PAW Presentation, Paul Hager, CEO & Owner of Information Technology Professionals

1. BitCoin: The Legal
Consequences of
Untraceable Currency
Paul Hager, CEO
Information Technology
Professionals

2. Start with a Word Definition

3. The Name You Know

4. Crypto Currencies
are actually just an
example of a new
technology called
Blockchain
Let’s Step Back

5. Blockchain Explained

6. How Bitcoin Using Block Chain Works

8. Answer: We Don’t Know
"Satoshi Nakamoto" is
presumed to be a pseudonym
for the person or people who
designed the original bitcoin
protocol in 2008 and launched
the network in 2009.
Who Invented This?

9. Crypto Currencies
Property Tracking (Diamonds, Houses and more)
Contracts
Voting Records
Identity Management
Other Uses of Blockchain

10. Your Next Contract Could be
Done by a Machine

11. 100 Billion in US value in Bitcoin
28 Billion in US value in Ethereum
45 Billion in the rest
Great News?
New Technology New Challenges

12. Since traditional electronic payments are easy to trace,
transactions on the Silk Road were made exclusively
with Bitcoin. As a result, some Bitcoin proponents worry
the Silk Road trial might bolster efforts to regulate —
and perhaps even ban — the emerging cryptocurrency.
“This case represents the first challenge to the
government’s attempt to expand the money laundering
statute to include digital currency,” noted New York
criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield.
New Technology New Challenges

13. Should I Own Cryptocurrencies?

14. Trading cryptocurrencies produces capital gains or losses, with the latter being able to offset gains and reduce tax.
Exchanging one token for another — for example, using Ethereum to purchase an altcoin — creates a taxable event. The
token is treated as being sold, thus generating capital gains or losses.
Receiving payments in crypto in exchange for products or services or as salary is treated as ordinary income at the fair
market value of the coin at the time of receipt.
Spending crypto is a tax event and may generate capital gains or losses, which can be short-term or long-term. For
example, say you bought one coin for $100. If that coin was then worth $200 and you bought a $200 gift card, there is a
$100 taxable gain. Depending on the holding period, it could be a short- or long-term capital gain subject to different rates.
Converting a cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars or another currency at a gain is a taxable event, as it is treated as being sold,
thus generating capital gains.
Air drops are considered ordinary income on the day of the air drop. That value will become the basis of the coin. When it's
sold, exchanged, etc., there will be a capital gain.
Mining coins is considered ordinary income equal to the fair market value of the coin the day it was successfully mined.
Initial coin offerings do not fall under the IRS's tax-free treatment for raising capital. Thus, they produce ordinary income to
individuals and businesses alike.
2018 Tax Code Changes on Bitcoin
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/everything-you-need-to-know-about-bitcoin-and-your-taxes.html

15. Cryptocurrency:
Be careful about the expansion approximately 1,600+ Bitcoin
variants today
Make your own! https://forkgen.tech/
Concerned about the widespread illegal use
Blockchain the technology
Has huge upside to secure identities and transactions that
don’t need speed
It takes 16 minutes to confirm a transaction vs VISA
processes 100k transactions per second. So this technology
is not meant for use everywhere.
Look for emerging companies solving real problems
What Does it All Mean?

16. Digital Contracts “Smart Contracts” are already happening
A contract can be created via OpenLaw. Once the agreement is
signed, a cryptographic hash of the agreement will be created and
recorded to the Ethereum blockchain. In other words, using
OpenLaw, any Ethereum smart contract can be embedded into a
legal agreement in a few lines and automatically triggered once the
agreement is digitally signed by all parties. - https://openlaw.io
What Does it Mean for Lawyers?

17. Intellectual Property Protection
Think DCMA expanded
Property Rights and Impact on Ledgers like register of
deeds etc.
Notaries
https://blocknotary.com/
What Does it Mean for Lawyers?

18. UW Madison Block Chain Group
https://badgerblockchain.club/index.html
Learn More

19. Thank You
Paul Hager
phager@itprosusa.com
SLIDES: www.itprosusa.com/bitcoin
www.itprosusa.com
blog.itprosusa.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhagerfuturist/