Bitcoin Forum

Let's say the Chinese government decides to ban Bitcoin. Is it technically possible without shutting down their Internet?

Yes this is possible, There are already some countries that banned bitcoin if I'm not mistaken those are Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador & Kyrgyzstan
But I think people in those countries still can use bitcoin but cannot transact it inside their country or convert it with local cash

No, shutting down the internet is not even enough anymore. We're able to stream blocks through/from satellites now. Chinese people always find ways. A lot of stuff are banned in China and people still able to find ways to do it, get it, access it.

It will be possible to do so for a majority of users. I'm sure there are some computer wiz people that will still be able to buy, sell, and move bitcoin around since they are very technologically savy. For everyone else it will be extremely difficult. Most people into bitcoin probably don't understand fully how bitcoin works. We have a general idea about the blockchain and yada yada, but there are definitely some holes that we wont completely understand. For these users they can consider their bitcoin pretty much inaccessible.

No doubt that this would certainly affect the price and not in a positive way.

when some country bans bitcoin, they ban usage of it. so it will be technically illegal to hold bitcoin, invest in it, trade it, or use it as a currency to buy stuff. they can not shut it down or prevent it, they can only prohibit it.

but don't worry, big countries won't do it. just a handful of under developed countries have only said bitcoin is illegal because they are illiterate enough not to understand it.

Definitely. When someone tries to make a Bitcoin transaction internet must be used, even with those desktop wallets. All China has to do is ban all online wallets and just disable desktop wallets from being able to use wifi and work some magic with day roaming which would make it unable to access bitcoin wallets with.

Don't think this will ever happen though.

It can not, you have to shut down the internet network in all areas of that country. Unless your government make a special request to "bitcoin parties" not appear in their country and bitcoins willing to do it - but how is that possible to do ?

Technically they can, but whether it can be enforced properly or not is another thing.

Since they can't shutdown the entire internet there will still be away to getting around it.

I think that without disconnecting the Internet it's impossible. People will use the detour to earn bitcoins and then exchange for the currency of their country.

I agree with you as long as you can have internet connection bitcoin transactions would still be done well even in the country there is a ban on the use of bitcoin.

banning bitcoin is easy, preventing people from using it is impossible to do. so technically it is possible to ban bitcoin. but also realistically speaking nobody is going to ban bitcoin, countries are currently competing with each other to adopt bitcoin or they will be left behind. and soon they will also be technologically behind too ;)

a country can only limit strictly the withdrawal system, that's enough to panic a lot of people

It is not possible, for a country as large as China maybe they have their ways to shut down bitcoin but for some reason Chinese people still able to use it, since there are lots of investors in China they might take actions but they'll do it secretly. Anyways while some adopts others are trying to create a barrier regarding bitcoin as you can see in this world governments only do things in their benefit.

In my opinion, i think that a country have all the rights to ban bitcoin.But this can't be done so easily because bitcoin is digital money ;D

Bitcoin can be easily banned by any country any time that they want to but it won't stop people from using it. Bitcoin transactions will be halted in a particular country if the government decided ti ban it but people will still be able to use their bitcoins. They will just not be able to do transactions or cash it out in the country.

They can ban them if they want to. But the sytem and the accesing here are not able to ban them. What happens is that people can not cashout at banks or third party companies that buy bitcoins and buy them money. so even if I ban it a country is not that because we can still sell our bitcoins but it's hard.So even if it is abolished and banned from using bitcoins we can still get it. do not just tell the authorities because we will detained

Could you please mention those "holes"

I doubt Bitcoin can be successful banned. Same amounts of users would still continue to use Bitcoin if they choose to, with only few obeying the abusive law.

No, not a chance. There is a reason why people are still able to use VPNs in their country. Their DPI won't work perfectly if the traffic is disguised as a SSL tunnel and it will mimic a connection to a website, eg. Cisco AnyConnect. These work extremely well, heck they can't even detect my proxy with AES-256-CFB encryption.

It is very easy to run a node through a VPN or proxy and they will have a very hard time detecting it.

It is not easy to ban the bitcoin for china, instead whenever china like to ban it, the valid reason bitcoin has gone too far. Now a huge people have invested their money on bitcoin. On the other hand, i don't think so china will decide to ban the bitcoin. May be china decide something different and good way for bitcoin and also for bitcoin's users.

Yes it can be possible. The government has the rights to ban whatever they saw that is against in their own means, and sometimes they just don't want something that could threaten them or maybe something they saw that can compete in terms of power, also in order for them to remain in position that no one could oppose them or maybe it could lead that people using bitcoin are rebels as they can see it is illegal, that is only how I see if it would be banned.

