Exploring Bitsquare. Setting up my account (Part 1).

With the recent interest by the IRS in accessing the records of Coinbase, I've started to consider how I can remove myself from that administrative nightmare. The whole idea of hitting BTC with a capital gains tax depending on the value at purchase and the value when you spend it at, is mind bogglingly stupid. Sure BTC has a quality as a store of value, but for many it is a currency that is spent like cash. I include myself in the second group. I don't think the IRS is planning on coming after me in particular, there wouldn't be much money in it for them. Nevertheless, it's a vulnerability that an impersonal bureaucratic juggernaut could easily crush me with through legal fees etc. Why open myself up to that vulnerability? Convenience is the only reason at the moment. I could tip another direction if the right features where in place.

I was encouraged by another story on Steemit from @marketingmonk to look into using Bitsquare as an exchange for fiat/crypto currencies. I've included the link to the article below. The benefits are decentralization (no records that can be found in one place by a government bureaucracy (IRS)), anonymity (through the TOR network connection). The disadvantages might be ease of use, availability of buyers and sellers at a price I desire.

I've visited https://bitsquare.io and downloaded the latest version of the software and followed these initial steps:

• set a password for my wallet (to protect the display of my paper wallet recovery seed)
• wrote down my wallet seed on 3 x 5 card. (I'm drowning in a sea of paper wallet seeds. It's a cool idea, but creates other issues of storing them all and remembering which one belongs to which wallet.)
• adding an account is probably the most critical decision. Many of the options are euro-centric. Bank transfers are not an option for U.S. participants due to high fees. It is suggested to use ClearXchange, Cash/ATM deposits, or U.S. Postal Money Order. I'm going to assume that Cash/ATM deposits are going to be the discreet form of transaction. ClearXchange is probably the most convenient. The tradeoff being traceability. I'm wondering in this case whether it matters that a transaction has been recorded as long as it is not clear what the transaction was for. Will it be know that I purchased Bitcoins with a particular transaction? I can't see that being the case, although I haven't fully analysed how it all plays out yet.

I'm probably going to go with ClearXchange because my bank supports it, it's convenient, and I'm just experimenting. I have nothing to hide in terms of criminality, I simply want to reduce all points of friction with bureaucracy where possible. With that in mind, I'm going to have to setup a ClearXchange account. I'll be back to explore Bitsquare further after I've completed that step.

Please visit @marketingmonk for his video review of bitsquare below.

https://steemit.com/bitsquare/@marketingmonk/bitsquare-is-gradually-catching-up-with-localbitcoins-in-cryptocurrency-trading-volumes-the-cryptoverse-169