Bitcoin Forum

I've often heard that nothing can stop bitcoin.
While this may be true, I would like to make a list of all possible ways in which banks and governments will try to fight against BTC. So we could find ways to anticipate against it.

Some ideas:

- Prison sentences for people getting caught owning BTC, trading it or selling goods in BTC. Penalties so severe that most people will back off. I often hear local media associate BTC holders with criminals and money launderers, and expect governments to treat them as such. Local banks in my country can face penalties if crypto profits are transfered to a local bank account.

- Regulation for exchanges getting so tough that they can never comply, which will cause them to be shut down, which would generate a run on crypto with a similar effect to FTX bankruptcy.
- Liquidity crises of the exchanges. In case of a bank run, banks can pay about 3% of their account holders. I wonder which amount of liquidity an exchange should have to be solvent. FTX behaved like a bank, but the difference is that FTX' bankruptcy can cause a crash of BTC price while a bank run just leads to the bank being bailed out by the IMF, without the currency getting destroyed.

If you think that none of these things is a realistic threat to the system, let me know.
If there are other threats, likewise.

Technically speaking, it is impossible to prevent anyone from using Bitcoin unless you succeed in cutting off the Internet completely from their devices for a long time. There is practically no effective way to stop the use of Bitcoin.
On the other hand, some governments are restricting users who can identify them, but this does not stop the wave of adoption. We have seen governments discredit Bitcoin and others warn about it.
The best way to deal with this is for governments to legalize its use and benefit from it, which seems far away due to the stubbornness of the banking sector, which is considered the most affected.

Giving punishment to anyone who adopts bitcoin is actually too much if indeed this is enforced in my opinion because in this case bitcoin is not a crime. As for later, there must be excuses about money laundering, fraud and supplying terrorists, for example, that obviously doesn't really have an impact because of course bitcoin isn't wrong because they are just objects, so in this case I still feel that the action to give punishment, let alone severe punishment, has been definitely can't be done.

On the other hand, I actually still feel that a ban like this won't have a real impact no matter what happens and it won't be very useful.

When we weren't able to control something we'll try to regulate. This is how things used to get into regulation. In such a way I'll try to keep it regulated with certain limitations. We know there are possible ways to make use of it amidst the regulation. For now having control over the centralised cryptocurrency related service providers is the best choice. This could help in keeping things on track atleast to some 50%

Ask yourself why no country is doing it. The answer is, because it can never work in a Western country, where people have some basic freedoms. How would any court justify imprisoning people for owning a digital form of money? Nobody would feel safe if they started busting people's doors and going through their computers because they bought cryptocurrency.

The best way of fighting it is doing what they're doing, trying to make a centralized version of digital currency that they control and that is linked to the current financial system to satisfy people who want fast digital money that can be sent 24/7 with minimum fees. CBDC will cover that for you, be accepted even in places that don't accept bitcoin and allow the government to track your purchases, charge you as you go and such.

It's already being done. The goal is to create a society where you get a ticket and the money is taken from your account. They don't ask you to pay the bill, they just take the money. You get into argument with your wife and leave home, she calls the police, says you hit her, they access your wallet and see that you bought a beer in a bar, they go there and arrest you.

Another situation. The government decides to additionally tax all owners of cars that are over 25 years, or over 2 litre, or whatever. They instantly know you own one and deduct the tax from your wallet.

The best way to fight something is to make people disregard it by showing vulnerabilities in the system and making something that is similar and doesn't have those exact vulnerabilities. It may have different ones, but they'll emphasize the ones they want to "fix"

Example? Bitcoin is vulnerable because of its exchanges. Our digital currency will be exchangeable at any bank, so you'll be able to create a digital currency account and transfer any amount of fiat currency into it through the bank's API, with no fees! We won't tell you that this digital currency is centralized and we have full control over its creation and destruction. We'll concentrate on making you fear crypto exchanges and feel secure exchanging at our bank.

I think attacking the endpoints of Bitcoin is the easiest way. Nobody would get far by tracking down each and every Bitcoin user if some dumb government were to make Bitcoin illegal (again³). The endpoints in this case are, for example, the centralized service platforms. Like a centralized crypto exchange. Centralization is too easy to control, freeze or close down, if I were the government.

So I go after the people who sell services for and with Bitcoin. But thats easy to avoid when everyone switches to web3 and since nobody needs centralized platforms to sell/buy goods and services, using decentralized services will compliment the decentralized nature of Bitcoin really well. And not only that, but the disconnection from government-traceable platforms will make fighting against Bitcoin impossible...

In other words, if I were the government I would do nothing because I can do nothing. ;D

There is actually no realistic threat against Bitcoin. The reason is simply that Bitcoin is unstoppable. No government can stop it. Many have tried but look at where Bitcoin is now. It is up and running and growing and even adopted by governments themselves.

The very fact that we are now discussing about the possible ways to stop Bitcoin means that Bitcoin can't be stopped. But you can at least make it illegal. That wouldn't stop Bitcoin of course but at least you're instilling fear to the people.

There isn't a perfect method to fight bitcoin. It was created in a way to difficult regulators persecuting bitcoin adopters at its maximum. The techniques used by governments must be extremely intrusive and time plus effort demanded to keep every citizens under control, what it's not practicable for real. There will be always gaps abused by bitcoin adopters to avoid being caught by authorities. Governments are wasting their time thinking about fighting bitcoin. It's a lost fight already.

You ask in this forum with the majority of bitcoiners about how to fight bitcoin? I personally know how bitcoin works in general, I'm not going against it.

I have no idea that even governments feel threatened (unless they have a highly corrupt system), instead the threat is aimed at the fractional reserve system of bankers. If leaders want a transparent financial system, then they must follow how bitcoin works.

It can not be done globally.
But if they are up for it, every government I guess will need to crack down, illegalize and confiscate. It will be a fight that will take a very long time and they would have to include banks and institutions owning BTC. People resist everything that government deems illegal,  if China hates BTC, its people will use BTC more for thier revolution.

This is not a good question in this forum, as I am sure that they are really opposed to it. But so we can anticipate what the move from the government is, here are my thoughts on this. The government will levy massive taxes on bitcoin owners in the country that small time holders cannot afford, which will benefit the government because only the wealthiest and most eager to own bitcoin will pay taxes, potentially generating millions of dollars for other projects. That is only my thought, but the main reason they banned bitcoin was because it was used for illegal activities.

I think there is no way to completely stop bitcoin. Look at what China has done with bitcoin, they have banned all things bitcoin related like mining, trading or holding all over their territory but as far as I know there is still a large part of Chinese people still using bitcoin. There are ways we can deal with those bans today. There is only one way that can stop bitcoin and that is to destroy the entire internet but of course that will never be possible.

For whatever reason I have no intention of banning bitcoin completely if I were the government. I can expect good profits from bitcoin by regulating and taxing every trading transaction on a centralized exchange. In fact, this way both the government and trader alike make a profit rather than total ban on bitcoin.

Here's one I thought about because bitcoin isn't really a threat to fiat. Instead of banning it and preventing people from trading and investing, it would be much more to regulate it. Many world governments regulate it, so things aren't too bad.

Fighting it?

If I were in charge, I would apply the saying: "if you can't beat them, join them".

