BitClout and Creator Coins
Disclaimer Soon people will be able to begin participating in BitClout's decentralized social network by acquiring "Creator Coins". I have no position as to whether BitClout or Creator Coins are a good investment, that's not my skill. However, I have been thinking about what it means to acquire a Creator Coin (particularly the tax aspects of that transaction). As I understand the network's structure, holders of BitClout will be able to "pledge" their BitClout to acquire Creator Coins. Ordinarily an exchange of one variety of token for another would be a taxable transaction and it's unfortunate that BitClout is describing the acquisition of Creator Coins as an exchange. However, on these facts, I think that holders of BitClout have a good argument that this transaction is more similar to staking than it is to an exchange (note, "good argument" does not necessarily mean "winning argument"): As with staking, you may