I know many believe that crypto is the means to escape their control. I just don't get how when one of the main arguments for it is it is a permanent record of every move you make on it. They might not tie one to a wallet this year, next year or 5 years from now. But if they ever do, the consequences could be devastating.

At least where I live the tax guidelines on virtual currencies are worded in such a way as to make it seem plausible that the Steem platform be interpreted as a Massive Online Multiplayer Game in which case any income generated on it would be taxable only upon conversion into fiat, goods or services or other virtual currencies. This is how earnings on any other gaming platforms are treated. I know others who have asked their local tax authorities how Steem income is to be taxed without getting any clear answers. To me, however, it seems plausible that interpreting the Steem platform as a whole as an MMOG - at least for now - would be a lot simpler.

If Steem income is to be taxed exactly when the earner gains possession of the earnings, then calculating one's taxes becomes very unclear and very complicated. How is Steem Power to be treated, for one thing? It is not liquid. Delegations? Autovoting? Without automated tracking of all transactions, calculating the fiat value of everything is an accounting nightmare. How is the government going to estimate the income generated when no tools to collect the data and do all the calculations even exist? Anyway, those people who earned tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of STEEM, SBD and Vests in 2018 after which the Steem price collapsed, could find themselves in a world of trouble if the tax authorities around the world start going after Steemians. To go about earning that much using an account easily tied with one's real world identity seems to me like an awful risk. There is little risk of that happening now but if Steem fulfills its promise and reaches a market cap in the tens or hundreds of billions many could be in for a nasty surprise.

By the way, I seriously think Steem has a snowball's chance in hell going mainstream unless most new accounts are completely cut off from the reward system and demonetized. First off, most people who use social media have absolutely no desire to earn anything by doing so. They will gladly fatten the giga corporations that monetize the user data provided to them for free. By not earning anything the user won't even have to worry about the tax implications.