I would suggest the central bank (which is supposedly independent of politics but we all know that in practice it doesn't work that way), that they would go mining like there is no tomorrow for HODL Bitcoin, in the same way that many central banks hold gold reserves.

The best way to fight against Bitcoin is to shut down all Bitcoin mining farms and ASIC producers. Is it a possible task for government?

I believe they can do it with their power but I really think they don't have enough reasons to do that. It is also very hard to have a consensus amongst many governments at global scale. Bitcoin network is very big and decentralized so that it is more impossible to shut it down completely at global scale.

Bitcoin is a good successful pioneer for blockchain industry which is definitely a big invention in human civilization. Governments can not deny this invention, their citizens like it, the societies actually need blockchain technology and blockchain products to operate better, more efficient, with cheaper cost and more transparency.

To recap, I don't think governments will really fight against Bitcoin in future. They will allow Bitcoin and blockchain industry to grow more.

And even that would not be enough, as eventually the governments will have to get the Internet back online and when they do it then bitcoin will be back as well, this is the power of decentralization, if bitcoin was like a bank and all the power was concentrated in a single centralized entity I have no doubts that bitcoin would be dead already, but since it is decentralized there is no way to kill it unless governments are willing to never use the Internet again.

Actually, for me, the government will not fight bitcoin but instead use it as a source of state revenue.
legalize bitcoin as a legal investment tool and provide taxes to every holder and adopter or every transaction.
that way bitcoin can become very valuable for a country without having to fight its existence.

I think, it will be difficult for government to stop Bitcoiners from Bitcoin in this level Bitcoin has gotten to in the global world, which many countries have heard or seen about the wonders Bitcoin is doing to such countries that made it legal. Is too late for any government to fight against Bitcoin, because without the government make it legal in the country bitcoiners can make use of Bitcoin like the way other countries that made it legalize are using it to do good things in the country. Now that many governments know that banning Bitcoin from a country is like working against the citizens progress in the country will not allow such government to carry out such operation in the country.

See how China did it…

Banning the exchanges from operating and mining would be enough to cripple crypto imo. Also jail anybody who sends money to a foreign exchange or withdraws from them.

Since most people can’t do these without having a legacy bank account, the government would easily catch the law breakers.

It seems that the government is still shy about cooperating with Cryptocurrency and adopting it as a mode of payment that can be legalized. I don't think Investors are fools if they feel cryptocurrencies are unreliable, even with the recent price drop although many people have left the market.

If I'm the government, I wouldn't fight against Bitcoin since I'm the one who support Bitcoin to become legal tender! of course I will try to increase Bitcoin adoption followed with increasing of seminars, teaching about Bitcoin, force all marketplace to accept Bitcoin etc. It doesn't make any sense to fight against Bitcoin, if you want to combat against money launderers, it's impossible since they can also launder with fiat.

How can they regulate it if they can't control it? They can't control btc, that is why they demand regulations on centralized crypto exchanges instead. Before we deal with cryptos or using a centralized exchange, it's important to check the status of cryptos first in our country if it's legal or not so that we can get ourselves out of trouble but there are still people who have a hard head and will continue to use a crypto. For them to not get caught out, they will just use a decentralized exchange.

If let say I am a government I won't do any actions to fight against bitcoin but I will gladly legalized and make btc as a legal tender because I love btc.

What's the need for a fight if government has the power whether to allow the usage of this technology or not? Bitcoin is  being used as an option for mode of payment to some countries while in ither countries, I guess it is not prohibited but rather not supported. A manner of "use it if you want to but we're not in accountable for the risk". Regulation on the other hand remains the same. They could do it if they would want to as long as they would be able to track every transaction which I think would be only possible through third party wallets.They are only into taxes. Also, there's no cooperation needed. They just need to find a way how will they control in and outs of cryptocurrencies from wallet to another. They've already tried third party apps but users in this industry are just not making use of it because of high fees. And they just cannot do anything about it at the present.

Wrong assumption, bitcoin allows to be stopped.

All crimes have the consequence of imprisonment, and that doesn't stop even the criminals.
Instead of thinking about strict regulation, it would be better to ban it altogether. But DEX and p2p are still solutions.
Isn't thiss is not a form of rejection?

So far I haven't thought of a plan to ban it even if I am the government, there is potential to increase the state's revenue, lol.

Honestly having used bitcoin myself and knowing how to keep my foot prints under the radar it would be difficult to catch crypto users, but the best approach would be to get undercover agents to infiltrate crypto markets and let the law take its course or have a some kind of whistle blower policy with handsome rewards upon conviction  ::) But the good part about this is that bitcoin is legal tender and non of this can be implemented  :P

Prison sentence can discourage people from using bitcoins, but it will not stop bitcoin, because some people do not mind doing illegal things so it means it will still be an unsuccessful fight. In countries where their economy is bad and poverty level high, the fight will be more unsuccessful because people already see investing in bitcoins as a way to improve their living conditions, so they will not pay attention to the government. In countries where the economy is good and people living already fine, fighting against bitcoin can be successful because people will want to avoid prison sentence since they are already doing well.

And that's also why all of us here will never be government officials or work in government. If accepting bitcoin, it's like the government is destroying itself because they can't control their own people. Government exists by centralization if you bring decentralization into it the government will disintegrate.

Well, if I were in charged of the head of economics of my country, I would gladly accept and integrate cryptocurrencies to our financials due to its immense potential of growth. Some countries have already started to accept BTC as a means of payment to some services/products in the country.

But if I were tasked to remove cryptocurrencies and prohibit its usage in the country, then implementing laws against its use will do the trick. Imposing a penal sentence would also strengthen the policy against it, thereby removing it entirely from its usage in the country.

Am not sure how my reaction would be assuming am the government and have zero or little knowledge about btc and how it is changing lives, because now am btc user and I know and understand the importance. Most decisions taken by the government regarding btc are based on what they read or are told but not from experience as a user. Reason why some governments can make such strict rules as jail sentences for anyone caught dealing in btc.
If I were the government I would impose regulations on btc and crypto in other to ensure anyone who is interested in the currency will be protected, as a government, it is your duty to protect the citizens from any illegal or criminal activities. This is fairer than jail sentence. 

If I were the government, I would research bitcoin first rather than decide to fight bitcoin. And if I can find out what are the benefits of bitcoin, especially for myself, I will not fight bitcoin instead I will try to spread bitcoin to my friends. Everyone will want to receive something that will benefit them, especially if they can make more money. After all, money can attract curious people, and that is what will be used to get people to accept bitcoins.

It will take two computer and an internet connection to still run the node successfully and well we will be left out of no internet or computers when nuclear war happens and almost everything is exploded out of the world. I highly doubt that anything like that could really happen. Considering your factors well we are already living that sort of life alongside governments so I don’t think there is anything much that can be done to destroy the bitcoin. Technically speaking bitcoin is going to stay for very long period of time. It’s modern and it’s spreading like light.

If I were a government member, I would not prevent Bitcoin, and it is also not possible to prevent. Rather, I would make it legal so that the government could collect taxes like the US. We can't control a decentralized ecosystem, so I'm not going to waste my time trying to stop Bitcoin. I'm not sure why my government doesn't understand it, and that's why people trade Bitcoin on the black market. Legalizing Bitcoin would assist the government in generating revenue. But the government is only concerned with maintaining control over everything.

