Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin isn´t big/stong enough to really disturb government and big banks, probably a minor incovenience by now, we see some talks about regulation here and there, but nothing concrete.


But as it gets more popular and a direct impact in their operations start to appear, it´s reasonable to think action would be taken, even making it illegal.


Sure they won´t be able to seize our bitcoins, or stop transactions, but this won´t matter, the support and general belief will suffer major damage, price would crash to hardly recover ever again.


US took down major and global poker sites overnight due to suspicion of illegal activities around it, why should be different with bitcoin ?

It's because bitcoin is separate from poker and it happens that those gambling games sued its because they are operating illegaly.

And you should remember that bitcoin is E-assets and as I've read from some articles if I am not mistaken trump supports crypto's and only those who sued by goverment are indulge on money laundering and unlicensed gambling sites.

Also, if it would be not supported, governments bans wouldn't have effects to bitcoin holders. Bitcoin is a decentralized currency and can't be taken under supervision by governments. As preposter already stated, bitcoin itself has nothing to do with activities like gambling. It is just a currency. Governments will more support Bitcoin as banning it, because they take huge profits from taxes and bitcoin technology.

For now theres no need to fear of a sudden government ban because the chance of it happening is pretty low. Here where I live, bitcoin is considered as an e-asset and is legal to use unless you do something illegal and those poker sites took down by US and bitcoin are different. If one were to happen though, I still won't be afraid because no one can now that I use bitcoin unless I say it out loud.

and when they took down these "major and global poker sites" did they by any chance ban poker itself?
you see where the flaw in your thought is?

and besides which government are we talking about? bitcoin does not belong to one country to be controlled by one government. it is a global one without any centralized authority to be able to have any effects on it.
if one idiot country government decided to "ban bitcoin" they are just isolating themselves from the rest of the world. other countries have not only adopted bitcoin but also legalized it.

US government is not the only government in the world, lets assume they just ban Bitcoin completely, the rest of the world will use it as before mate.

Since Bitcoin is decentralized they have no power to sanction any nation adopting Bitcoin because you could easily hide your location where you are

Sending and receiving transactions. yeah welcome to the new banking. besides they would never ban something which is making them billions, if you

Think they are nor deeply involved from 2009 in Bitcoin then you're just gullible.

Any government can declare the use of Bitcoin as illegal. They can not declare Bitcoin per se but they can regulate its use. However, as shown in Japan, there is a better compromise. The government will recognized Bitcoin as either cash or asset and they can start on imposing tax. In the end, everybody can be happy.

The main concern of the government is always the collection of tax as it is the lifeblood of the government without funds it can not move in serving its constituents. And of course, the control on money laundering so that illegal activities can not be encouraged with the use of Bitcoin.

Government wouldn't take a drastic action has declaring bitcoin illegal unless it threatens their mainstream income,  what they can do is give bad press to discourage their citizens from using bitcoin.

The thing is that bitcoin is decentralized.

If bitcoin was centralized then obviously it always has the risk of getting shut down by government. But this is simply not true. Bitcoin's value is based on the fact that there is a fully decentralized ledger that is running that keeps all the transactions.

Thus, if the government wants to shut down bitcoin, they would have to shut down all the bitcoin nodes.

And this is impossible, considering the sheer size of nodes. And it's only growing. So the only way to 100% shut down all bitcoin activity would be to shut down the internet which would not benefit anyone.

Where I live the government usually sticks to the rules because they even apply for the government.
Sure, they could declare the posession of bitcoin to be illegal.
But they could not do so from one day to the other.
You would always have several months to prepare for such an event.
But I highly doubt it will ever come to that because bitcoin has already been ranked to be a commodity by them.

Surely,bitcoin could become a big disturbance to governments in the very near future.Not every country is bangladesh to ban bitcoin.All the countries are well aware that they could not ban bitcoin.Thats what happened in the case of china and russia whenthey had an idea to ban bitcoin.Later they realized that they could not and changed their stand and started regulating bitcoins.This is the final option left for a country to do with bitcoins,just to regulate it.

Each country must have its own rules. As you said that when there is a country that prohibits bitcoin then in the end they still will not be able to completely ban it. Bitcoin develops in the current era. The fact is there are many ways that can be used to access bitcoin, and I'm sure now has started many countries are open and receive bitcoin. They are aware that bitcoin can help the economic development of the country. So from now on do not be afraid when the government plans to tire of bitcoin, they just bluff and their efforts will be in vain.

I dont think Bitcoin is big enough to ban the government yet.

Nothing good I expect from my government, and therefore used to survive in any conditions. Even if they try to ban bitcoin they will not succeed because I will cash them on the territory of a neighboring state. Against any poison there is an antidote.

I don't think there's a reason for the government to ban btc so there's nothing to fear. Btc helps in economic growth that's why I don't think they will ban the use of it. The government saw its potential that's why they decided to support it in the first place. The only thing they can do is make sure that the its uses won't get out of hand and make sure to properly regulate it by making effective bills.

I am pretty sure that if things go high enough, governments will try to regulate bitcoin usage, passing laws, fees and taxes. But they will not make it dissappear for sure. I sometimes see it similar to piracy, they have tried, but could not stop it.

How exactly does BTC help economic growth in your opinion?
A huge percentage of owners is just holding and doesn´t make any transactions at all.

