What stops governments from using the Bitcoin/ Ethereum open source code?

[actueal]

The thought came to my mind, when everything about Bitcoin and Ethereum is legit open-source, and posted on GitHub; there's every line of code available in the open for any government to make a Bitcoin/ Ethereum clone of their own.  So, whey aren't they doing that, if not seriously, then at least proof-of-concept?

Even if blockchains come with patents, there's the phrase called 'compulsory licensing' that has long been used by third world countries to manufacture patented drugs at dirt-cheap prices.  Likewise, blockchains too could be 'compulsorily licensed' even if patented.

Whey then doesn't any country, say China or India, declare such a blockchain to be an essential 'public good' and clone Bitcoin or Ethereum, whatever is utilitarian for their purposes?  At least they'll save on the Ether prices for their DApps!

[hatshepsut93]

Why would they do that? Governments don't need cryptocurrency, they don't want "electronic cash", they want to one central ledger that can be changed as they want to manipulate people's accounts and create more money out of thin air. All these things are impossible with Bitcoin clones, and it would require huge amounts of work to change Bitcoin's code into centralized system, it's easier to pickup the codebase of some centralized network like EOS to issue a state-backed coin.

[Etrilicious]

I have as well ask my self this questions over and over, I know government are scared of Bitcoin, bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen.” That lack of central authority is the primary reason governments are afraid of the cryptocurrency. But the question is
If you can’t beat’em join them??
Ultimately, the best response to bitcoin is not to limit it, but to embrace the technology and try and work with it.
It certainly won’t be easy, as bitcoin doesn’t operate in a manner that makes integrating it with existing financial models easy. Bitcoin and its contemporaries are not going anywhere, and any attempt to stop them would be futile.
Helping to create the future of cryptocurrencies with the users and developers would be a much smarter and more effective stance for governments and regulatory bodies to take. Here’s hoping they do mate, really hope so.

[stompix]

Why would they do that? Governments don't need cryptocurrency, they don't want "electronic cash", they want to one central ledger that can be changed as they want to manipulate people's accounts and create more money out of thin air. All these things are impossible with Bitcoin clones, and it would require huge amounts of work to change Bitcoin's code into centralized system, it's easier to pickup the codebase of some centralized network like EOS to issue a state-backed coin.

It's actually pretty simple to turn any coin in a centralized one, and with the resources any government in the western world has it would be done in a flash.

The easiest way even an individual would be able to do it is just to premine it like Fuelcoin and be done it.
Create 200 billions coins, peg them to the value of whatever your currency is and here you have your own crapcoin that would probably be just as useless as the fiat currency.

But what's the point of it?
Why would a government use a crypto when they have the alternative at their disposal, digital cash?

i think government doesn't need cryptocurrency, but yeah, what stops them? i just watch a news here in Philippines, and one of the spokesperson of a bank said that it would give a consumer a very low security in its money, and for example, what if someone owe me 0.001 btc which is 300php and after time pass, the value of bitcoin massively go down? and that someone pay me 0.0001 btc which is now lower than 300php? hope i help

A coin issued by the government will be pegged to the value of the national currency.
1 cryptophp will always be 1 php or whatever is the name of your currency.

[monkeydominicorobin]

The thought came to my mind, when everything about Bitcoin and Ethereum is legit open-source, and posted on GitHub; there's every line of code available in the open for any government to make a Bitcoin/ Ethereum clone of their own.  So, whey aren't they doing that, if not seriously, then at least proof-of-concept?

Even if blockchains come with patents, there's the phrase called 'compulsory licensing' that has long been used by third world countries to manufacture patented drugs at dirt-cheap prices.  Likewise, blockchains too could be 'compulsorily licensed' even if patented.

Whey then doesn't any country, say China or India, declare such a blockchain to be an essential 'public good' and clone Bitcoin or Ethereum, whatever is utilitarian for their purposes?  At least they'll save on the Ether prices for their DApps!

Copying source codes is a sign of weakness. Governments are about propaganda and mind conditioning. If they copy Bitcoin's source code everyone will notice. They cannot flex anymore. Flexing is the name of the game.

[aoihs00]

May be because they dont want to take the blood on their hands. 

The blood of what exactly? Well I guess disturbing the very traditional economy that is going on currently which may get hampered with the use of crypto currencies if people did not follow the rules. I mean what if government gives permission to the public to use the crypto everywhere, but everyone just used it one way and never paid back the taxes to government? What will happen at that ? Wont government get disturbed as their very economy might be in trouble with this act. What if money laundering started on mega level, then who would be responsible for this one? Government itself? May be! So many doubts and questions which makes me guess as to why they are not willing to get it.

