Bitcoin Forum

Anybody who watches the evening news or glances at the newspaper must be aware of the negative image that Bitcoin has hovering above it. People believe that it's nothing more than a haven for criminal activity. It seems that governments, the press, and the general public all believe the volumes of anti-Bitcoin propaganda that is released on a daily basis.

My question is "Who is doing this?" Is it the governments because they want to control Bitcoin and have been unable to exercise full control yet? Is it the banks because they see Bitcoin as a viable threat their exclusive domain? Or are we, the Bitcoin users, simply shooting ourselves in the foot with enterprises like the Silk Road that are using Bitcoin for illicit purposes? What do you think?

Who is doing this?

OK, ask your self this: Who has the most to lose if Bitcoin actually succeeds?

The Federal Reserve and the voltures running it.

The answer may be simpler than you think. News companies and mass media in general need to earn money and be watched to exist.  And what kind of news are the easiest to sell? Of course, disasters, murders, terrorists attacks, school massacres and on top of that they found new great topic - awesome new technology - Bitcoin turns evil. It is easiest to show bitcoin in negative light, media will will find even small cases of crooked people using bitcoin and made it look like total crime and bitcoin will be viewed as a tool of satan.

I could see your point if Bitcoin was US dominated, but Bitcoin is worldwide and the propaganda seems to be coming from everywhere. Not just from the U.S. Or are you saying that the Federal Reserve controls worldwide banking and Bitcoin threatens their control of world finances? I don't believe that the Federal Reserve controls world banking, but I know quite a few people who do.

That is what I think also. bitcoin is really not very interesting. But dark nets, underground drug markets, international criminal empires, terrorists. Now those words get hits! No one is trying to kill bitcoin, they are trying to make money. Who wants to read about monetary policy or fractional reserve banking?
The news could also turn unrealistically optimistic in a few months. If there were a narrative that was sexy and painted bitcoin in a good light they would go for that as quickly.  
 

ignorance transmitted through the media(internet principally) is doing this, people follow the rumors, without asking themselves if it is really true or not, one guy can spread a false information, and it would propagate like a virus through the net

i want to paraphrase this, because it's fucking true

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow

Media is controlled by the government so back at the top again it will be the goverment who want to kill bitcoin. They are afraid of something they cant controll. The media make up stories so that alot of people will see this and that is how government will kill it. They cant do it alone and they are using media to manipulate the people

That's one option that I never considered. Perhaps it my bias ( I am a writer by day and consider all writers to be benevolent creatures put here for the benefit of mankind :) ). Maybe you're right. It could be that nobody is consciously trying to kill Bitcoin. They're just writing about a hot topic.

Actually that would be the banks.
The government controls the media, the banks (the money) controls the government.

I dont know what country are you from but in my country, the government is in the top of the political structure and government controls the bank too. My reason was simple, because if government decide to kill bitcoin, the people will see them as the bad guy but what if they manage to get the support from the people that dont know about bitcoin? then they will be praise for doing this thing

Man, I will try to find who will try to kill it :) (*jk)

Mostly goverment I think, but at least we must prove that bitcoin still have a good future as a valid currency that can be use for everyone withou any worries. Just need more time to make bitcoin more advance and more safe

Banks, high ranking government officials, the feds, the list goes on.
These people have a hell of a lot to lose if bitcoin succeeds massively & mainstream adoption becomes a reality.
Think of the interest banks would lose on peoples money.
Think of people dodging tax & how much money governments would lose from stealing peoples earnings.
So many people want bitcoin to fail, we just have to keep doing what we're doing and hope for the best.

The thing to remember is they can't stop bitcoin, it's near impossible, you can't destroy the internet without pretty much totally fucking up the world any way.
Haters are going to continue to hate, we just have to over come them, force them to change, force them to comply.

The thing is, there is no evidence that the government has any interest whatsoever in hurting bitcoin. This forum is bat shit crazy when it comes to conspiracy theories. But no one ever presents any evidence or even a logical reason for their theories.

