Let's get this straight: I definitely pay all the taxes I'm obliged to pay, and I'm asking you to fulfill your legal obligations as well. As Paul pointed out: We must police ourselves if we wish to remain under-regulated. In the very early days of Publish0x, we summed up the rules in one simple line: "Don't screw up".

"Taxation is Theft", some people say, while those few who excessively follow this doctrine are the reason why international efforts are taken to shut down so-called tax havens - after all, if you're following the "Taxation is Theft" doctrine to the other end, why are these people allowed to use public roads? There won't be an answer to this question anytime soon.

Apart from evading taxes, there's a number of reasons why you should be creating accounts in other countries; using the Ethereum Platform as a nationless meta-account: When Shit hits the Fan, all you need is a way of coding the key to access your wallet into something that can easily be transported. Twelve words that can be stored anywhere - who's telling you that my posts on Publish0x don't contain a hidden code? They don't, Intelligence across the world is too busy scanning the internet and digital devices.

So why should you be creating an Ethereum wallet to hold a portion of your funds?

1. Diversification

I've pointed it out before, diversification is key when it comes to securing your assets: Owning a mix of Real Estate, Stocks and Precious Metals should be protecting you pretty much: Each of these sectors is mostly following Inflation and most of the times, one of these sectors is developing well while another is taking a hit.

Let's step up the game: We're living through a period of peace that hasn't been known to the world before. It's been more than seventy years since the last major war in Central Europe, we've survived the Cold War and Asia's mostly peaceful as well. Whatever your situation is, you want to reduce exposure to systemic risks: I'm holding a german passport, I'm living in Germany, I'm working my dayjob in Germany. And all of a sudden, I'm finding myself confronted with things really not going well. Well, if things really go south, I've got my Ethereum wallet.

Some russian aristocrats held everything they owned in Russia during the 1917 revolution while others held bank accounts in Paris, France. Guess who fared better?

Some Argentines hold everything in argentinean accounts, while others hold accounts in Uruguay, just across the border. Guess who's having an easier time?

Whatever it is that may disrupt life in the place I live in, it's okay to hold some of your funds abroad to hedge against instability, war, economic collapse. Who's going to say "Thanks for going down with us!"? Exactly, you are the one who's taking care of your needs.

2. Safety

Alright, many people would like to see the US-Dollar stop being the reference currency used throughout the world. If you'd ask me, I'd guess the Chinese Yuan will take the Dollar's position one day - while we're busy fighting COVID-19, China's sending medical supplies all over the place while we're busy taking these supplies from each other. The USA ain't no help this time around, even though it took the Deutsche Bank about five years to pass the stress test imposed on banks by the US FED, other european banks not faring better. Do you think having an account with a local bank is any better? I challenge you: Call them today that you'll need to pick up $20,000 in cash by tomorrow. Do they ask you to come around anytime?

Good News: You can use Ethereum to store your dollar value and cash out to a non-dollar currency at any time, providing you're willing to cover the gas fees to be included in one of the next blocks.

3. More Diversification

I'm living in Europe, my salary is paid in EUR, my mortgage is booked to the bank in EUR, my national pension fund is in EUR. Even if Germany's coming out unscathed, I'm still exposed to the Euro's well-being. Basic Risk Management asks me to reduce exposure to the Euro, no matter if I diversify into the US-Dollar, British Pound, believe that Venezuelan Bolivar will be a safe bet towards the future. I can always fall back to Ether and exchange them for any other currency - just make sure you diversify to compensate any issues arising with your local economy.

4. Self-Protection

There's no way any court in this world can order Ethereum to release the funds stored in my wallet; I'm running a small business that's been wiped out by COVID-19 but I'm quite sure I'm currently not exposed to Piranha Women. Anyways, should any court ever order my assets to be frozen, having moved some of them abroad could buy me time spent on international paperworks or, in case of Ethereum, be impossible to seize. Because I can.

5. International Service Access

I dodged the case filed against me, great. Yet any country, at any point in time, may restrict movement of capital outside and make it next-to-impossible for common people to move money abroad. Or we'd have to go through a very slow bureaucratic system that can be eased by bribes.

Capital Movement Control is usually announced Sunday Night, after the news, just to have people surprised on Monday morning. Think of Greece and Cyprus in the late 2000's, Italy and France in the 1970's and 1980's, Argentina, Nigeria, Zimbabwe. At some time, owning gold became illegal in the United States.

You're not immune to this.

Now imagine you've told your sister you'd get her through university. Told your dad, you'd pay for a medical procedure that can only be performed in Malaysia.

Your bank won't care about the university kicking out your sister, the hospital leaving your dad untreated - first and foremost, they'll see to complying with paperwork legislation. If it takes a year, it takes a year.

6. Interest Rates

Double-digit interest rates in offshore bank/Ethereum accounts, occasionally to be had by running an account in a foreign denomination or the Dollar with all risks associated.

7. Flexibility

You've got a payment incoming? You can always redirect it to your Ethereum account to avoid it ending up in the capitalist shithole your country has become in #3, thus avoiding being hit directly by capital controls imposed in your country. Did you look at this link? Argentina's asking credit card companies to collect a 30% tax on your credit card being used abroad. I'm lovin' it.

8. Excellent Service

No questions asked. I order a transaction and pay the transaction fee, Ethereum's processing it. Okay, you got me here: Last Christmas season, my bank called me to ask if I want to authorize a payment initiated to a bank account that's been known to be associated with a fake shop - "You can do that, of course, and we won't stop you. Just asking because this bank account is known to be involved in fraudulent activities".

9. Why not?

Why should you not be having an Ethereum address? There's literally no administrative fee, the only effort is you keeping note of a 12-word-seed phrase and, maybe, remembering one password to log into your MetaMask. There's no additional fee. Having this account isn't illegal, you'll just have to check back with your national tax laws to make sure you lawfully declare any income you might have.

As much as I can tell, having an Ethereum wallet doesn't give me any more trouble than adding some income to my tax forms while opening up an entire new world of freedom I wouldn't be willing to afford if it cost me a couple of hundreds of Dollars every year just to run some offshore bank accounts. You can get your feet wet without any risk by using Publish0x to earn a little income by the side or Coinbase's "Earn" program to pick up some $90 you can spend/use immediately.