The mainstream economy works, because most people buy and consume stuff. If someone buys BTC instead of buying
a TV or a new computer, the economy doesn´t really benefit.

In the future when BTC will be used more for purchases this could change, but currently I don´t really see it
as contributing to economic growth.

I am personally scared of sudden ban for all coins by lot governments. It can trigger ban waves all over the world. I hope there will always be peace between bitcoin and nations.

As stated bitcoin is completely on a different platform compared to other things that function around us. It's not that easy for governments to oppose or regulate bitcoin. Only after long research it will be added. So for few governments already accepting bitcoin I expect the number to increase by the years to fall.

guys, you missing the bigger picture

we all hope in the future to make instant bitcoin transactions as fast we make today with conventional banks, to be able to go out and buy stuff with bitcoins the same way we do today with credit cards, go to btc atms wherever it is and get some cash, and a lot more .... are all those things really unreasonable to wish for the future ?

cause those are the kind of things that a bitcoin ban would prevent, i´m not talking about today where probably not even 1% of the world population even knows what btc is....

sure no one could "ban" bitcoin today, but that´s because there is barely anything to actually ban for....

Fuck US government and trump. They always consider bitcoin is being used for illegal activities but they won't stop the street racing in New york and world gambling in california. They have to close those thing first instead of touching independent platform (Bitcoin). Please make sure yourself to earn bitcoin and hold it. they can't touch the banana.

When it comes to bitcoin, an outright ban have proven not to be effective and I don't see how that will because that will mean shutting the government from getting revenue from what could make money for them and giving a room for people to stash their funds elsewhere because only you break bitcoin technology or shut down the internet can stop it and a major crackdown will consume lots of resources. So, the best option is regulation which might be tough but still achievable.

In my country bitcoin has already declared to be legal.
Authorities have given orders how selling coins will be taxed, and to trade coins at local exchanges you have to verfy with your id.
In regard of all this, I do not suspect that a ban will ever occure.
Considering the taxes, the state already earns from bitcoin.

Lucky in my country there is no regulation about Bitcoin or other crypto currency so I'm not afraid.

No,i don't have to fear about banning of bitcoin as in our country india,government has changed its stand on crypto currency recently and has formed a committee to give recommendations to implement rules about legalizing digital currencies.It would take almost six months more.So,i am totally free now to use bitcoins and earn from it in our country.

Not at all, it would only be a great opportunity to get some cheap coins.

Government ban will not fundamentally change bitcoin, the big risk to bitcoin is (I'm sorry to say that) bitcoin itself, namely developers and miners.

bans or not but if bitcoin have more benefit rather than other currencies i think it would not stopping people use bitcoin even more likely people will still use bitcoin although it's against the law but i personally don't expect bitcoin will distrub government even i hoping someday maybe the government could adopted cryptocurrency technology

For now why should we be afraid after some countries has legalize bitcoin maybe where i live now bitcoin is still not legalized but i think there is a possibility it will happen when many countries has legalize bitcoin.

I think to ban bitcoin by the government or institutions will be the most difficult things on their part because, they will need to ban the internet first before talking of Bitcoin.

Does BitTorent protocol fear a government ban? they try pretty hard, but in the end they can not ban it, because ... decentralization is awesome

I've had my fears as well. If the government choses to declare Bitcoin as illegal, then all transactions and activities being done would be unlawful. Even revenue generated from Bitcoin may be declared as illegal, and having wallets and accounts may put you to jail had the government made a law that says so.

I agree that the government's main concern is the collection of tax because this is where they generate revenue. I hope that it in my country, there would be a compromise the same as Japan's. If they choose to recognize it as well just as Japan did, then it would be a win-win situation both for the government AND the citizens who own and use BTC. There has also been warnings by our government regarding illegal activities. It may not be the same as Japan, but there has been some recognition.

I don't think that our government will ban bitcoin. On the other hand, they just declare that they have accepted 2 exchanges to be put in our country. The government has put regulations like KYC/AML around and tax purposes. So its safe to say that we are somewhat 'safe'.

However, if for unknown circumstances that our government made a sudden U-turn I don't think that they can totally ban bitcoin for that matter. People will always find a way to buy or trade bitcoin underground. Of course there is the risk of being caught, but we all love bitcoin and no matter what any government will do to stop it, they can't do it. IMHO.

As to what the OP indicates, the government cannot stop/control the usage and transaction of Bitcoin so whether they ban it or not, there is nothing to fear. I doubt the government will ban Bitcoin, not now. Some countries did accept Bitcoin and tried to regulate it in their territory and I know that by doing so, their economy benefited from it. And since they gained some benefit from it, banning Bitcoin would impact their economy.

You are right. In fact, this is the one of the big reasons why Bitcoin is getting to be popular. The government could not touch it unless you would be announcing it to them because you are out of your mind. Any government knows that it is virtually impossible to ban or totally control Bitcoin that is why they instead introduced some regulations to allow Bitcoin to operate under certain conditions...this is a sort of a give-take process.

Rather than fearing about the ban, I'll be trying hard for an alternative plan to make use of the bitcoin and have my presence into the actively earning community. If fear is the base,  then surely we could have never been into the bitcoin usage as there are lot many users who have been staying away from bitcoin.

We don't actually care anymore, just wait til the satellite is launched and there will be no need to watch for governments and sometimes even touching their things below their bellies to tolerate us :D if you ever went to school you should know that decentralized means only people and no government influence.