People fear what they don't understand and sadly most people get their information from mainstream media which makes a business from fear-mongering and taking advantage of peoples ignorance so it's probably nothing more than that. I don't really think there's some grand conspiracy here and if there was we would likely see far more blatant propaganda.

in belgium where i live, i see a possible trend comming up.
people or hack clubs treathning buisnisses to pay a x ammount of btc otherwhise the will put sencitive clientinfo all over the web, negative reviews all over the place in order to destroy the rep of once buisness.... ect...
extortion basicly
it's realy sad .... bad publicity for bitcoins overhere because it comes in the news ns all of a sudden bitcoiners are crimminals :(

We can not blame the Government or the Bank in this regard, let us try changing the way of seeing this problem with the thought that maybe because we lack introduces and socialize advantages of using Bitcoin outside activities related to criminal.

I would rather say its the media which gives it a bad name. Its only through media, that people get to know about bitcoin. And most of the articles or news does not potrait it in a good manner, and do it only in a negative manner.

I'm not so sure that they can't stop the internet or at least severely restrict it. Look at China. And I don't see how stopping ( or restricting ) the internet would fuck up the world.

Usually where there is smoke there is fire.  One thing that has me wondering all the time is all the Trolls hanging out creating new accounts like wholesale.  I've seen one for 16 hours creating new accounts and post negative information everywhere.   This happens day in and day out. 

Who is paying someone to do that?   No one would waste so much time and put forth so much effort to do this without some gain.

I don't think no one is trying to effectively kill Bitcoin. They see it is basically impossible to kill as it would rise from any low price, thats why what they are trying to do is keeping the price low, give the impression the thing is dead, make people forget about it, get all the cheap coins from the gazelles and then pump it into oblivion and make it stay on a solid high price.

governments doesn't have and will not have interest in bitcoin. especially since it is not a threat for them. people here are way too paranoid.

A gigantic money grab in either fines or fees is a pretty logical reason for the government to be interested in bitcoin.

Have you read the California pending regulation requiring people who exchange fiat for bitcoin to cough up $5,000 plus $3,500 per year?  This is not just for large exchanges, the definition broadly covers everyone who either buys or sells bitcoin for fiat even just once.  This is going to result in fees or fines for anyone who does business with anyone in California.  That money will go to the state or feds or both.

If theory isn't your thing, then look at look some empirical asset forfeiture numbers that the head of FinCEN bragged about just this week:

http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/speech/html/20150506.html

The corrupted Government and the Banking system are the most who are trying to kill the Bitcoin. As the banking system views it as an threat and the corrupted Government will never allow the use of bitcon into their country and the press is taking advantage of it.

your country must not be the USA.

The Government and only Government.

Society believes in innovation and society is ready to accept it and adopt it but unless the Government of your country doesn't support it you simply can't help it. But as bitcoin is decentralised it will not make any difference. The people who believes in bitcoin will definitely adopt it.

People have agendas, anyone that has more than half a brain is seeing Bitcoin has the game changer of the next century, everyone is either going to be pro or anti bitcoin. Now who with enough power can hurt BTC? Governments, and individuals holding massive amounts of power outside the BTC ecosystem that do not want to put it inside the BTC ecosystem. Thats the big picture. So its not only government, but particulars too.

The Press & Media is over reacting on bitcoin. If little prices fall they make it an big issue which leads people to rethink that whether the decision of investing in bitcoin was good or bad. People are so influenced by media that they start believing them blindly without using own's common sense.

The written word seems to carry a lot of weight. It doesn't have to be truth. It only has to be written and it's believed.

You can't kill progress. Bitcoin may be the first mass scale crypto in existence and genesis of all cryptocurrency in general but it won't be the last attempt to create 'virtual money'.
People are just convinced that bitcoin will succeed. I wish for it too but around the corner could be an even more awesome alternative.

Government and banks are one.

i don't think so, corrupted governments are probably using it, instead normal government are trying to spread fud together with bank and trying to sink bitcoin

i'm expecting also, some group of people who are against bitcoin

Are you from China?
At age 25 you still have a lot to learn.
In order for a political party to become government they need money, lots of it.
Guess where that money comes from?
Those who have it.
And those who have it consider it, an investment.
I give X amount of cash, I have a president in my pocket  ;)

And to answer your question, the media is doing a great job in backing up for the government.
Don't forget that Bitcoin is shown as a tool for criminals.

