Bitcoin Forum

The US has shown an increasing appetite to attack and destabilize those it dislikes (i.e. "Cuban Twitter," IRS TeaParty initiative, FCC Press Monitors). Given the Bitcoin community's support for rebels and renegades such as Julian Asange and Edward Snowden, as well as general anti-establishment ethos, does anyone think the US gov't will use it's Silk Road holdings or other influence to disrupt Bitcoin.

Yes, not because it'll pose any real threat to the central banks, but more because of bitcoin's association with crime, and association with anti-government, anti-central bank people.

Look @ the liberty dollar. They trumped up all kinds of charges because the founder spread all kinds of anti federal reserve propaganda.

There's tons of other sellers of gold/silver coins/bullion that never get harassed, but this guy was dumb enough to let everyone know how anti-government he is.

The US Government doesn't care about Bitcoin. China, India, and Russia have prohibited it, but not the US. Go back and  look at the Senate hearings last year. FBI, Homeland Security, DEA, SEC, and FinCen didn't see it as any more of a problem than other stuff they were already dealing with. (The Center for Missing and Exploited Children was worried, but they're not part of the U.S. Government, although they get some DoJ funding.)

And how will it disrupt Bitcoin exactly?

Will US government disrupt Bitcoin?

They have already had a big effect.

The Silk road bust and related coverage had a noticeable impact (some of it was good for BTC)
Positive media coverage sparked the huge 2011 rally.
The recent coverage of Gox was horrible for the BTC market and public perception (i.e. "Bitcoin went bankrupt")

FINCEN vs The IRS....
We are just getting started.

Of course there is the issue of over regulation or competing regulation, with one agency saying it's a commodity (IRS) subject to onerous capital gains filing requirements, and another FinCEN acting like it's a currency requiring complex SAR/AML compliance.  But my other concern is with covert dirty tricks to sabotage public opinion and consumer adoption. By it's very nature, it would be hard to expose, but even more detrimental to BTC and Bitcoin.

What do you think the "Bitcoin is property guidance" is?  Its a nice mid point where they don't interfere with freedoms (you're free to use Bitcoin) but its a bit of a hassle (have to track the price when you acquired to calculate value).  They could have followed the UK lead and called it foreign currency to make it simple to hold and own, but they chose a  awkward option.

My guess is by the time they are worried enough to try and "disrupt" Bitcoin it will be too late.

I do imagine a mess of attempts at regulatory control will come down the pipe.

The true first attempt at US regulation/enforcement has already started with the FinCEN guidance for "Money Services Businesses" (i.e. exchanges), but this does not apply to the average Bitcoin user.

Personally I view the IRS guidance to treat Bitcoin as property for tax purposes as as a fantastic affirmation that needs some work....

They see value, they want their cut.

Considering Bitcoin property is not ideal for encouraging active day-to-day spending in Bitcoin, and was long speculated to be the IRS position.

In my mind both of these rulings are less "disruptive" and more "affirmative" of Bitcoin's rapid rise in popularity as an exchange of value.

Just wait for that killer app that will allow easier tracking of spending bitcoins, will be the key to keep IRS at bay.  But yes the government may try to thwart bitcoin.  Also I don't see a benefit to that because the silly ones will leave a nice digital trail for feds to sniff out and hunt people down.

As I pointed out before, the IRS is treating Bitcoin the same way they treat gold. Seems OK. When you sell Bitcoins, there's a capital gain or loss. Same for gold. Same for stocks. No big deal here.

us  govt are trying to distrupt bitcoin in business with the IRS saying bitcoin is property, so to make it too expensive for businesses to keep track of bitcoins