I agree with previous comments - the question is what do you mean by a ban. If we talk about the usage ban, it is possible and Chinese residents will need to operate their bitcoins outside of the country to avoid any legal pursuit. The general Bitcoin ban is senseless because it will require too high efforts to implement it into real life.

if you mean usage by banning it's possible, but if you mean that they ban the connections, i don't think it's possible, you can always use tor or other proxy to connect to nodes

In order to ban Bitcoin, you need to ban the internet. And right now it is not a viable option. As long as internet connection is there, it will be possible to transfer coins from one account to another. That said, the governments can make it difficult for the users to convert their coins to cash (or vice versa), by blocking the exchanges.

Rather than banning internet, government should make their law right for preventing people using bitcoin since banning internet is not good solution
When there is a law against bitcoin, people may think twice before start using bitcoin

That's also internet, so no


Too much trouble.
It's far simple an far easier for the leading communist party do stop it.
Outlaw the crypto currency and make the subjects face capital punishment.

Be honest , after you see 100 people shot in the stadium like Chinese do currently with around 3000 to 4000 persons guilty of various law breaking offense, are you going to still use bitcoin?

It is technically possible in China, even without shutting down the internet. I remember the internet censorship that nicknamed The Great Firewall of China. It blocks the website and monitor individuals accessing the website. Even the satellite access can be jammed in China.

Well, any country can ban Bitcoins. It will take a lot of resources to enforce that, though, and most countries have enough problems. Even if they were able to enforce it, there will always be some who can slip through the cracks, as with everything else illegal. It should discourage most casual users, though.

Bitcoin mining is a huge industry in china and many companies in china are also investing here and banning it will have an impact in the price of bitcoin but I doubt if they can fully control or ban it, they will have to spend millions of dollars to keep it ban for many years.

Yes it is possible that any country can ban bitcoin, but take it to consider that banning of bitcoin can result in huge resources by the government. Next if China will ban bitcoin many people will go to strike as many chinese invest on bitcoin and other crypto, in addition china is one of the central mining of bitcoin and other cryptocurrency it will affect their future economy and market when they will take this action. Also those country who are accepting bitcoin as payment they it will affect their economy.

It is almost impossible to ban Bitcoin because it is decentralized. Governments can however track the ips and steal the coins, but it is not so easy , especially if the bitcoin's holder take the security needed steps

i think that is unusual way if they shut down their internet just for banning bitcoin on their country. we all know that without internet all transaction in all over their country will become slow and that will be the risky decision they ever made, so they dont do that for their sake, but instead of shutting down like you mentioned, they will enable the restriction of allowing site that will related in bitcoin and altcoin.

This reply? Is not relevant. You see since its decentralized, no one can crack the code, so obviously they can't ban it. Even USA's best can't break it so what more in those other countries out there.

Like in the country that I'm currently in Bitcoin is banned but you can still use it. The only thing that they are banning is its usage but you can still use it.

Bitcoin is the currency of internet without any restrictions. A person owning an internet connection just cannot be stopped completely from using bitcoin. Yes creating local wallets can be restricted which might make conversion of bitcoin in local currency difficult. But banning bitcoin would mean banning internet completely so one could say its theoretically possible but not practically viable.

Passing a law to ban something is very different than enforcing the law.

Speeding on the highway is banned.  Government enforces this among 1% of the drivers or less.

Beacuse Bitcoin is an money through the internet it could be potentially banned by law in some countries but using the system and gaining more Bitcoin cant be banned. It's a system free to use to every individual and if banned by law can be used after that just a little more carefully because there will be fear of punishments and detentions.But even then a country can ban Bitcoins but can't actually ban and terminate the use of them. It will just be harder for them to actually get their hands on it beacause they won't be able to turn it into real money.

Technically yes and would limit although not fully because no matter how they do it, some people who are versatile in the use of IT and internet will always find a way. However, they can cripple it because majority of people can simply not even guess the password of a public wifi not to talk of finding a break through to a website that has been blocked. How they will do it, is to block every website that have any name relating to crypto-currency from being accessed with their satellite and with that a lot of people will be discouraged and then try something else.

it is possible to ban bitcoin in a particular country but to take in action government will need to pass a law to enforce it and they will need to allocate budget on it, it will take a lot of resources and millions of dollars to make it possible. Bitcoin is one of a large investment in different part of the world it is popular because of its volatility. Banning one of the large investment will make a huge effect in the market economy of ones country like in china where there are lots of investor of bitcoin and other crypto currency also they are one of a large bitcoin mining country [as far as I know].

