Countries are continually trying to attract investors, they offer tax breaks to companies to set up factories or move head offices to their capitals to create jobs and bring in more revenue. They try to attract as much money in and they compete heavily to land the big fish, the whales so to speak. It is getting to the point though that it will be the crypto-rich who will command the attention of the countries. What will they offer?
Currently, tax is an issue for crypto as there are very few clear lines, a lot of grey and wild disparities between percentages. This creates a problem for the authorities as even though they want their piece of the pie, crypto is highly portable and cares very little about borders. This means owners are already starting to make living location choices based on what level they are going to have to pay to authorities. Crypto enthusiasts aren't usually the most willing when it comes to authoritarian laws.
This means that there is going to be a new competition starting where small nations are able to attract large business. Binance for example is already shifting its headquarters to Malta and, there is already many other hodlers thinking similarly. Malts has a population of under 500,000 yet, are likely to hold some extreme levels of wealth in the coming years. This is a facet of the decentralization of cryptocurrencies as people are not bound by where their assets are 'registered' and since there is no physical transport or transfer required, customs can't really stop it at the borders.
I think that these factors are going to cause significant changes in the legislation of multiple as countries don't generally like to lose wealth to other nations. Does this mean that travel laws will be affected and Visas granted or denied based on crypto holdings? Don't know. It is also possible that in time, groups of crypto holders will be buying islands and attempting to become autonomous nation communities to protect their wealth. Already in this world, the rich and famous enjoy perks that others do not but for the most part, they have had to develop, create, sell, employee and pay taxes of some sort along the line. Crypto is a little different.
These things are all so far outside of my area that I can't really predict what is going to happen but, I do think tere are going to be many issues of contention as the maximiser crypto folk go head to head with the maximiser government authorities. It isn't going to all be smooth sailing in this area and there are likely going to be concessions on both sides as a new economy that operates quite differently to past forms is brought into the global fold. Whenever wealth accumulates, there are going to be many hands attempting to make a grab.
What do you think about things now and in the future?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
The photos are from Cairns in Australia, and the first one is from the local beach I lived beside.