Writings

In guidance issued in 2019 by the IRS, there are clear indications that the governmental body responsible for taxing the American public does not understand cryptocurrencies and digital assets. In this paper I highlight their misunderstandings and offer clarification around the types of assets in question. Further, I propose alternative guidance and a framework for fair taxation modeled on the current tax system for existing asset classifications.

Many forms of auction models exist. Each has its pros, cons, and slight variations on influencing the outcome. In this paper I propose a fair auction model which seeks to determine price discovery before the auction is closed, minimizing volatility in value after the event. This model has direct applications to certain types of asset sales including IPOs and ICOs.

The division of an allotment of money between two individuals under strict rules is a classic bargaining scenario called the Ultimatum Game. A strict application of game theory predicts one player – the proposer – should withhold almost all funds for himself and offer only the smallest amount possible to the second player – the responder. This is due to the fact that actual payout is contingent upon the responder’s acceptance of the offer. The results however are inconsistent with numerous empirical studies of this game. In actuality the proposer will offer on average 35.1% of the money. This research empirically tests the Ultimatum Game on local high school students. It then compares these results to a uniquely modified version of the game in which there is an added incentive for the proposer to consider. The goal of the paper is to see if the modified version will influence the proposer to withhold a greater amount for himself. The empirical results show that the two cases do not differ by a statistically significant amount. Rationale for this is found in the mathematics behind the proposer’s decision process.

We say that a tree T is a spider provided it has at most one branch point. We prove the existence of a family of graceful labelings for spiders all of whose legs are equal in length.