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39 Brook. J. Int'l L. 829 (2014)
Taking a Bit out of Crime: Bitcoin and Cross-Border Tax Evasion

handle is hein.journals/bjil39 and id is 853 raw text is: TAKING A BIT OUT OF CRIME: BITCOIN AND CROSS-BORDER TAX EVASION INTRODUCTION In 2009, a Norwegian man spent roughly 150 kroner to pur- chase 5,000 bitcoins.1 He promptly forgot about the in- vestment, which amounted to around US$27.2 Four years later, he rediscovered his bitcoins, which were then worth over eight hundred thousand dollars.3 Indeed, the value of a bitcoin, which has proven wildly volatile in the years since Satoshi Nakamoto created the program, increased nearly five thousand percent in less than a year.4 From its inception in 2009 to April 2010, the value of one bitcoin never topped US$0.14.5 On Feb- ruary 10, 2011, one bitcoin reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time.6 Following press coverage, including in Forbes magazine and the popular gossip site Gawker,'7 a 1. Samuel Gibbs, Man Buys $27 of Bitcoin, Forgets about Them, Finds They're Now Worth $886k, GUARDIAN (Oct. 29, 2013), http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/29/bitcoin-forgotten- currency-norway-oslo-home. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. Robert W. Wood, Bitcoin's $13.50 To $1,200 Eleven Month Climb Now Taxes, FORBES (Dec. 2, 2013), http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/12/02/bitcoins-13-50-to-1200- eleven-month-climb-now-taxes/; see also Derek A. Dion, I'll Gladly Trade You Two Bits on Tuesday for a Byte Today: Bitcoin, Regulating Fraud in the E- Conomy of Hacker-Cash, U. ILL. J.L. TECH. & POL'Y (Spring 2013); Benjamin Wallace, The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin, WIRED MAG. (Dec. 2011), available at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/11/mf bitcoin/all/1. 5. Wallace, supra note 4. 6. IamTheRealMike, Online-Only Currency BitCoin Reaches Dollar Pari- ty, SLASHDOT (Feb. 10, 2011, 1:59 PM), http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/02/10/189246/online-only-currency-bitcoin- reaches-dollar-parity. 7. Andy Greenberg, Crypto Currency, FORBES (Apr. 20, 2011, 6:00 PM), http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0509/technology-psilocybin-bitcoins-gavin- andresen-crypto-currency.html; Adrian Chen, The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable, GAWKER (June 1, 2011, 1:14 PM),

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