Since the origin of the cryptocurrency government have never supported bitcoin as a legal tender worldwide, instead they stand to be against Bitcoin development, and i believe that the era has passed when government is being causing why Bitcoin is having a downfall in price, the price of Bitcoin currently is not being caused by the government but by the investors who buy and sell of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is reliable it's depends on the investors mindset in Bitcoin price.

In my opinion, the worst thing that happened to Bitcoin was imposing KYC on users through exchanges and third-party services. Governments succeeded in putting pressure on these services to impose KYC, thus losing all privacy to users.
By forcing users to verify KYC, Bitcoin loses its most important feature, privacy, and thus governments are able to track users, freeze their accounts, and prosecute them.
The best way to avoid this is to stay away from centralized exchanges and use decentralized exchanges and P2P services.

Even if the government goes tight in bitcoin restrictions and sanctions for bitcoin owners, that will not stop people from wanting bitcoin. Just like how they threat illegal gamblers, but still there are a lot of illegal gamblers around betting here and there. Same with bitcoin, they won't be able to control and fight against it, unless if there are sudden internet shutdown, definitely that will stop all bitcoin transactions.

If I were to be government I would not even try to fight against bitcoin, why should I do so? bitcoin is the least of the problems any country can face if it is actually a problem.
I have seen many points you listed that will be used to fight against bitcoin if you were to be government. Remember that no government owns the internet and as long as anyone has an access to internet they can do anything they wish to do. Another point of consideration is there is no central government for the whole world, while the government of United States of America is fighting bitcoin, the government of China will embrace bitcoin,vice versa because the two countries are always going against each other.

Finally, I saw a topic were someone suggested that government will buy the whole available Bitcoin to make bitcoin die off. There was a counter opinion that as government keeps buying, the price of Bitcoin keeps going high to the extent that government will be unable to buy the whole bitcoin. Even if they do, how about the Bitcoin owned by satoshi and other die hard bitcoiners.?

@OP people are stubborn, the more you suppress them, the more they rebel.  I don't think putting Bitcoin supporters to prison will solve the problem of people flocking in to Bitcoin.  True many will have fear but most will feel being suppressed and might rebel against the government by giving more support to Bitcoin.

With regulation on exchanges, Bitcoin doesn't need centralized exchanges to be transferred or traded. There is also decentralized exchanges that can take the place of centralized exchange if need be.

If people starts trading via p2p and decentralized exchanges, there is no need for the exchange liquidity since transaction is directly done by the party involved and no third party is needed for it.

If I was the government, I would regulate every CEX as much as I could. I would forbid bank transfers happening when the receiver is a cex unless It's strictly regulated (this is already happening, but I would endure It). I would regulate stablecoins, those owning these assets on omni or EVM chains would have to provide KYC or else would get their assets burnt. And lastly, I would encourage banks to offer bitcoin products to clients as long as they follow my regulations, this way not only I stop bitcoin, but also profit from It.

But of course, 10 minutes later after I impose my regulations, a bitcoin block would be found. There is no way to fully regulate bitcoin.

I'm lucky that my country and my government didn't against Bitcoin. 
If I were the government, I wouldn't but instead, implement regulations and becomes Bitcoin a legal tender.  We know that there's no intermediary who can control Bitcoin, but you can use this as an advantage of the revolutionary blockchain as we know our technology evolves.

There are too many ways how to use blockchain networks which makes an advantage to our government.  Something like online crypto payments for real estate auctions, taxes, and fees.  So how could anyone be against the utility of blockchain aside from storing the value?

I don't think there is a government that can stop bitcoin 100%, isn't it better for the country to take care of things that are more important than bitcoin itself if one country has economic and security problems,
I think it's a waste of time if one government only focuses on fighting the existence of bitcoin

because Bitcoin cannot be fought and stopped, more and more people are adopting it every day

Yeah, not country or a government is able to stop it. I'll try to follow the footsteps of Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador. Surely it'll bring success to the country's economy in the long term. Also when we allow the people to benefit out of it, surely they'll pay the proper amount to the government. It is for the revenue the countries find possible ways to keep the users under control.

Regulations everywhere. If I were the government, same as what they are doing right now. Regulations. Become more strict. As you can see, these governments are first working on top or on top cryptocurrency entities which I believe for them, by doing that, it will pass down to the retail individuals.
Since Bitcoin really can't control by anyone even the government, it's still useless. For me, those regulations got different to do with Bitcoin since Bitcoin created as decentralized at all.

There are some criminals who are still at large right now. Do you think that putting us Bitcoin holders into prison will be the solution against Bitcoin? Nahhh I don't think so and just think, how will the authorities know who the current Bitcoin holders are? What will be the case that will be given to them? It will take time and I don't think the authorities will do such things like this.

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Overall, there might be some governments that are anti-Bitcoin but, in the end, they can't do anything to stop those people to get involved into cryptocurrency. There is famous quote that says, "If you can't beat them, join them". Government will waste tons of money by fighting against Bitcoin and in the end, they will not accomplish anything that's for sure. Regulations might help but regulations are being made to protect the countrymen and not to stop them from using it.

Government can't stop a thing that they didn't create at first so maybe forget that scenario already that the government will fight against Bitcoin because just by looking at what's happening with Bitcoin, it looks like there are no ways for people to stop them from buying it.

If I were the government, the best way to fight it is to understand it, accept it, even own it, show the people this series of changes and let them judge for themselves.

What might make the most sense in my opinion is too increase friction as much as possible. Saying that Bitcoin is "unstoppable" is indeed true. What governments can do is to turn Bitcoin from an innovational Ferrari into a heavy transport train, maybe blowing up the rails at times to try to stop it temporarily in making any progress.

Now you realize that even if you slow Bitcoin down, it is still a heavy transport train, going slowly but surely as there is enough lobby taking care of functioning rails.

> Prison sentences: that's a funny one because even today many countries have issues in keeping up the logistics and sufficient capacities for criminals not involved in Bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general. When India threatened to put everyone into jail who is dealing with crypto, I guess you wouldn't have had to pass any class in school in order to know that putting 100 million Indians into jail (let's leave the whole administration for police investigation and court processes aside) (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/cryptocurrency/bitcoin/7-indians-own-crypto-7th-highest-globally-un/articleshow/93509467.cms) might be sliiightly too demanding for the Indian system as a whole! :D

Sure, they could try and set precedences by nationwide propaganda, letting people know that someone is going to jail for 15 years as a consequence of owning some Bitcoin, but seriously that is not going to work out either. They would have to destroy any rule of law and any bit of democracy to justify a prison sentence that might not even have the slightest of an effect, taking into consideration that not even the death penalty is backed by science showing that a certain crime rate goes down as a result of the death penalty.  (https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/act500062008en.pdf)

>Increasing regulation for exchanges until they can't handle it anymore: this won't work either in the mid to long-term for various good reasons. One reason is that decentralized exchanges are already there and they will only get better. Multi-sig technologies already allow for safe peer-to-peer transactions on simple websites that can't even easily be shut down by the governments. Fully decentralized exchanges are evolving. How are you going to increase regulation for them? There are surely ways to regulate the version that might be there today, but what if there is another version tomorrow? The issue regulation has in comparison to technological innovation: it always lacks behind. And in many cases the developers might not even be known so you can't even sue anyone.