Government can ban anything. I know of organisations who internet will not allow access to any site with some specific keywords no matter how you try. They regulate virtually everything and even with some sites with some specific IPs within office hours and the system wont even connect to an external internet access to make those sites available that's how far government can do when they are ready but lets hope it dosent get to that because not everyone is techy savvy that can break through those firewalls put in place.

yeah im agree with you bro. .but speaking of banning internet . Will as i know internet is the must important  in our generation we use it for contacting our family and friends everywhere . So if china decided that bitcoin will be banned i think they can banned it not the internet . but idont know if china can banned internet in all country.? Haha  :D idon't think so

It is not easy to ban bitcoin in a certain country. Though there are already countries that have ban btc but users can't stop using btc. And yes it is possible to ban without shutting off the internet but it will take a lot of process.

Yes there are already few countries which have banned btc and country have their own laws and if they think bitcoin should not be used by their citizens then they can easily make law and put the ban on bitcoin and its related sites to it. Also still people may trade it but that will be illegal so officially they can easily ban the bitcoin and formulate the law regarding it.

Well of course it's possible. If i'm not mistaken, there's some countries that banned bitcoin as well, like if you're found out using bitcoin, you'll be jailed.
But well, it's kinda hard to ban bitcoin without shutting down the internet, because people still be able to access it in many ways, although maybe the goverment try to block bitcoin websites, they still can change their vpn, or well.... Doing all kind of hacks to get access.

Ok, How will the Chinese government be able to stop me from "receiving" bitcoins from someone for something I did for them

online? How will they stop me from crossing the border with a piece of paper with a QR code with my private key or sending

those bitcoins to a friend's address in another country? Bitcoin will just go underground, if it is banned in a specific country.  ;)

Yes they can ban bitcoin in there countries as long as the government has talked about it and decided it. But they can't eliminate bitcoin on their country rather it will be hard for them to transact it and withdraw or convert it into fiat money. They would even IP block the whole country into some bitcoin sites where can be easily be bypass thru VPN networks. Those could be the only outcome once a country ban bitcoin or any cryptocoin.

It's possible not only that Chinese Government but also other government can block different sites that are related directly to Bitcoin and if the Government want to cut the internet off for public and private use then they could do so. Governments can do whatever they want in their country and manipulate everything to their favor.


Actually, it is easy for a Government to do that. Like what I've said Government can manipulate everything. They have total control over this type of case. They could make a law that prohibits citizens to transact or use Bitcoin in the corresponding country.


To answer your question logically, Let's say you were written/printed down your QR Code and Private Key to transact over the border. How would you access your wallet if the country bans those Crypto related apps such as Online and offline wallets, this forum and etc.? If you already have the account before the law or ban was implemented then for I think it is safe to say that no one can track it down. But how would you access it? Don't underestimate the power of Government.

Literally speaking, can the government ban Bitcoin in a certain country? The answer is yes. But can they control their citizens to obey this? Not entirely. The government can easily do banning and treating Bitcoin illegal. However, since they cannot monitor each and every individual, they cannot fully impose that law. The government can easily instruct their major ISPs to block all access related to Bitcoin but some can just use VPN and tunnels.

You can ban it but this will not achieve anything because bitcoin has no boundaries. You can use it everywhere where is internet connection and there are no means to control that. So the ban could only work on the way that no institutions, individuals or merchants are allowed to performe bitcoin related businesses. Ban makes no use that will not stop people from using bitcoin.

Well in fact, there are some countries that ban the usage and utilization of bitcoin due to its nature being decentralized and difficult to regulate. One disadvantage of bitcoin is that, it is being used under the dark web for illegal transactions due to being hard to track-down. The greatest example of this crime can be discussed under the "Silk Road" transaction where it was linked into drugs.

Shutting down the internet just to prevent people from using bitcoin may be a stupid idea because not all people know the existence of bitcoin. There are far greater things can be utilize under the internet than just by shutting it down to prevent any bitcoin transactions. The government though may impose laws that will penalize individuals who still uses bitcoin despite having a law that bans the usage of it.

Of course they cannot ban the internet but what they can ban the Bitcoin wallet websites and on which they can spend bitcoins or trade.
But if the person knows only a little about VPN then their whole work is spoiled.
So technically it's not possible to ban bitcoin anywhere