Government intervention in Bitcoin inevitable?

[TheGame]

Government are already having their influence as much as possible. They know how much potential the bitcoin economy holds and they will do everything to keep bitcoin under their control.

Well it's going to be futile because they can't 'control' it and I'm sure they already know that. The best they can do is tax it with regulations and take their cut but that's about it.

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[WhatTheGox]

Government are already having their influence as much as possible. They know how much potential the bitcoin economy holds and they will do everything to keep bitcoin under their control.

Well it's going to be futile because they can't 'control' it and I'm sure they already know that. The best they can do is tax it with regulations and take their cut but that's about it.

Wont stop them trying, there is no 1 person in charge at gov HQ its just an idea that control & force is good.  Expect measures to come from gov as regards bitcoin and the internet.

[Hydros]

Here's what I think is going on between Bitcoin and the US government. Mark Karpeles made a deal with the US Government because they saw Bitcoin as a threat(he hasn't seen any jail time), he gives them those 600k missing coins and he gets off unscathed. This way the government gets to make Bitcoin seem illegitimate and unsafe as it was a threat to the current financial system, and if their plan does not work they still have a large stake in the total amount of Bitcoin and can crash the markets.

[Slark]

Here's what I think is going on between Bitcoin and the US government. Mark Karpeles made a deal with the US Government because they saw Bitcoin as a threat(he hasn't seen any jail time), he gives them those 600k missing coins and he gets off unscathed. This way the government gets to make Bitcoin seem illegitimate and unsafe as it was a threat to the current financial system, and if their plan does not work they still have a large stake in the total amount of Bitcoin and can crash the markets.

It seems more like a conspiracy theory rather than serious accusations. If government really had these coins and they used it for crashing and speculate on markets wouldn't we be able to track such big amount being processed by them?

[Hydros]

Here's what I think is going on between Bitcoin and the US government. Mark Karpeles made a deal with the US Government because they saw Bitcoin as a threat(he hasn't seen any jail time), he gives them those 600k missing coins and he gets off unscathed. This way the government gets to make Bitcoin seem illegitimate and unsafe as it was a threat to the current financial system, and if their plan does not work they still have a large stake in the total amount of Bitcoin and can crash the markets.

It seems more like a conspiracy theory rather than serious accusations. If government really had these coins and they used it for crashing and speculate on markets wouldn't we be able to track such big amount being processed by them?

Hah I know its just a theory, but of course they could have just kept the coins in the same wallet and now they are patiently waiting .

[BillyBobZorton]

There are couple questions I keep asking myself about future of bitcoin. I thought about it and I am sure that government intervention in the bitcoin industry is simply inevitable.

And we can't do anything about it really. Governments are greedy, they want a share of everything and therefore thy will be trying to snatch some of it from us.

There is a really high chance that we see in the future a lot more government action against bitcoin, including some changes of the core protocol.

Another case is that I think bitcoin is "too good" now for people. So Bitcoin will be changed to bring it in line with other payment systems.

We probably will se some dreadful changes like adding possibility to blacklist funds and and change that will allow to store identity information of users with bitcoin transaction.

Your thoughts?

I don't think the government can change the core protocol of bitcoin, they just can't success. Yes, Governments are greedy, but not every Government have infinite power to to do anything, that means not  every Government will against bitcoin. That's enough.

Government intervention is indeed unavoidable, but it's also true they can't change the decentralized, potentially fully anonymous nature of BTC.
There's no way they can determine how much BTC you own so trying to tax people holding BTC is an utopia.

[lucullus]

The Bitcoin Foundation is suppose to prevent this, right?

[Gyfts]

Completely agree. The IRS has been hopping on Bitcoin ever since it hit mainstream. It's been ridiculous how much they actually want to destroy the currency by putting regulations on something that is based on decentralization. But that's to be expected. It's competing against the banks. If inflation with the US dollar increases, they are worried more and more people will adopt Bitcoin and use it over fiat.

[crazyivan]

I know some people do not agree with me but I do feel some kind of regulatory framework s necessary.

It would limit the number of scammers and ponzi businesses we currently have inside BTC economy.
Having a limited consumer protecion legislation would definitely, at least partially, prevent this problem.