If I recall correctly, the use of Tornado.cash was sanctioned now. People who use it get into trouble. Really? That leads me to my next point, also addressing your precise question whether increased regulation could force exchanges into compliance issues.

>Lawsuits! Tornado.cash, and I really expected it, under the lead of Coin Center is going to sue US Financial Authorities!  (https://cointelegraph.com/news/coin-center-files-lawsuit-against-us-treasury-over-tornado-cash-sanctions)When governments decide to increase compliance rules to a level such that crypto-related exchanges specifically are brought to their knees, they will guaranteed fight back legally. The case is easy to be made: why would a financial institution facilitating trade be any different in front of the law than the ordinary bank? Crypto exchanges would cooperate, which means they would have access to financial superpower (even Binance alone I guess) and employ an army of lawyers and investigators in order to find loopholes, simple proofs that banks are no different, complex proofs for the matter as well, and probably a lot of stuff we can't even imagine. I want to see the judge who then comes up with a plausible verdict that justifies different treatment between banks and registered exchanges so severe that compliance rules for crypto exchanges can be of magnitudes harder than those for banks. I am sure they can come up with shenanigans for a certain period of time, but they can't probably make a case that means end to crypto exchanges while allowing banks to prosper with their current business models. It just needs a single financial crisis and those verdicts would be attacked again.


The decision that is to be made by governments is whether to fight or embrace Bitcoin, also in the fact of global competition. We have already seen companies choosing the most crypto-friendly countries to incorporate their headquarters. Switzerland was a great example for that and so governments also feel the pressure to not make mistakes and abandon an entire industry with strong future potential.

As I mentioned before, it is technically impossible to prevent people from using Bitcoin simply because it is not possible to prevent people from using the internet on their phones. The state cannot stop the services of Internet providers.
What I mean by legalizing bitcoin is enabling the platforms to obtain activity licenses, so the state can track the financial activities of bitcoin users and be able to tax them and combat suspicious activities. For peer transactions, it cannot be counted, but it remains a degree of risk that cannot be denied.

It is depend on situation of the country, if it seems that it's okay to adopt bitcoin then governments may use bitcoin as catalyst for economic growth because some economics sectors such as fintech and etc may have good development progress. But if the situation of the country need to make the fiat remain strong in the market then they have no choice. I think the problem here is not the government but the fiat that we use. This currency has many weaknesses and can easily loss it's value by only destroy the country literally or economically. It's not like a real gold where it's always has value in many condition.

We’ve often heard a lot of gullible about bitcoin and these can’t stop bitcoins mass adoption. A lot of critics about it have also gone viral which has also hinder its acceptance everywhere. Putting people into jail for using cryptocurrency cannot stop its adoption, only if the internet can be stopped will bitcoin follow suit. So bitcoin is here to stay forever.

I see the government as the enemy of the people. And to protect our assets (BTC) we must understand how the enemy thinks and operates.
As George Orwell predicted, banks and governments want to control every aspect of our lives.
If you ask the bank to withdraw $5000 dollars, they will interrogate you like a criminal for getting access to your own money.

Bitcoin is totally out of their control. They can not tax what they don't know you own.
Central banks can not print bitcoin. They can't enslave humans with debt traps in BTC, with inflation, and with rising intrest rates killing economies.
Therefore banks and governments are terrified of bitcoin. They can't take it from you.

So I expect banks and governments to fight back, and I wonder how they will.
I expect excuses like "Criminals use it for money laundering" and "Mining bitcoins is bad for the environment. We must save the planet"
Or "Trading bitcoin for currency is a threat to the stability of the monetary system. Therefore we must prevent conversion of currency to BTC"

The FTX bankruptcy seems to have sparked a contagion of collapses that may cause a total meltdown of the crypto industry. It would not surprise me if Sam Bankman Fried acted as a service to the banking industry.

While it is true that the government can't stop the internet, I don't think this means it can't stop BTC.

In 1971, president Nixon made a legendary speech in which he forbid all foreign nations to exchange their dollars for gold.
In reality this was because the US had made far more expenses in dollars than it could back up in gold. But in the speech, Nixon said that this exchange was now forbidden in order to protect the value of the dollar against speculators. And to protect the monetary stability of the USA.  The dollar would lose its purchasing power if everybody dumped them for gold.

By the same analogy, I think that governments can prevent the conversion from BTC to currency (USD/euro).
They can do this by regulating the exchanges. For example demanding that every transaction in BTC gets validated (no criminals involved) the way a regular bank validates payments or declines them.

At this point, your BTC has value because you can convert it to currency. Which you can then use to buy gas, groceries, real estate..
If governments succeed in prohibiting the exchange from BTC to currency, you can no longer pay.
Probably for some stuff in El Salvador where BTC is currency, but not in Europe.

Maybe a BTC holder would have to go to El Salvador to convert BTC, and then fly back home with the asset.

Lol, I really liked the idea,  :D

I believe no country's government is ignorant of Bitcoin right now. Governments of all countries have ministries of information and technology and have considerable knowledge of blockchain.

It is my belief that almost every country's government has an investment in Bitcoin. They know they can't stop people from using Bitcoin, but what they can do is create fear in people's minds. If the government can ever identify Bitcoin users, they present them to society as if they are the world's most feared criminals, they present Bitcoin as a taboo in the eyes of society. However, it is certain that they do not have the power to separate people from Bitcoin.

But they want the people to stay away from the decentralized system. For example, I can talk about Sri Lanka. Today, if the people of Sri Lanka had invested in Bitcoin and not deposited money in the bank, even if their banks were bankrupt, the people would have been freed from this curse.


regards

duke

After regulation, do you believe that the government will succeed in taxing bitcoin?

I will give you a realistic situation. My parents own 3 properties, with a total value of 1 million dollars.
The government loves stealing money from citizens, so they have invented an inheritance tax. If my father passes away, I have to pay roughly $300 000 of inheritance taxes for those properties. It's like getting expropriated.

Obviously I do not want to pay these taxes. I can ask my father to sell the 3 properties while he is still alive. Then convert the revenue of 1 million dollars to BTC, and then pass it to my Ledger device. Now the government can not claim $300 000 of taxes. I will just own 1 million dollars of BTC with 0 tax. The government can not see my account. I can say I have made other transactions or got robbed. So they can't tax me and they lose their income.

Do you see why the government and the bank hate BTC?

I think that the arguments tax evasion and money laundering will cause them treat holders of bitcoin like criminals.

I don't know where you live, but I doubt that it is possible to sell (or buy) properties without some kind of taxation. No matter what form of payment you use. If your strategy to avoid taxation is buying/selling with cryptocurrency, you cannot avoid paying taxes. You can try to evade them, but that is illegal and I would not recommend it as you will most likely fail.

The government hates BTC and other cryptocurrencies because they can't control them. They want to control everything and make sure they get their cut, but Bitcoin is a decentralized currency that cannot be controlled by any one entity. This is why many governments around the world are cracking down on cryptocurrencies, but it is also why more people are using them. The more the government tries to control things, the more people will look for alternatives and seek out ways to protect their privacy when using digital currencies like Bitcoin.