It's most likely a mixture. In my opinion, most of the negative media surrounding Bitcoin is because for news outlet's they gain more attention with bad news then good news - so for them it's useful to report on events with negative outcomes. The other part is that Bitcoin hasn't actually done anything good - mainly it's been associated with buying illicit drugs and as a commodity for criminals (i.e. cryptolocker). No one wants to associate themselves with that so Bitcoin becomes an unwanted product.

I was acctually thinking the same thing yesterday, while I was watching a episode of Blacklist {Season 1} .... The guy had to shift $ 5 000 000 in a "un-traceable" way to another account.. and he did iit in say 5 minutes... His explanation was... I used a Ripple account and then transfered it with Bitcoin ........la la la.

I acctually laughed out load.. when I saw that... and thought to myself... "Who think up this shit?"

The corrupt side of the Bitcoin community is doing so much damage, without even thinking about the long term influence on their actions. MtGox and Silkroad being the leaders in the crowd.  >:( >:( >:(

Ask yourself... Where would Bitcoin have been without that?

what about all those other coins popping up like shrooms everywhere? who are those people? litecoin i can understand like it's silver to gold. dogecoin haha love that dog ^^

but all the others who are they? payed by people in power to take your time away from the actual coin?
because the way i see it, the lesser time is given to something with value, the lesser value it is given over time. basic rule of giving something a value

like altcoin... when i see that coin i clic away.. because of what i read about them used in ponzy and other devious shemes.

just wondering.

one other thing, people in power will never give up that status and do anything to keep that status

No. They're just greedy capitalists and scammers trying to make as much money as they can by peddling crap to fools. 99.9% of alt coin devs create these crapcoins with one goal in mind and that is to make money. They create the coin, dump it and move on. The best way to deal with alts is to ignore them unless they actually offer something new and if people did that they would soon disappear.

creating new altcoin is most profitable business in these days to get bitcoins from people in the name of innovation and with attractive roadmap, every altcoin's Dev claims that his coin has most advanced and secure than bitcoin but stealing a lot of money from people they disappear and run away with this money so better thing is that keep trust in Bitcoin there is no better coin than that.

Perhaps not now but sometimes in the future the government will have interest in bitcoin, not to control it because it cant be control by the government rather than the government will try to destroy it because it is a threat to fiat. They can control fiat but they cant control bitcoin

Yup that's true. Government would definitely try to destroy it in coming future as Govt sees Bitcoin as a threat to Banking System and Fiat money So at present the scenario says that the Govt is against the Bitcoin and they are taking support from media as people are more influence by media.

The media surely, and Governments and Banks could be behind this, though not likely. Bad news travels faster than good news and more people are interested in the headlines when the word "bitcoin" is next to "drugs" and "money laundering". There are a lot of good news surrounding bitcoin on internet media, they just don't catch the light that well.

Doubt the banks really care at this point as bitcoin isn't anywhere close to being a threat to them. The media are likely just doing what they do best and fudding because that's their whole business to scare people all the time.

I completely agree with you. The Governments and Banking systems are trying to kill bitcoins and the are taking help from media as the people of society are more influenced by media and press so they are involved in doing negative publicity of bitcoin.

I think the biggest threat to bitcoin is just ignorance by the masses so if anything it's them that may inadvertently kill it or at least stifle growth. This is what's holding it back from truly going global. I think it will eventually break through but it is going to be a slow and arduous process. Public opinion will hopefully be swayed eventually when they see all the good it can do (at least I hope).

I have been studying the same question you asked, I came up with the theory that the government is trying to take control of Bitcoin by taxing it. They see Bitcoin as a profitable scenario for them and they want to take advantage of it, just like they took advantage of it when they sold all the Bitcoin they got from the Silk Road. It's always set up for the government to loose, but Bitcoin will succeed. There is no way that they can force us to show them our Bitcoin, we can just play dumb and say we don't have any.

