Denmark vs Cyberspace, 1:0
Cyberspace? Which Cyberspace?
Governments of the Industrial World: Hear, Hear!
“Governments of the Industrial World: On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.”
“We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.”
“I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us.”
So spake John Perry Barlow, in his Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace issued from Davos, Switzerland, in 1996. Are we there yet? Not quite, judging from Denmark.
2019: reality kicks in, in Denmark
In December 2019, the Danish tax agency has started issuing the warning letters in the screenshot above to some 20,000 crypto traders. The letters urged those investors to “amend their tax reports by the 15th of December or face penalties”.
This is just one more of the actions undertaken worldwide to make sure that Bitcoin and other cryptovalutes do not become (or remain…) safe havens from taxes.
Some Cyberspace…
So much for no sovereignty, different worlds and natural independence, isn’t it? For the record, I have nothing against the move by the Danish Government. Quite the contrary, actually. And the reason is the same why I have basic doubts about ALL kinds of digital rights manifestos. I am happy to see more concrete signs that there is only one “space”, and that digital technologies can help us to reshape, not replace it. Ever.
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I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
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