Potential Banning of Whatsapp in UK / Dispution of BTC businesses ??

[Addition]

So UK Prime Minister David Cameron is sticking to his guns with respect to his Conservative party planning which involves anti-trust and "Snooper" charter in turn, with respect to digital telecommunications and encryption.

Media in the UK this week begun speculating that this would affect digital messaging services like WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat and that any PGP/End to End P2P data transmission services would be BANNED.

I'm concerned at the moment because of it's potential implication to BTC and BTC-related services that currently operate in the UK.

The UK is a significant part of current BTC market, however most of BTC's use there is based on third-party services which are available over the internet. I fear that these service would be prohibited to operate.

i.e Localbitcoins stopped it's service within Germany for potentially violating by-laws early this year.

The UK is parent to the other Countries/States within the Commonwealth realm and thus affect them also in time?

Antigua and Barbuda   1981   Realm
Australia   1931   Realm
The Bahamas   1973   Realm
Bangladesh   1972   Republic
Barbados   1966   Realm
Belize   1981   Realm
Botswana   1966   Republic
Brunei   1984   Monarchy
Cameroon   1995   Republic
Canada   1931   Realm
Cyprus   1961   Republic
Dominica   1978   Republic
Fiji   1970 (rejoined in 1997 after 10 year lapse)    Republic
Ghana   1957   Republic
Grenada   1974   Realm
Guyana   1966   Republic
India   1947   Republic
Jamaica   1962   Realm
Kenya   1963   Republic
Kiribati   1979   Republic
Lesotho   1966   Monarchy
Malawi   1964   Republic
Malaysia   1957   Monarchy
The Maldives   1982   Republic
Malta   1964   Republic
Mauritius   1968   Republic
Mozambique   1995   Republic
Namibia   1990   Republic
Nauru   1968   Republic
New Zealand   1931   Realm
Nigeria   1960   Republic
Pakistan   1947   Republic
Papua New Guinea   1975   Realm
Rwanda    2009   Republic
St. Christopher and Nevis   1983   Realm
St. Lucia   1979   Realm
St. Vincent and the Grenadines    1979   Realm
Samoa   1970   Republic
Seychelles   1976   Republic
Sierra Leone   1961   Republic
Singapore   1965   Republic
Solomon Islands   1978   Realm
South Africa   1931
(withdrew in 1961,
rejoined in 1994)   Republic
Sri Lanka   1948   Republic
Swaziland   1968   Monarchy
Tanzania   1961   Republic
Tonga   1970   Monarchy
Trinidad and Tobago   1962   Republic
Tuvalu   1978   Realm
United Kingdom      Realm
Uganda   1962   Republic
Vanuatu   1980   Republic
Zambia   1964   Republic



^ above just copied/pasted

Hopefully the Government will have little controll over disruption of BTC services and that fully regulated services providers will fully vet/take all acceptable client due dilagence for compliance. Certain services in alternative data transmission have been blocked by many ISP's.

http://www.coindesk.com/would-uk-encryption-ban-kill-bitcoin/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/10/snoopers-charter-bill-causes-social-outcry-as-government-looks-to-ban-whatsapp-and-others_n_7768768.html

[nextgencoin]

When will people get you can't stop Bitcoin and no government on this planet has the power to stop it....


People need to man up and say screw the authorities, if the people don't want something g then guess what you shouldn't have it, government is made for the people not the other way around...

[Addition]

Hey mate, you're right! The blockchain protocol itself won't be stopped, however it's the ISP's that point Bitcoin service providers like; Bitstamp, Kraken, Localbitcoins, etc. that concern me. If the ISP's are directed by government to block these services it will at least deter some BTC businesses and startup ventures like mine from incorporating in the UK.

This potentially will also prohibate the use of encryption based technologies, like iMessage, WhatsApp or PGP data transmissions.

[The Bitcoin Co-op]

The Prime Minister is an idiot. Next he's going to try to ban calculus, or maybe trigonometry.

[Addition]

When will people get you can't stop Bitcoin and no government on this planet has the power to stop it....


People need to man up and say screw the authorities, if the people don't want something g then guess what you shouldn't have it, government is made for the people not the other way around...

Also..   I agree with your libiterian stance regarding government! That's the way it should be!!  However I believe in historical metrics and sadly the government is currently made for central banks/and it's creditors and not for the people : (

[ShetKid]

I am confused. How does banning of services like whatsapp or end to end or PGP would affect bitcoin in anyway ? Don't think they are interrelated in any manner except for some people using PGP to encrypt their communication.

[mpattison]

I'm confused, I thought FB owned WA? 

[NorrisK]

I am confused. How does banning of services like whatsapp or end to end or PGP would affect bitcoin in anyway ? Don't think they are interrelated in any manner except for some people using PGP to encrypt their communication.

It means they are banning stuff they don't control. If they can't read encrypted whatsapp messages at their will, how will they allow transactions between parties to happen that they cannot follow the money trail to a person or company? They want control and they are afraid they are losing it.

