Bitcoin Forum

thus taking advantage of the utility of bitcoin but leaving all current bitcoin holders with a lesser used (and therefore lower value) currency?

Sorry if this has been asked before.

Why would they?

Govt = central control and currency issue via "trusted" (LOLZ) third party.
Bitcoin = decentralized, and operated without need for "trusted" third party.

Lets say the government is libertarian.

There is no technical reason they couldn't although I am almost certain we will never see any country give up control like that.

I'd say their nature prevents it.

Governments being what they are, some of the key features of Bitcoin (privacy, decentralization, etc.) tend to conflict with their core traits. I doubt any government could resist making slight, then ultimately significant modifications: requiring registration (name, address, SSN) per private key and limiting their number, requiring blocks be verified by a central server, removing the 21M cap, and such.

Even if it was an unmolested clone, once the thing was released, who would use it? And without a supporting infrastructure in place, how could they force anyone to use it?

I don't expect competition from governments to be an issue for Bitcoin anytime soon, if ever.

I see what you guys are saying, it still dampens my hope for $1000/bitcoin though. If bitcoin is adopted as legal tender and people complain about the unfairness of early adopters, I could see a government chain being implemented as a feel good solution to the "problem".

If GovCoin is decentralized like Bitcoin, what would they gain?  They just end up with two coins they can't control instead of one.

If GovCoin is centralized, it's just an electronic version of fiat...  It's your debit card, but run on the government's network instead of the bank's.  That's kind of interesting, but it's not revolutionary.

The government would gain nothing other than use of a superior currency. The GovCoin would be perceived as superior because everyone gets to hear about it at the same time so greedy early adopters don't get to profit.

dampens your hope for 1k/btc?? The get rich quick scheme not fast enough for ya??

It makes hoarding less attractive, yes.

This is a good argument against it, though. A government couldn't stop itself from meddling.

Agree completely. Nothing is stopping anyone from creating a block chain, there are already more running around than have yet to show any practical purpose. Why would a government or for that matter anyone else want to?

This is a topic extensively covered elsewhere on this forum. Appropriate head gear is suggested for the various different premises offered. For example you may want 1890s style sleeve garters and a green eye shade cap in one section of the forum, for another a pillowcase with eye holes cut in it, in another a tinfoil hat, and so on.

It's not like a blockchain is all that useful by itself, you can execute transactions in it; that's nice. Attempts to make it useful have created a lot of centralized infrastructure around Bitcoin in particular, the most prominent examples being the currency exchanges. Who would have ever thought that "Magic The Gathering Online eXchange" would seriously be a large part of something that some people seem to regard as their Armageddon ace-in-the-hole?

So, maybe if the US government created something like The Federal National Second Life Mortgage Administration to rescue all the investors underwater on their Second Life properties, they could throw a blockchain in there just for the effect  ;D

I wouldn't use a government control blockchain, would you?  ::)

Why? They wouldn't need all that mining overhead mumbo jumbo, they could just keep one central transactions database.

I think this is the premise behind various bitcoin-based DRM schemes that have been proposed, actually.

There's nothing stopping the Gov't starting their own google.com or facebook.com, it's not difficult given their near infinite resources. But can they compete with the original? the answer is probably no.

Ok, the more I think about it the more I'm convinced its not an issue.

nothing would stop them other than why would they in the first place?

A government just couldn't help itself from altering the protocol, thus creating a distinction between Bitcoin and GovCoin. Well, if GovCoin retained much of the utility of Bitcoin, it could still relegate bitcoin to a niche market... Still the government would probably be altering the protocol every few years, etc.

I disagree. Bitcoin provides a first-adopter advantage like no other currencies, even for governments. If bitcoin ever becomes big enough, there will be a serious incentive for governments to start accepting them. The first government to do so could secretely buy bitcoins and then boost their value by publicly stating their support. If other governments would follow suit the first-to-adopt-government would gain even more. It's all about the threshold where the expected gain in wealth of adopting bitcoins is valued higher than the expected loss of control. Thus this would most logically happen in a third world country where the government already have little control over their currency.

I like this reasoning. Speaking as an American, the only time I see government get their collective ass moving is when they stand to gain. How do you make a state legalize drugs? Give them a cut. Want conceal carry in your state? Show them how much they can make from selling permits.
It's sad to say, but congress especially only acts on their own personal issues. That's why Wall Street can steal from you in the light of day, but if an airline makes some congressman wait on the tarmac for an hour we get a "Passengers' Bill of Rights".
They will never institute a system that takes away their ability to manipulate your money.  :(

If that were to happen, then control over the monetary policy would shift from financiers to citizens;... hence, goodbye economic waste (the source of wealth for most politicians).

Simple short answer is that nobody would mine it, making it a non starter.

 I think this is one of the big threats to Bitcoin.

CentralBank (not to be confused with gov) see Bitcoin,
 decides if you can't beat them, join them.

Starts own blockchain,
possibly premines a load...
 and tweaks the protocol to thier advantage while...
buying up a load of internet connectivity structure.

 It's a threat, yeah.

Fortunately it seems unlikely.


 Then again, perhaps the Gnostic religion was right,
there really is an intelligent robot like entity out there that is influencing humanity towards artificial stuff because it's too far to travel here right now. And Bitcoin is it's masterpiece!

The ultra-rich are the last line of defense between now and a robotic dystopia. Without them to protect us it is hopeless.

Bahahahaha

to all clever people on this thread- has any one noticed the proportional large increase in the "unknown" block hash rate on bitcoin charts.  What if unknown = FED and its approaching 51% is not this a concern to anyone but me?  . reg.

its called ppl started mining again because it once again became profitable

thanks- I noticed the increase in price and a leveling off, as long as unknown are mostly independent miners thats reasuring. reg.

There are a lot of pools not listed on their options. I for one mine at ABCPool which is not on there and their total hash is 485Ghash or roughly 5%. I know there are a number of other pools not listed. I am not concerned at all.

I lol'd

Ron Paul wont win, as much as we would like to dream he could.

This would be good for small countries where faith is low in its ability to manage its mint.

I could see it done like this:

* Make it so that there is a fixed inflation rate of X% per year (so more coins are generated each year)
* Of the coins that are produced in mining, half go to the miner, half go to the government associated with the block chain
* Implement merged mining from the start and set it up so mining for bitcoin will also get you coins for said government blockchain.

The government would automatically collect the taxes off the inflation of the currency, which would eliminate the need to extract taxes off of the citizens. Also, the currency would appear around the world, so this would create immediate exports to other countries, which would increase economic activity. Exports also tend to be easily taxed (they all have to go through ports).

The government would have the immediate first flow of the currency, and it could use that to create whatever programs it wanted to pay for in the country.

Each government could implement its own local currency this way, and with merged mining, miners could and up with a bundle of coins for a variety of countries.

If the government wanted to restrict mining to internal to the country, that could be done as well, where a miner license key would need to be used as part of the basis of the hashing algorithm. Being a savy politico, this could also be something that needs to be paid for.

The benefits of a government bitcoin system is that it can create a sound currency that is free from manipulation, but can still be milked some for direct government spending (possibly eliminating a tax collection system), and some control could be placed on who can mine coins.

LukeJR would "mine" it ;)