Around the world many government and countries hate with Bitcoin adopted as legal currency transaction except El Savador have made it legal, I don't think easy if our position in government and want to make Bitcoin as legal currency transaction because need all parliament agreement vote. Have little funny in my country because Bitcoin is illegal transaction currency and we can't use Bitcoin for transaction on real market, but each trade we made always cut off for paying taxes.

If I were government one day later, I will try give solution and talk about what positive side from Bitcoin and why have to make it legal, need to give clearly explaining how to make people understand about Bitcoin and have positive impact when Bitcoin adopting.

By the same analogy, similar decisions could never be applied to digital assets that people can use without their governments knowing. Comparison with gold is not permissible because the entire gold market is monitored and cannot be hidden, unlike Bitcoin, which preserves the privacy of users.
People can use bitcoin as a meaning of exchange even without converting it into fiat. People today in many societies that suffer from financial and economic crises use USDT, for example, to carry out small buying and selling operations peer-to-peer, without the need to convert it into fiat, but only give it a value according to the value of the dollar in the market.
When countries legalize use, it does not mean that they will actually be able to monitor the movement of bitcoin among their citizens, they simply cannot do anything in front of it, and this is what makes bitcoin a real safe haven.

No, I do not think that the government will succeed in taxing Bitcoin, yes, they can implement taxation on cryptocurrency, that is easy but the challenge is collection of taxes.  They won't succeed because government is already a failure in collecting tax on their own currency.

It’s nearly an impossible task to completely stop people from using bitcoin. The government would have to spend a lot of resources and time to make it work. The most effective way which the governments have been using to prevent mass adoption of bitcoin is bad media representation of bitcoin. Bitcoin has been tainted by the media and called many bad names, a fraud, a Ponzi scheme, KGB tool, anything and everything has been said in the media to present bitcoin in a negative space. It worked for a while but now people are beginning to see through their BS

But they are taxing cryptocurrency without any hassle.

For example I can say, In my country, it is not possible to buy Bitcoin by using fiat money from an exchange unless I pay taxes to the government.

Yes, many will say why we need to use the exchange? Just use p2p system. It is true that using p2p does not incur tax but there is some risk in using p2p.
So, I think Bitcoin should be legalized even if the government pays a little taxes. At first we need vast adoption.

Simply put, no one, including the government, can stop Bitcoin. But for most people, Bitcoin and other digital currencies are tools for making money and reasonably protecting their property. If I were the government, I would cancel the cash flow channel, close the exchange, and prohibit the transaction of digital currency. It is possible to make digital currency transactions illegal.

Since Bitcoin is a decentralized currency and it is very popular worldwide, it is not a wise thing to fight against it and it is not possible to fight against it because even if the government of a country outlaws and bans Bitcoin in its country, still Bitcoins are traded through various third parties.  Lovers will use Bitcoin in any way.  Which cannot be prevented by the government so if I were the government I would focus more on how to better use Bitcoin instead of fighting against it.

This is because despite their propaganda and how powerful it can be they cannot deceive people forever, especially now when people are suffering through massive inflation and governments have no solution at hand they can offer, so in that scenario is natural for people to begin to look for answers by themselves, and they found out that bitcoin is a tool that could allow to them to avoid or at least reduce somewhat the impact that inflation has on their savings.

Bitcoin was born shortly after the 2008 crisis and so far, this is the first time bitcoin has faced an inflationary economic crisis. Until now I think bitcoin has not fully exerted its anti-inflation feature as it was also hit hard during the last economic crisis and even more unlucky, this time coincides with a bitcoin bear cycle. If we hold bitcoin from now on and the next economic crisis, then I think bitcoin will really come into play. This time, it still doesn't work.

And it seems that your idea has been widely implemented in several countries that are friendly to cryptocurrency and bitcoin. tax policy does make more sense. because it can bring benefits to countries that implement these policies. increasing income into the state treasury and of course by increasing the money in the state treasury, this money can be used for the needs of the state in building a prosperous country.

Most countries still debate about crypto, but some countries already consider crypto assets as commodities and not as a means of payment (except El Salvador). but it is also considered a positive thing. as an example, in my country Bitcoin and Crypto have been considered as commodities by the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (Bappebti). Sourch (klikpajak.id (https://klikpajak.id/blog/pajak-cryptocurrency/))

So that in Indonesia the crypto tax has been legally enforced. even some government officials are interested in building crypto projects with several universities in my country. however I will not name the project. and it goes to show that government and crypto shouldn't always clash. as if every government in a country is like anti-crypto. when in fact it is not like that.

and even if i was in a government position i would do the same as you and what my country has done.

If I happen to be in the coridor of power in government I wouldn't stop or ban bitcoin rather I will formulate a policy that won't affect our local currency or monetary policy after adopting the use of bitcoin, of course some government officials are scare of the decentralized feature of bitcoin and how it will affect their banking operations or system if people are given a free will to use bitcoin for payment purposes especially for goods and services, how will government impose task in bitcoin transactions? how will bank staff retain their jobs? if people no longer use bank e.t.c if any government can proffer solutions to those problems I believe bitcoin can be adopted.

As an individual I have good vission for Bitcoin to be used as a form money and investment wise. However, for a democratic system of Government like in my country, government affairs are not run only by one entity, there are other players involved which includes the Senate, the Federal excutive council and other arms of government to actually take some decision, but in this case I will ensure good policies are in place which will help Bitcoin thrive in my country.

Newbie asking the Bitcoin community what they fear the most about the Government.  Pretty suspicious!  Just kidding.

I think once Bitcoin becomes big enough, they will be willing to sacrifice a lot to make sure Bitcoin is at least partially in their control or that Bitcoin loses credibility.  Considering current society, there are a few things they can do.

First, make sure Bitcoin is seen as the bad guy everywhere by everyone.  How hard is it for the FBI or CIA to pretend Bitcoin has been found to empower one of the largest criminal network in the world?  Ensure mainstream media coverage all around the globe.  This is enough for Bitcoin's Market Cap to already drop substantially.

Second.  While keeping the Bitcoin narrative going for months, shut the Internet or Electricity grid for a matter of minutes.  Yes, minutes of national Internet shut down or power cut I think could have a very serious impact on Bitcoin's credibility.

From there on, it gets much simpler.  Just use these two narratives to make sure a significant percentage of the population gets scared away.  Bitcoin, the nonexistent currency when you have no more Internet!  Bitcoin, the currency empowering crime!  They would love such articles to exist, would they not.

-
Regards,
PrivacyG

And how can you tell that these people owned BTC or other cryptocurrencies? People these days are clever enough to hide their digital assets and with the information that the government will give heavy punishments to those people who are holding crypto, they will surely do everything they can to just to prevent the government from knowing. And in this time and age, there's so many ways to evade the government from knowing. Just like China, I don't really expect that all people in the mainland China doesn't hold any digital assets anymore just because their government is banning it.

This is funny, why do we have to be against it? People will continue to try to use Bitcoin in various ways, even if you have many ways to curb them.

But if you mean me (as a government) against Bitcoin is a war, what I might have done is:
1. Doing what Rodrigo Duterte did when fighting drug dealers. Hunt and execute them immediately, every one of Bitcoin users.
2. Apply the same punishment as Xi Jinping did to corruptors in his country.

I'm a dictator!