[lontivero]

Bitcoin is not so big right now to raise any serious warning so, govs will let it run for some extra time. Basically black money moves across banks and tax havens and bitcoin is not comparable with those traditional mechanisms.

US / Europe are not stupids, they know that law enforcement agencies can deal with illegal activities using bitcoin or any other currency. What they'll want is tax bitcoin and that is not a bad thing, in fact if govs tax bitcoins then they are saying they have a value, are legal and that would be the best for bitcoin.

[DooMAD]

And we can't do anything about it really. Governments are greedy, they want a share of everything and therefore thy will be trying to snatch some of it from us.

There is a really high chance that we see in the future a lot more government action against bitcoin, including some changes of the core protocol.

Open source software means anyone can make a change to the protocol, but anyone else can either undo that change or share a version without the change.  If presented with a choice of running a core client that has been modified by a government or one that had hadn't, which one would most people opt to run?  If the scenario you're envisioning were possible, a government would have already forced everyone into using torrenting clients that didn't allow people to share copyright material.  It's just not a likely or practical outcome.  And even if by some bizarre fluke they did manage to force a change on this protocol, there's a thousand or more alts people could switch to.  All they can do is regulate businesses.  We run whatever software and support whatever crypto network we want.

[galbros]

The good news is that more government involvement may actually help bitcoin, as well as all crypto currencies, gain legitimacy.  While I've enjoyed the "wild wild anything goes" aspect of bitcoin, that is just not going to be attractive to mainstream non-technical users.

In short, crazyivan has a point.

[Jybrael]

If the governments think that Cryptocurrencies should be kept an eye on will show more people that cryptos are gaining a good foothold and eventually allow for more adoption rates. I don't think thats a bad thing. The only bad thing there could be the government trying to regulate it.

[QuestionAuthority]

U.S. GNP $17 trillion, China GNP $16 trillion, Bitcoin market cap $3 billion. I think we have a while to go before they worry about Bitcoin.

[johnyj]

Government never need to intervene gold, and less regulation of gold actually boost the economy due to more gold trading. Bitcoin can help them to boost society saving, improve each person's financial health and reduce the national debt

[Amph]

I know some people do not agree with me but I do feel some kind of regulatory framework s necessary.

It would limit the number of scammers and ponzi businesses we currently have inside BTC economy.
Having a limited consumer protecion legislation would definitely, at least partially, prevent this problem.

ponzi and scammers is people fault not bitcoin fault, the same for exchanges hacked,  is not bitcoin fault , but the security of the exchange that is flawed

[biggerbig]

We may get regulations sooner then we think. USA government is pushing to get their hands on bitcion

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/15/the-coming-political-battle-over-bitcoin/

Russia is even considering banning btc

http://www.coinssource.com/russia-plans-total-bitcoin-ban-2015/

[zebedee]

There are couple questions I keep asking myself about future of bitcoin. I thought about it and I am sure that government intervention in the bitcoin industry is simply inevitable.

And we can't do anything about it really. Governments are greedy, they want a share of everything and therefore thy will be trying to snatch some of it from us.

There is a really high chance that we see in the future a lot more government action against bitcoin, including some changes of the core protocol.

Another case is that I think bitcoin is "too good" now for people. So Bitcoin will be changed to bring it in line with other payment systems.

We probably will se some dreadful changes like adding possibility to blacklist funds and and change that will allow to store identity information of users with bitcoin transaction.

Your thoughts?

Well done, now you understand why Bitcoin was created.

[QuestionAuthority]

We may get regulations sooner then we think. USA government is pushing to get their hands on bitcion

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/15/the-coming-political-battle-over-bitcoin/

Russia is even considering banning btc

http://www.coinssource.com/russia-plans-total-bitcoin-ban-2015/

You're quoting an article from 2013. We already know the outcome of that and it was meaningless.

I don't understand why anyone cares what Russia does. Russia is a little impoverished crime ridden country. Unless you're dying to buy some borscht with Bitcoin on your next vacation forget about Russia.

[micheline]

I don't understand why anyone cares what Russia does. Russia is a little impoverished crime ridden country. Unless you're dying to buy some borscht with Bitcoin on your next vacation forget about Russia.

Stereotypes anyone?

What's true is, that the ability to effectively enforce laws in Russia is lower than in the US.