The saying goes these days that there is this huge social contract each and everyone one of us have a responsibility to pay into. Why? Well... Because roads. and um, stuff. So anyways! We pay a lot in taxes. How many taxes? Well at the local level you are probably familiar with the excise tax and the property tax. These are things you supposedly own and/or lease from the local government. The tax considers the value of said property and doesn't tax you once like a sales tax. Nope they tax you at least once a year just to have the property. Weird right?
These funds usually directly pay for Town employees, Police, Fire and school as well as roads.
There are State taxes. Things like the gas tax, state corporate tax, going out to eat even has a tax. Some states have a sales and income tax. This also pays for state roads, social, programs at the state level etc. I am sure you could just keep adding to this list. So i'll keep this section short. You get the idea.
Then there is the Federal income tax which of course is to pay for things like Congress and their salaries, NSA, CIA, DEA, Department of education. Basically extremely redundant agencies. You know basically all the useless government agencies and their sub agencies that are more of a siphon on the tax payer. Then we have useful things. We do need a military and a way to defend ourselves. Though... Come to think of it. Our foreign policy needs a bit of work. We do need to run some government agencies. Again the list of those is never ending either. But lets get to my point.
What if we used crypto currencies to reduce tax liabilities to help pay for said social contracts? The plan would be that the town/state/federal government set up a wallet and post it on the town website. At this wallet address would be unfunded public works. Those who have a wallet could donate under their name. They simply put there send address and how much they would be donating. They could do so with bitcoin, litecoin, Etherium and donate it into these funds. This in turn would lower the towns financial burdens as it would be a way to get funds through voluntary action. In turn their local taxes on property could be reduced. If enough people participated. The excise tax and property tax could even be eliminated with widespread participation. Local governments having tons of computers that are sitting idle for some of the day or even overnight could have an IT guy, who specializes in mining, set the computers as part of a pool. The local government could then mine the currency themselves to get extra revenues without having to rely on outside donations. This could also also allow for giving the local resident a tax credit. This could work at all levels of government. This idea could be applied across a spectrum of different needs that could actually shrink government and eliminate their need to be involved. It could even be used to setup your own health savings accounts.
If the idea works it would be a way to put the people back in control. You would get to choose where you would place your funds while those who agree with you could help support something like a new school addition. Not having to wait for the public to vote on it. Or if the government is doing something you don't agree with. You don't have to fund it. By doing this, the government would have to compete for your donations of crypto-currencies. Any corruption would cause funds to dry up and make taxes go up. In turn the corrupt government would be very unpopular. This way people can invest in the things they want, while others can invest in what they want. It would not require force and could make governments more responsible and people more involved.