Nobody knows how to proceed with the regulation of bitcoin as it is a very difficult task, as the ever-increasing interest in bitcoin increases, regulators will surely go to great lengths to try to enforce laws on this decentralized protocol.
and bitcoin will go up or down on its own, and nothing will stop it other than shutting down the internet or making tough laws against the people involved even if it doesn't matter to them. Because they will continue to try to use it in various ways, so I don't think there is a really effective way yet and do we know if there is a government that prohibits it, do we know 100% no one uses it

Because I never had a government plan that was too complicated on every order. What's the point of the government banning the use of Bitcoin by every citizen as long as Bitcoin can be a solution for them.
There are several countries that clearly and unequivocally prohibit their citizens from getting involved with all types of crypto but their citizens are still looking to be able to engage in crypto activities amidst the severe sanctions that are imposed if caught.

As long as the internet still exists in a country, then during that time crypto activity will continue.

Every country's government is more concerned about cryptocurrency. They can not permit it to openly use on the other not able to collect revenue from it. Basically they try to keep the cryptocurrency under their control but they know that is not possible that is why they shows negative attitude towards Cryptocurrency.

They argue that since virtual currency is not issued by the legitimate authority of any country, there is no recognition of monetary claims against it. Transactions in virtual currencies can lead to money laundering and terrorist financing activities. Governments in various countries have identified transactions in virtual currencies online with anonymous or pseudonymous counter parties as violations of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.

In addition, governments of various countries have warned that customers transacting through online networks may face various risks, including potential financial and legal risks of virtual currencies.

Basically, If we can find a proper solution to these issues, there will be no more negative reactions to Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency. However, currently the government of different countries or their high ranking officials are trading in crypto confidentially. I think this is a positive aspect of Bitcoin or Cryptocurrency.

Yes they can and some like the USA do collect their share of the revenue and accept its usage. It's called using/enforcing their current tax systems. The setup is no different than how they handle business that are cash based. Any busness that has income MUST report it no matter it being crypto or fiat. Same for individuals.

This is because despite their propaganda and how powerful it can be they cannot deceive people forever, especially now when people are suffering through massive inflation and governments have no solution at hand they can offer, so in that scenario is natural for people to begin to look for answers by themselves, and they found out that bitcoin is a tool that could allow to them to avoid or at least reduce somewhat the impact that inflation has on their savings.
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While this sounds nice in theory, I do not believe this is true in real life.
I work, I have a masters degree, I pay my bills and I own a 70 000 savings account. So debt free.
However my savings account, getting eaten by inflation, is necessary in order to receive a mortgage plan for buying a home.
So I can't convert it to BTC. Banks want fiat money.

Also I can't convert my incoming salary to BTC as a hedge against inflation, because I need it for bills priced in fiat currency.
I think that investing in a life changing amount of BTC is only for the non working class, and for very early investors.

The entire working class is looking at a future in which we are paid in a depreciating currency. With inflation higher than 10% in the EU, we will lose half of our purchasing power in 5 years if this continues. And I believe it will.

I believe that in the opinion of the elites, we are too many on the planet. They depreciate our currencies on purpose, so that we can no longer pay and they have total control over us. By 2030 you will own nothing. That famous line of the World Economic Forum

Why you try to ban a something beneficial to your people? If you see that bitcoin is helping people to change their lives and they get good money without boundaries or discrimination then I guess there's nothing wrong with it and this must be adopted. If they are worried about frauds or certain illegal activities happen and using this as glorious escape then make a law and reinforce this to eliminate or decrease such incident to protect the people which is using this option.

 Government need to think positive side since if they always think about fighting it for sure they can destroy life who's working legitimately on the industry and I bet many people are in legit space on bitcoin or crypto paying jobs.

It's hard to think that way but maybe if someone that was thinking the opposite as what the developers been thinking that's how they would do it. And I think Satoshi already think that way or maybe someone gave him the idea that's why Bitcoin has been created that way as a decentralized crypto currency.

Most of the government that are against Bitcoin was against from people who buy/trade Bitcoin because they think it will hinder them from growing their country's economy but I think the truth is if they can't control who's using Bitcoin their economy such as monopoly business will be countered. And also, money laundering is what they are against too and protecting some people from scam. That's why they pushed the regulation to each exchanges that already exist.

The government can never stop and kill Bitcoin but it can make things around Bitcoin so difficult...just like what the China did and can be doing. Usually, only a regime which is authoritarian can do so if there is any country banning Bitcoin it could mean that its leader or leaders can be concentrating power on themselves and can soon be dictators on their own. In a democratic setting, there is no big reason why Bitcoin should be banned and must even be encouraged to survive and flourish. When you have a good level of control with the population, you are just going to say this and that - and am sure majority of the people will be following your wishes and command.

I wouldn't, in fact I would focus on how I could control it instead of ban it. This way I would promote all of my citizens to use it as much as they can for their foreign works, and then tax them in crypto when they do a business and create a treasury just for bitcoin.

This means, we are not going to charge people for trading income or loss, we are just going to charge them for the transactions they make, even if we do just 1%, that would be huge for most nations, 1% on all crypto they get to their accounts. They may hide it, that's the problem, if they don't, even 0.1% tax would be awesome, and put that in the treasury and in a decade or two we would have hundreds of billions of dollars in bitcoin.

The thing is I would never try to fight against bitcoin because I see no reason for fighting with something which can make me rich and help my people so instead of fighting agasint it I wwould try to accpet it and take a an step for adoption of bitoin in my country while if I wanted to fiht agasint it I would try to take control over internet and try to track any back transaction or my people which is what they do in china howver they are not compely suvsfull about it.

The government can't win against Bitcoin, because Bitcoin was built to be bulletproof of whatever the government has to throw at Bitcoin. The fact that Bitcoin is decentralized means all the attempt to regulate Bitcoin will fail. The government can try regulating all centralized exchange so they can be ahead with monitoring of transaction but those who transact P2P won't be monitored.

The government should give up in trying to control Bitcoin and embrace the fact that they can't control Bitcoin and see how they can work things out so the market is protected from manipulation and become more secure so more and more companies can enter into the market which will be more portable to them through taxation of the exchanges.

They can't win or completely eliminate bitcoin but don't try to provoke or confront them, it's not in our favor either. In the worst case, the governments get together and put in place a total ban, that would be big trouble for us. As long as you still live under their control, don't expect anything to help you against them or bring you absolute freedom.

If you don't expect them to control it, don't expect them to protect you from manipulation or fraud, hold yourself accountable for your actions.

Not me. Governments worldwide. The intention of governments is not to help people. It is to control people.
Real power is not in the hands of politicians. It is in the hands of central banks who control the supply of currency, who devalue currency so they can destroy purchasing power of the people. Who indebt nations so they control nations and gain geopolitical power (look what China is doing in Africa)

Bitcoin is a threat to the hegemony of central banks. It makes them lose all control.
Which is a great thing, but which is also the reason why governments fight back against crypto.

For crypto to thrive, its holders must understand how governments will fight against it (media campaign, mining ban, collapsing exchanges, prison sentences for holders..).
Just like any football team needs to understand how the opponent will attack.

Even if you make bitcoin illegal, it does not guarantee that people will stop from buying or using it. Although some may develop fear, but I think that’s only for those who are beginners in bitcoin, those who have been hodling or using bitcoin for long term will not be threaten anymore. Unless if you have control on the internet connection and shut it down like months, bitcoin will never exist anymore. But it will also affect the traditional money as well.

if the globalists carry out their great reset & KYC the internet so you need a government ID to login - that could work for a while

it will only go for as long as people comply with it though & there will probably be black market routes to get online

they can regulate & surveillance it to no end but again that comes down to compliance, & enforcing it will be very costly & time consuming. also privacy tools are only getting better.

they could ban self custody & try to confiscate from citizens - however extorting 12/24 words from people will prove difficult

they could try attack the network/make some change in code. would be very expensive & probably achieve nothing. 2017 block wars is a testament to this. the people (nodes) defended the network against corporations.

at the end of the day, there's nothing criminal about Bitcoin. the right thing to do is stop complying with criminals. fiat has enslaved humanity for too long.

things like that won't really have an impact on bitcoin users, because if the government can make rules like that, on what basis? Where's wrong with bitcoin?

maybe because bitcoin is not legal in countries that make regulations like that.
bitcoin users must still be able to defend themselves, because adopting bitcoin is not a crime, in fact many people have become millionaires and billionaires through bitcoin.

the government should even be grateful to bitcoin, because it can reduce unemployment, and create jobs for many people.

the point is the government has not been able to think in that direction.

It possible to control bitcoin if the government kill all the citizens in the country and if not it is impossible for the government to control bitcoin because bitcoin is out of government control and if banks are not allowed to receive bitcoin, bitcoin can still be traded by peer to peer which the government will not even know when the transaction would take place. The only way bitcoin can be controlled is when the authorities have an access to the individual wallet like Fiat banks if not it is not possible.

If governments really want to ban bitcoin, they just need to band together, ban all miners, trade and be ready to jail life in prison if someone tries to violate it, bitcoin will die instantly at at that moment. There are ways for the government to ban bitcoin but the problem is that banning bitcoin is not in their favor either. Instead of ban, they will impose regulation and they will be able to tax us, which gives them more benefits than a ban.

That sounds pretty harsh and I wonder if this could be accepted in a fully democratic country. In western nations cannabis is getting legalised, so people getting caught with larger amounts are not facing any prison time anymore. Which would be crazy if then people who own BTC are getting arrested instead. Owning BTC alone should not be a punishable offence, only if the BTC are being used for illegal activities. In my opinion banning crypto currencies outright is never a good solution and will only move BTC transaction out of the government reach. A ban one something never works 100%, there will be loopholes. If I were in charge than I would use taxation as my main tool to control the use of crypto currencies in my country. If the government really wants to reduce the use of cryptos, than increasing taxation would be one option. Like this the government will actually profit of the use of cryptos and still gives it's citizens the option to choose which type of currency they want to use. 

So far there has been no case where someone possessing bitcoin was arrested for violating government regulations against it. I'm not sure there's a country that 100% prohibits its citizens from owning bitcoin other than China, but I don't think China can even ban fully decentralized P2P commerce.

As far as I know, there are not very strict regulations regarding bitcoin users yet, but if there are then surely they are committing other violations such as money laundering or other illegal acts. In the end it is true, regulating and centralizing bitcoin users is still better than banning bitcoin 100%. However, the government has its own will to regulate and make rules.

yeah like that.
And actually if there is any government Efforts that are hostile to Bitcoin and make things difficult for all bitcoin users. I think the government is just a waste of time. Because they have to realize that they cannot control Bitcoin. Because everyone naturally has the instinct of a sense of freedom. Everyone doesn't want to be restrained. and included in the problem of the financial system. that's what makes bitcoin and crypto users always strong.
because the presence of Bitcoin has in fact become an option for those of us who like freedom and don't want to always be controlled by a centralized system.

Maybe for developed countries that are currently controlling world finances that are centralized, they must be disturbed by the presence of Bitcoin. So it's not surprising that they are trying to make FUD about bitcoin. But for developing countries and countries that are experiencing a financial crisis that continues to decline due to inflation, in fact Bitcoin has become a solution. Like the Central African Republic. And for countries that don't have their own currency like El Salvador, bitcoin has become a good choice to serve as a payment option in that country.

So instead of strictly prohibiting it, I think the government is better off making policies to supervise and provide security for its citizens, such as making tax policies. so that governments and their citizens who use bitcoin can both benefit from it.
and that's what I would do if I became a government.

And now more and more Governments in a country are doing this.

as the latest is the passage of the crypto bill in Brazil. and it looks like this bill will be submitted to President Jair Bolsonaro for approval before his term ends on December 31.

And if the bill is passed. then the impact I think will be bigger than El salvador. because Brazil is a country that is pretty much eyed by many countries. so it is possible that more countries will follow Brazil in terms of the policy on the crypto bill.
namely the bill, which aims to provide oversight of the cryptocurrency sector in the country.
see more at Sourch : Brazil’s Congress Passes Bill Legalizing Bitcoin, Ether Payments (https://zycrypto.com/brazils-congress-passes-bill-legalizing-bitcoin-ether-payments/)

No country can be called a full democracy, if it is called a full democracy, there will be no laws and regulations. Cannabis is banned because it's addictive and creates social ills, but if it were legal, the government wouldn't be affected too much. But if this is the case with bitcoin, bitcoin is not addictive but will seriously affect the power of the government, so they can still take drastic measures to crack down on bitcoin.

I still believe the government can ban bitcoin altogether, but if they do, it won't be in their favor either. Instead of banning, they can regulate and control us through regulations and taxes, precisely what they want more than ever.

I don't think that Government around the world can simultaneously agree to ban or make Bitcoin illegal worldwide because people have different mentalities towards everything however if for any wired reason they could come together to agree on this and makes Bitcoin illegal then, the use and of Bitcoin might greatly be affected. How many people do you really think will continue to hodl BTC and how many miners will continue?
We all saw what happened with miners in China after the ban and the BTCitcoin network, imagine that replicated around the world. 

I would say the most effective way would be:

- to make it cumbersome to use due to every transaction being taxed no matter how small it is so that people dont want to transact with it

- promote the idea that bitcoin is bad, risky, scammy, and that mining us bad and wasteful

- keep crypto space fairly unregulated but with some rules applied but not clearly explained to users/companies and with no clear way to find out what the rules are, but make companies comply and sue them after the fact even though no rules were publicly given

- promote PoS altcoins over Bitcoin to hurt Bitcoin, knowing no altcoins will ever be able to compete with it so there is no alternative

- keep KYC rules heavy for centralized exchanges so some of the benefit of Bitcoin is lost and lots of tracking is done on people's money movements


The US, for example, already does all this and I think it works pretty well to try to keep usage low, participation low, and negative sentiment around Bitcoin.

The other option is to try to forcefully get rid of Bitcoin but that is much harder to do in free democratic nations and it would never totally work anyway as we see in China.

This will only happen for sure in a dictatorial country where everything should be followed whatever the Leader of the country wishes without getting any second opinions from its people. It won't gonna happened because once they implement such kind of thing in a Democracy country, then it will become no less than a Dictatorial leadership. The government has its own limitations and people always come up with their own innovations when they want to own bitcoins. They cannot just add a law that is harsh to their people's freedom.