Well, there is no real need to mix your coins. All you need is a proxy/VPN and then your ISP won't know what your doing, or it'll at least make it very hard to figure out if you have any crypto-currency. The point of Bitcoin was to be decentralized and uncontrollable from prying eyes, and we are gonna do anything in our power to make sure it stays like that. And that's one of the things that makes Bitcoin so special, but then you get the dreamers like the government wanting to dip they're hands into Bitcoin for the money. And it's not really fair how they target Bitcoin but no other Altcoin, so worst comes to worst, if Bitcoin fails, there are many other Altcoin's that can step up and take Bitcoin's place.

the problem still remain with being anon, and it is only one(also has nothing to do with the currency itself) the main problem is that when you buy something, you need to put your residence name on their site, and it is there , that they can easily track you, no matter what payment are you doing, even cash won't save you

other coins are not a problem for the government because they have a so tiny market cap, that they look almost all dead, governments does not bother with them, to them only bitcoin represent a threat

Yup, The first & foremost is Governments and they are taking support from Media. Media has also played a vital role in manipulating the society with the concept of bitcoin there are many serious issues in the country but media will not concentrated on that and that is only because government is asking them to do so.

The address issue will not matter, businesses are not required to give out personal information for those who purchase product with Bitcoin, at least yet.

Yeah. The Government is taking bitcoin as a threat as bitcoin can will put the full stop on corruption which Government can't really afford so they are just against the use of bitcoin as a currency but its not an threat its an opportunity for many businesses to grow.

The media delivers a service you can purchase. It is just happening that Bitcoin does not buy their services. The Bitcoin Foundation could have paid for advertising seconds but who believes that to working out?

If this technology really has an edge no advertising needs to be done. Should work out growing from the bottom in a viral fashion.

when they declare taxes i think they need to reveal that informations to IRS/other tax office, if taxman ask for it, controls are more fierce now, privacy won't save you....

I think that banks are trying to kill off crytopcurrencies in general because crytocurrencies have much lower transaction fees than thing such as credit cards. In addition I think branches such as the NSA are trying to break it so since it is harder to track than regular fiat. However despite all this, I think that bitcoin will come back when it become popular among the upper class in India

Every single move we does.. they will came up with a reason to say Bitcoin is bad. I'm not sure who 'they' is and why they are doing this.

Imo "they" are the governments of the world and it's elite. The "why" is because of losing power, control and wealth.Simple is that!

ahh don't even know where to start, because maybe I'm so pessimistic, but based on my experience everybody wants to kill bitcoin. government, banks, media, politics..actually everybody with some kind of influence to public sector. just because with massive bitcoin adoption they will loose they influence at all..

Well the biggest threat will most likely comes from business stake holders that will see their profit plunged if bitcoin were ever going to move mainstream. It wouldn't come as a surprise if they are the one plotting bitcoin downfall. All the negativity and hype surrounding bitcoin is perhaps the best strategy they will use

Exactly this. Its kind of crappy how that is true. :(

  That may be true but a purchaser spending more then 600 usd of BTC has to account for the in and out value of the BTC. 

Note this only applies to USA tax law and is still a bit gray

 Think of BTC as a piece of gold your cost to get the gold was 500 and when you spent it it was worth 600. In theory you need to report this on fed taxes.

I am pessimistic with you or is it just dealing with reality the way it is. If bitcoin made it to mass adoption that would ruin the hold the entities stated above have over us, they want to maintain control and not give people the taste of freedom away from their printed paper.

The more people enter bitcoin the more people whose eyes get opened to the controlled world around them, this is the last thing they want isn't it. There are some media that just go full negative on anything and everything. The corporation run outlets have agendas and we will see this even more as time goes on.

There are media that has been pretty neutral with Bitcoin, I dont see the CNN documentary being anti bitcoin in any way? And other big media like RT is clearly pro bitcoin with Max Keiser etc.

A little pessimistic but also maybe a little paranoid. I don't think the media, banks or gov really have that much interest in trying to kill it but even if they wanted to it's not that easy to kill something that is decentralized. If they can't take down torrents then they can't take down bitcoin. Bitcoin is much stronger than any of us can imagine and people will always have a use for it in some capacity.

So your asking me Who is trying to kill Bitcoin?

My Answer: DEEZ NUTS

 ;D

I would imagine that the big holders of fiat and metal like the Rothchilds don't see Bitcoin as something positive. I would actually like to know their opinion of Bitcoin. Im sure they aren't stupid enough to not even know what it is at this point, even if they don't use it.

Makes you wonder what kind of damage the Fed Reserve could do with a couple of billion $ (chump change for them).

Any one can try to kill bitcoin , but no one can success. :D

at this point it's not even worth it. not big enough. but that might change in the future when the market cap reaches a new ath.  

Obviously governments, if Bitcoin succeeds who lose most is a open secret question.  :P