[GNC] Bitcoin is legal currency in El Salvador - why not

[Michael or Penny Novack]

> Things change quite quickly in the crypto currency scene.
>
> 1) The Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) was the first major charity
> in the UK to accept donations by bitcoin
>
> https://rnli.org/support-us/give-money/bitcoin-donations
>
> 2) Newegg, which is a pretty large company, accepts bitcoin
>

You are confusing some things. For example., the fact that a charity 
would accept bitcoin donations does NOT make bitcoin a "currency". They 
would also accept say a major work of art, a yacht, etc. They are 
unlikely to turn down anything of value.  BUT --- look at the 
"undiscussed topics" and the problems they raise below. So yes, they 
would accept a donation of stock/securities and this is common over here 
because the favorable tax treatment for "gifts of appreciated stock". 
But what if that is stock in closely held corporation?

That Newegg would accept bitcoin also does not imply " currency". Note 
that while businesses do not usually engage in "barter" with customers 
when a ;large number of customers they might engage in barter with other 
companies or even with customers when those are few in number. We have 
NOT yet had discussions about how to treat a number of topics. Which is 
proper since the accounting issues aren't specifically gnucash issues. 
For example.

1) Stocks and other securities that are not very liquid ---- we have 
been assuming when discussing stocks, etc. that they have some well 
defined publicly known market price. That we can just "look up the 
price". This is not always the case. In fact, the number of small 
corporations whose "stock" is not publicly traded probably far exceeds 
the number that are publicly traded.

2) Purchase of a business where price paid and book value are different. 
What is "goodwill" and how is it accounted for?

3) Barter transactions. Especially when what is being traded has value 
far different than its "book value" and like closely held stock, no well 
defined ":market price".

Michael D Novack