn't a fly-by-night operation. Trust and a track record of success are important in the largely unregulated cryptocurrency industry.

With a market cap of $3.4 billion, The Sandbox's valuation has soared roughly 7,000% since its inception in late 2020. And while the platform is not immune from the current cryptocurrency bear market, its experienced development team and unique value proposition (as a decentralize user-generated metaverse game) can help it outperform peers when the industry recovers.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Here's My Top Cryptocurrency to Buy in February - Motley Fool