[SUDARMONO]

Yeah I've also thought about questions like you, but I think that's probably because of the government's fear of openness to the general public.

[RNGfight]

So if when every country wanted to study blockchain, then they will see the bitcoin and ETH, however, they do not completely copy, because in this case, if very difficult to repair a hole.

[Glory90]

The thought came to my mind, when everything about Bitcoin and Ethereum is legit open-source, and posted on GitHub; there's every line of code available in the open for any government to make a Bitcoin/ Ethereum clone of their own.  So, whey aren't they doing that, if not seriously, then at least proof-of-concept?

Even if blockchains come with patents, there's the phrase called 'compulsory licensing' that has long been used by third world countries to manufacture patented drugs at dirt-cheap prices.  Likewise, blockchains too could be 'compulsorily licensed' even if patented.

open source code from Bitcoin and Ethereum has received public attention and recognition, it would be embarrassing if the government plagiarized the Bitcoin/Ethereum open source code and I think they don't have a strong goal to use it

Whey then doesn't any country, say China or India, declare such a blockchain to be an essential 'public good' and clone Bitcoin or Ethereum, whatever is utilitarian for their purposes?  At least they'll save on the Ether prices for their DApps!

I doubt they have any intention to save it because Ether price is very cheap for them, it's not a problem for the government if they want to make Dapps

[Red-Apple]

i don't know why you keep talking about ethereum alongside bitcoin since they have nothing in common. ETH is a centralized token with no use apart from ICO scam while bitcoin is the only decentralized currency.

and when someone copies bitcoin they create an altcoin, if government does it then they will make a centralized altcoin that is why nobody wants it. but if they copy ethereum they just make another centralized useless token like it and nothing will change.

[hatshepsut93]

Why would they do that? Governments don't need cryptocurrency, they don't want "electronic cash", they want to one central ledger that can be changed as they want to manipulate people's accounts and create more money out of thin air. All these things are impossible with Bitcoin clones, and it would require huge amounts of work to change Bitcoin's code into centralized system, it's easier to pickup the codebase of some centralized network like EOS to issue a state-backed coin.

It's actually pretty simple to turn any coin in a centralized one, and with the resources any government in the western world has it would be done in a flash.

The easiest way even an individual would be able to do it is just to premine it like Fuelcoin and be done it.
Create 200 billions coins, peg them to the value of whatever your currency is and here you have your own crapcoin that would probably be just as useless as the fiat currency.

I think it's a bit harder than that, because governments don't like fixed supply, so they want to have centralized emission, meaning centralized mining, but they wouldn't want to just spent tons of resources on controlling the PoW, they would need to make masternodes. Also, even though people say that Bitcoin is not anonymous, chain analysis ain't free and easy, so governments would need to add some anti-privacy features and turn addresses into accounts that need to be registered.

[jseverson]

Whey then doesn't any country, say China or India, declare such a blockchain to be an essential 'public good' and clone Bitcoin or Ethereum, whatever is utilitarian for their purposes?  At least they'll save on the Ether prices for their DApps!

What purposes exactly though? It's hard to really speculate if we don't even know that much. To raise money? To raise influence?

Also, for what it's worth, clones generally don't do well in the market. Look at how many forks of Bitcoin are in the wild. It can probably be argued that a country would have far more resources than run of the mill crypto teams, but even then, I only see clones being popular in their home country, if at all.

[Snaic]

Governments will issue their centralized coin, they do not need a decentralized digital currency. Most likely, they will equate their centralized coin to the rate of their national paper money. As it will be the crypto currency of individual states to develop further, it is still difficult to say. However, states will approach this issue very carefully and will not hurry.

[d5000]

The thought came to my mind, when everything about Bitcoin and Ethereum is legit open-source, and posted on GitHub; there's every line of code available in the open for any government to make a Bitcoin/ Ethereum clone of their own.  So, whey aren't they doing that, if not seriously, then at least proof-of-concept?

How do you know that they're not doing that already?

At least the countries that plan some sort of digital currency (Sweden, Marshall Islands, Venezuela ...) surely have already downloaded and reviewed the source code of an open source cryptocurrency and it's very likely that they already have modified it to try out a "pegged" version internally. I can also imagine that all big economic powers, from China and the US to Russia, will already have done that, at least to look how it works.

But as stompix said, a centralized cryptocurrency does not really have too many advantages with respect to a "State Paypal" with a client-server model. So I expect most of the "state digital currencies" will follow that model.

And no, patented cryptocurrencies will never be a replacement for open source coins, as they are necessarily centralized and thus vulnerable to external pressures (e.g. government imprisoning the development team, or more subtle pressures ...).