In a democratic country I don't think people can be sent to jail just because the use bitcoin. World leaders always try to shut down what they cant control but that doesn't mean the can just lock people us for not committing a crime.
Even at that, the only way a country can stop its citizens from using bitcoin is by shutting down the internet entirely because as long as the internet exists people will always make use of bitcoin. There are countries where owning bitcoin is not allowed but I'm sure there are citizens of the country, living in that country that own bitcoin.

It is basically impossible for the government of any country to control it alone, if the government bans Bitcoin and at the same time if the central bank fuses all types of transactions, then the use of Bitcoin can be controlled to some extent.  But you can't control the handset percentage from the population.  For example, in India, Parliament banning Bitcoin could not completely ban the use of Bitcoin among the people.  Trading and use of Bitcoin is strictly prohibited in Bangladesh, but people are constantly using Bitcoin to evade the eyes of the government.  So in the end I want to say one thing if the parliament has strict laws and if the central bank bans it completely and if the legal system in the country is strict then only some control is possible.

Seriously, if I were the president of my country, I will never turn against bitcoin, especially at this moment when it is already becoming widely accepted and is worth hundreds of billions in market capitalization. Why will I deny an invention that can enhance my country and citizens? The best thing I can do is to regulate it to avoid fraudsters exploiting people that have zero to limited knowledge about bitcoin. I will make sure that bitcoin and blockchain be studied thoroughly and let it be known by becoming a part of the subjects and courses in schools.

In my country, bank accounts are insured to around $10k in maximum. I will also implement this as one of the requirements for exchanges wanting to cater to the local market.

I think the only way to fight against Bitcoin is simply to turn off the internet in the whole country. Nowadays, this is close to impossible. North Korea is probably close to achieving it with their strict rules and laws, but even they fail.

I dont know if it is technically possible, but with internet ban, I would fly abroad, download core, and at my own country make hdd/sdd drives exchanges, as a way of transaction/trade/exchange. Which makes it impossible to fight or ban Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was banned because people called it a "Ponzi scheme". The reason why they choose Bitcoin is because the address is difficult to check, which can help them escape well. But scams are not limited to cryptocurrencies, there are many scams in other industries as well.
If governments want to fight Bitcoin they first have to regulate people's cell phones and not allow fiat currencies to be exchanged for cryptocurrencies. But this approach will certainly cause dissatisfaction among the masses.

Nice try Mr Government  ;D

Jokes aside, you can just ban every trading from fiat to crypto and will make 90% of people loose interest in short term.

Hm, this is interesting, actually, reverse engineering and predicting the potential problems in wide adoption.

I think we pretty much saw everything, more drastic measures are probably behind us, but one thing that comes to mind is spreading misinformation and "uneducating" people.

If I were the government, why would I fight against bitcoin if I can always take advantage of the good things it can possibly do to my country. Embracing it and adopting it while learning from it will be huge leap towards success and this fighting against bitcoin is purely nonsense. For me, it's like your putting your own people to prison because you are blocking their rights. India and China have their own set of reasons why they are fighting against it and banning all sorts that is connected to bitcoin, one of those reasons are bitcoin is still an unexplored water for them (which is true) and they cannot really control it because of its nature that is decentralized.

As far as I know, they have done it including the Fed, government efforts to fight Bitcoin in any country have always failed, with various FUDs being carried out, ranging from regulatory issues, mining bans, trade bans, environmental issues, CBDC, and other news to fight Bitcoin including What do you say. It was only effective for a few months, and I've noticed that after the crash bitcoin always bounces back and more and more people are using it after the news wears off.
I don't think there has been an organized FUD covering the whole country to boycott Bitcoin because if that is done it will be a boomerang for the government itself, because ordinary people will know about it and will certainly raise curiosity about what Bitcoin is, and as I said it will only be effective a few months and surely Bitcoin will rise again.


If it is turned off only in one country, it will be useless, considering that Bitcoin has an international scale. It might be more effective if the scope of the blackout had to be done on an international scale, then it would affect Bitcoin's credibility. And I think it is impossible to do because it will have an impact on the stability of the order of other sectors.

I think if the Internet still exists and electricity is still used around the world, there is no way to fight Bitcoin other than adapting to it.

Government doesnt really like for those things which cant really be controlled nor they could get a good hold of it or totally trying out to control and this isnt surprising on why they do hate up that much.

Although there are some corners of the world which did really make out some considerations and thinking that it wasnt really that a bad thing after all.Some do remain neutral and most of them are really that banning it.

You could only count into your fingers on how many did really make out some positive step towards it.Its really pointless if you are trying to
fight against Bitcoin and there's no sense into it.

The problem is they don't follow, they only react. They discard any context when making their decisions, which paired with political/business lobbying results in what we can see or have seen up until today.

I'm always surprised how the lack of knowledge in combination with ignorance can be vicious for any sensible progress.

Governments can’t ban bitcoin but they can make it difficult for people to use. They can slow adoption & suppress price in many ways. Luckily for me, I don’t live in an anti bitcoin country. We all get affected by issues like what happened in China where they outright banned it (again). That definitely watered down the last bull run & stopped the price going as high as it would have done.

As long as you have working internet you can use bitcoin. F**k the government(s).

It would be difficult to give up Bitcoin. The simplest way for the government to get rid of Bitcoin is to shut down the internet; if there is no internet connectivity, people will be unable to access Bitcoin, which will have a negative impact on the country as well.

This is important, the internet is a window to the world to open anything even though the government prohibits and blocks Bitcoin. They only think of the profits to be made, imposing a morning tax on the founders of the crypto industry and making things difficult. Even selfish governments are reluctant to accept the new technology of bitcoin and prefer to make their own and want to emulate it.
I live in a country that still accepts bitcoin, although not completely, but there is still a positive side for crypto users, although there are many pros and cons that end up happening.


The government will never shut down the internet, it will not only affect bitcoin but all sectors. Currently, the digital world is more important and provides many advantages for the government. If the internet is shut down, the world will end communication there will be no one connected and this Forum will also disappear.

I would do exactly what FATF is doing right now. Regulate the whole crap out of fiat money, slowly remove anonymous cash and implement travel rule (https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/advisory/advissu7.pdf),

And if someone wouldn't comply and explain the origin of their money, their regulated CEX accounts would get frozen. Then i would remove BTC trading pairs from cexes, because of reasons like PoW is taking too much energy and we have an energy crisis, or stuff like that.

This would most likely move people to p2p trading, but institutional investors would be gone with lots of liquidity with them. And people couldn't trade bitcoins against cash because there wouldn't be cash money. Only digital money, and that would be tracked and every transaction over $1k would need a proof of origin or it would get frozen by banks. This would make people need to lie that they got their money for other transacions and whole thing would already be so difficult that it wouldn't be a big problem anymore.

right, that's too much even if for example there is a penalty like that I don't think it will reduce bitcoin enthusiasts. it could even be that if such a punishment is imposed, bitcoin lovers will not remain silent and oppose the government.

don't blame bitcoin, if bitcoin is used for malicious purposes. because, what is wrong is that people who commit crimes are not because of bitcoin.

It seems that everyone here has said their mind on this thread, though most of the replies are quite incoherent it's nice to see the outside view of some people's minds about Bitcoin.
To, if I have to be the adviser to my president I will want or tell no legalize Bitcoin but people should not trade with their local banks because the bank's network systems are not strong satisfactorily