[DooMAD]

As much as I despise Cameron, even I don't think he could really be that fucking braindead (but then again, when it comes to tories, there's seemingly always room for them to sink even lower in my estimations).  This must be some sort of "look at me, I'm tough on terror" rhetoric and a pretense for increased government control.  Aside from the fact that they haven't thought it through to conclusion and considered the consequences, the impracticalities of banning math and the lack of enforceability of such a law means that even if they were stupid enough to pass it, no one is going to pay the slightest bit of attention.

Not to mention the hypocrisy of a government routinely deleting emails and destroying other documents to prevent Freedom of Information requests coming to light.  They're more than happy to keep their secrets hidden from the public view.  Wonder just how many scandals they might have covered up over the years.  One rule for them and another for everyone else.  Truly the sign of the gradual but quickening slide into authoritarianism.  If it looks, sounds and smells like Fascism...

The Prime Minister is an idiot. Next he's going to try to ban calculus, or maybe trigonometry.

Indeed.  Terrorists could be using pi right now to calculate the blast radius of the explosion they'll need to cover several prominent landmarks.  We should ban all numbers immediately, just in case terrorists might find a way to use them against us.  

[FlappySocks]

Listen to one of the government advisor's.  WARNING: This will make your blood boil.

https://soundcloud.com/gcluley/radio-5-discussion-about-david-camerons-plans-to-backdoor-secure-messaging-services

[nextgencoin]

When will people get you can't stop Bitcoin and no government on this planet has the power to stop it....


People need to man up and say screw the authorities, if the people don't want something g then guess what you shouldn't have it, government is made for the people not the other way around...

Also..   I agree with your libiterian stance regarding government! That's the way it should be!!  However I believe in historical metrics and sadly the government is currently made for central banks/and it's creditors and not for the people : (

Some sad truth right there. Still now we have Bitcoin so there is always gonna be one country that will not be dicks.....even if it's mother Russia..

[gentlemand]

There've been plenty of dramatic proposals through the years from politicians. More often than not when they actually try to draft a law the real experts tell them they haven't got a hope in hell and it goes silent.

Another fine case in point is the attempt to ban legal highs. It's unenforceable and advisers have told them so.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/05/theresa-may-legal-highs-ban-unenforceable-government-advisers

A vast chunk of world commerce depends on encryption. This'll leave all the services that operate in the UK wide open. They'll leave and the UK will be left out in the cold.

The people they want to catch will skip past all this shit with a couple of clicks. Check their impressive efforts to block the piratebay. It takes a second to bypass it.

[nextgencoin]

FEAR FEAR DANGER RISK!!!!!!!!!


The only danger is these clowns, they can't hold the internet back....I just can't see it being possible. For once the people have potential power.

[pedrog]

Strong cryptography is an absolute need in today's Internet and any other communications, he his trying to put the entire UK's Internet infrastructure vulnerable to spying or any kind of attacks.

The proposal is to ban cryptography in all communications or only for those services used by civilians?

[okae]

i will never understand those things, it is a losing battle from the beginning and they know it.

they cant stop it for just a simply reason, is not on his hands to stop it.

FEAR FEAR DANGER RISK!!!!!!!!!

this is the only thing they want by doing it, that ppl get scared about it,  thats all, and thats all they can do.

[DooMAD]

Strong cryptography is an absolute need in today's Internet and any other communications, he his trying to put the entire UK's Internet infrastructure vulnerable to spying or any kind of attacks.

The proposal is to ban cryptography in all communications or only for those services used by civilians?

Tories absolutely adore the finance sector since that's where most of their donations come from, so clearly they're not going to do anything to upset the banks who use cryptography.  They're also very fond of big business in general, so again, they aren't going to rock the boat there.  It's pretty safe to assume there will be no meddling in those areas whatsoever.  If, however, you aren't lining the tories' pockets with vast sums, expect their focus to be on screwing you over at the first available opportunity.

I don't think dipshit-dave likes the internet very much, but that's okay, because we don't particularly like him either.  (alternative link without the filtering)



Also, talk about mixed messages.  GCHQ, the government's own security and intelligence agency seem quite fond of cryptography, educating and raising awareness about cyber security.  Way to undermine one of the few good things you're managing to achieve, Dave.

[Addition]

Listen to one of the government advisor's.  WARNING: This will make your blood boil.

https://soundcloud.com/gcluley/radio-5-discussion-about-david-camerons-plans-to-backdoor-secure-messaging-services

Thanks for the link FlappySocks - listening to it now (temperatue already elevating)

[redsn0w]

If I can suggest you one thing, start to use telegram is more secure than whatsapp.


https://telegram.org/ 


Here you can find the technical side/protocol:

 - https://core.telegram.org/mtproto

[Buffer Overflow]

Don't forget SMSsecure for your encrypted SMS text messages.

https://smssecure.org/

[RustyNomad]

Wickr even better as you can set your messages to auto destruct after a certain period of time meaning that they are gone forever.

Also have a drive cleaning feature where it wipes the free space on your phone or pc to make sure any deleted files are also gone forever.