With the introduction of the tithe³, everyone’s favourite cult drove another foundational piling into the lagoon today.i The tithe³ is hereby requestedii of all Bitcoin merchants, traders, and businesses.
This tribute to the one true sovereign will be made payable to the Bitcoin Foundation and is to be the only tax for those in the WoT.
While businesses in the WoT publish monthly statements, are more transparent in their accounting, and are therefore more readily audited, traders and merchants are trusted to voluntarily report their profits and contribute to La Serenissima in just proportion.iii This is the way tithing in the Latin veiniv has always worked, and so it will continue in the Bitcoin Empire.
Coerced taxation is dead, long live our freedom.
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Title: BITCOIN DECLARATION OF SOVEREIGNITY ; PROPER VENUE FOR ALL FILINGS ; DISPOSITION OF TAXATION
In #bitcoin-assets, November 8th, 2014.
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the human herd, and to assume among the powers of the world the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature entitle them, a modicum of respect to their own intelligence requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident : that no men nor women are created, but born ; that nothing ever is or could be equal to any other thing ; that each man and each woman are sovereign entities and the sole sovereign entities ; that sovereigns and sovereigns alone are entitled to anything they may take for themselves, but nothing more ; that “rights” are a poor substitute of liberties much like railroad tracks are poor substitutes of wings, for on wings one may soar and on his liberty one may soar, but on the railroad tracks of alleged rights one can but trudge ; that things made not born have no liberties, nor are nor can ever become sovereign, but must remain subjected to the will and disposition of those sovereign in the world and limited by their rights as granted by their sovereigns, like slave is limited by his chains and computer programs by their language.
To secure our liberty from the encroachment of virtual entities, devoid of substance, deriving their pretense to power from the pretense of consent, that is in the ideal a shameful subversion of the sacred principles of sovereignty and in fact absent, we find —
That whenever any one or any thing becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that things long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such nonsense, and to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of the Internet ; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to reject the pretense to power of obsolete forms and fictions left over from a time long gone. The history of the present fiat governments of the world is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over us. To prove this, no facts shall be submitted, you may research on your own.
We, therefore, free and independent of any bond or link of loyalty or fealty, in #bitcoin-assets assembled, appealing to no one ; recognising nothing above and the whole world below us, do, in our own name, and by our own authority, solemnly publish and declare, that we are and of right ought to be free and independent ; that we are absolved from all allegiance to any entity, whether it styles itself a “crown” or a “state” or a “government” or however else ; and that all political connection between them and us is wholly imagined, by them ; and that as free and independent we have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which sovereigns may of right do.
For the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred rating.
THEREFORE, it is established that the Web of Trust, the #bitcoin-assets deeds registrar and the channel itself are the proper venue for all filings, of whatever type and to whatever end, to be dealed with according to our laws and customs.
THEREFORE, it is established that any Bitcoin company, or trader or merchant or other entity deriving a worldly profit from the otherworldly workings of Bitcoin, is to pay a tax in sum of 0.1% or a hundred thousand satoshi per full Bitcoin realised, into the coffers of the Bitcoin Foundation ( http://deeds.bitcoin-assets.com/deed/9ULZPc7yeZ9fQEA1aZ73H6mcv1s2C4gYFAbNTb5urovj ) as the sole and complete public contribution that may be required of him ; that such payment satisfies the total burden of taxation upon him, and no further payments may be required, in any form nor for any reason or under any title or pretense, by anyone ; that the satisfaction of this obligation is a moral requirement, and outside of the oppinion of the sovereign people it will not be enforced.
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Deed here. Original deed, signed by author of the above statement, Mircea Popescu, is here.
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- The original, uncubed, term for a contribution to one’s Lord was derived from the Old English teogothian or “tenth.” What La Serenissima has just introduced is a 0.1% tax, or 1/10 x 1/10 x 1/10, or (1/10)³, of all profits realized by those conducting business in Bitcoin.↩
- Isn’t it beautiful that Bitcoin can’t enforce taxation?↩
- While the tithe³ is inherently voluntary, it’s still a tax. As such, weariness is understandable. As most of us grew up as Citizens of Fiat, we’re certainly accustomed to seeing new “temporary” taxes introduced and then connivingly increased over time. This having been said, the Christian Church‘s tithe has stayed at the same 10% for at least the past 1,500 years. That’s some consistency! This isn’t to say that La Serenissima’s tithe³ couldn’t increase at some point in the future, particularly as the scope of the real Bitcoin Foundation increases beyond maintaining source code and patches, but the tax will always remain voluntary, just as it is with the Church.
Choosing to opt out of the tithe³, just as it is with the Church’s tithe, will still be socially challenging. As if the pressure of seeing your fellow church-goers contribute every Sunday weren’t enough, those in the WoT meet in #bitcoin-assets almost all day every day! This is more of a coercion without weapons, which is rather more honourable, wouldn’t you say?↩
- There has never been a concept of tithing in the Greek vein.↩