Bitcoin Forum

Can government defeat BTC if they start assassinating full node operators, people who use full node information from others, and anyone who uses Bitcoin?

Of course government doesn't literally need to assassinate these people, it can just use its coercive monopoly on violence to imprison them or otherwise harass them. (Example: Anyone who runs a full node in the US is jailed, anyone who runs a full node in a non-US is flagged as a terrorist.)

What do you think?

Does the government assassinate people who buy gold? Do they kill people who use store vouchers? Would they destroy people who trade copper on commodities markets? There is no reason for them to do it and what's more, a decentralized currency is reasonably impervious to it. Not a very clever question

Node operators are like the heads of Hydra, you cut 10 off and 100 more pop up  :D Governments have a better chance of controlling Bitcoin if they send their people to slowly infiltrate the community/system/network over time. It's always best to fight a system from within right? You should watch "The Departed", awesome movie  :)

I truly believe they have better things to do with their time. And if they did want to mess with things then all they have to do is place a few phone calls to the isp people.

You can counter this by funding terrorist groups with BTC to wreak havok on the government. ;D

A bitcoin node cost around 10 bucks a month? Why would anyone kill you for that?

Typically, the gov does not assassinate people... it buys people... you are more useful alive than dead

Take a look at politicians... the Clintons have taken over $3,000,000,000 in bribes (that's 3 Billion, with a B)

There are only a handful of major mining pools now... bribe/blackmail 2-3 of them and you control 51% of the network

While there are some big ass farms owned directly by pool types, there's still enough other miners to simply go mine elsewhere. If there was the slightest sniff of a pool operator selling out they'd be abandoned in a matter of minutes.

Well maybe the government will not do that because its a hassle they have more things needed to be taken care of than destroying bitcoin.  ;D

Wow, hadn't thought of that. Murdering all miners and node operators. I guess that if one country does this, all the people involved with BTC in that country would just emigrate. But frankly, this is most unlikely to ever happen. As long as BTC doesn't harm anyone, it would take a dictator to impose such rules, and they shall have other priorities.

Well in my opinion Government cannot assassinate bitcoin. Maybe they will try to control bitcoin's price so that It will not overthrow fiat currencies  ;D

To keep control of your slaves.

killing slaves just makes them disappear, to control slaves you just need capital punishment - fear and terror. (cutting off extremities and stuff like that)

they only need to assassinate a few people and everyone else would get the message.

From https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1524766.msg15352852#msg15352852:
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Excellent point. But how can they control it and use it to their advantage? Any possible scenario in your mind?

Why would the government try to destroy Bitcoin? There are too many alternatives to fiat money, and I'm not even including the alts.

Frankly speaking, Ethereum is more dangerous for governments than BTC. Recent attack on DAO may give some hints for this! And you're correct about too many alternatives to fiat. The question is which one is powerful alternative to fiat? Of course BTC.