What would happen if BTC was Banned?

[MissionPhailed]

Then I think BTC would decrease in value somewhat but certainly wouldn't vanish, although the prospect of it reaching a new ATH can be flushed through the toilet permanently (or until governments decide to unban crypto). It would remain a rather significant niche on the interwebz I assume.

[Raimonn]

It depends on its users, if any goven ban bitcoin but its users still using it , there is no problem. There are a lot of ilegal things that people sell and buy (and price of this things don't decrease for banning).

[greBit]

It depends on its users, if any goven ban bitcoin but its users still using it , there is no problem. There are a lot of ilegal things that people sell and buy (and price of this things don't decrease for banning).

Yes even if Bitcoin is banned in some particular country or region still it doesn't matter and being realistic it's not gonna happen anytime sooner until banks become completely a big loser.

[HarryKPeters]

I think banning bitcoin will only draw more people into bitcoin.
They can bitcoin, but they can't/ will not make punish people for using it. Since it would make  99% of all coupon systems illegal.

If they do they the multinationals will sue those governements.
So nothing to worry.

[Amph]

What if all the governments in the world banned drugs? Would we live in a world without drugs?

and bitcoin is more easy and less traceable than drug, they need basically to inspect every house to stop btc, and even then i can perform a secure erase very fast and re-install it again when they leave the scene....

bitcoin is unstoppable, it's like banning a software, there were no case of this before, it's impossible...

[WENGER]

The usage will be lessen but it wouldn't disappear. I know many from the countries that use of Bitcoin is declared against the rules and banned and yet their still using it with no problem at all and the fact that they even have a miner farm of their own their does speak for itself so in short "No government can't STOP Bitcoin".

[keepdoing]

But wait!  Even for this to black market scenario to happen, you still need miners.  Again, finding and jailing the miners would be childs play for the authorities, even if any existed that were willing to work at high risk for low monetary return.

How could mining be banned?  It is simply using a distributed network of computers to solve a set of math problems.

If bitcoin is banned globally, then by default mining is.  If you are mining bitcoins, and bitcoins are illegal..... then the second you collect your reward and use it - you have broken the law.  And if the "Ban" is seriously enforced, then they will simply track down the Miners, and pick them off one by one.

I applaud your attempt (even though amazingly naive and idealistic) that mining is "simply using a distributed network of computers to solve a set of math problems", but my guess is that under the scenario in which all the governments of the world ban bitcoin, that anyone will be fighting a winning Supreme Court battle with that argument.  It will look really good etched in the concrete of your jail cell wall though! 

Criminal Defense: I am just a guy solving complex math!

You have pretty similar thing with sharing illegal content via torrents (p2p). It's illegal to do so everywhere afaik, but just look how they can fight agains it - they can't, and
too add - why would they fight bitcoin is the way you are describing ? Just because it's better than any other model out there that they created ? I don't think it will ever happen.

Not 100% sure that I understand your position so I will answer both sides...

If you are saying why would R3CEV/Hyperledger/BigBanks fight Bitcoin becoming THE Global Currency?  The reasons are astoundingly numerous.  They couldn't control or manipulate it being the primary.  Security & Anonymity issues are another couple of big ones.  

If you are saying that in the scenario that the OP suggested, that ALL Government banned bitcoin.... Why would they aggressively enforce that ban, well, I am not saying they would.  I am saying it is highly possible,a nd there are some supporting reasons..... the biggest of which is terrorism/fear/politics.  Assuming the OP's scenario of a global ban, it would most likely be because another cryptocurrency , a FiatCoin, had been chosen and implemented.  Why would they want to allow a black market cryptocoin (bitcoin or any other) to be used to anonymously transfer funds in what most likely would be a limited market including cyberterror, terrorism, drug cartels etc.  It's sort of a no brainer.

[keepdoing]

The usage will be lessen but it wouldn't disappear. I know many from the countries that use of Bitcoin is declared against the rules and banned and yet their still using it with no problem at all and the fact that they even have a miner farm of their own their does speak for itself so in short "No government can't STOP Bitcoin".

But ALL governments could relatively easily.  They might not completely and utterly kill it to the point of extinction, but they could easily destroy the main mining network, arrest and confiscate the largest holders bit by bit, and use a series of high profile (and low profile) Jailings and Incarcerations to pretty effectively scare off everyone but he criminal element from using it.  All the progress with online shopping, debit cards, public exchanges, and any sort of mainstream integration at all would simply dissapear overnight.....

But please continue with all the denial.  At the end of the day you'll have a teeny tiny hunted community of criminal elements transferring bitcoin between themselves, with a shrinking set of options to launder that money back into fiat.

It really isn't that complicated.  Just hope it doesn't happen.

[oblomov]

In his book The Gingerbread Race, Andrei Navrozov argued (he was writing in the early 80s as a Soviet emigre) that Soviet totalitarianism and American pseudo-egalitarian democracy had arrived at the same end by vastly different means.  In the West, it isn't necessary to ban bitcoin, it suffices to marginalize it, to make it the currency of drug dealers, would-be murderers, terrorists and money launderers. 

Some uses of BTC are already potentially criminal:
If your BTC transactions are knowingly "mixed" with illegal transactions, you could be charged with money laundering too.

If your BTC assets are held by a firm that does not comply with FATCA/KYC regs, you could be charged with willful failure to file.

[BruceLee007]

if bitcoin was banned a very small amount would be using it and because of that the price would drop a lot to something like 10 dollars or so and that would be the end bitcoins would never make to national currencies level and no one would be interested in buying it any more

[callynyan]

They can't kill bitcoin by simply banning it and what does not kill you makes you stronger.
This is why they are not banning it in the first place as well.

[mirana12345]

There is no incentive for whole world to ban bitcoin, the most likey thing they would do is to make a blacklist of addresses that they would later track,
and i also see governments developing precise ways and tools to track coins back and forth. When you think about it; every reason you think they would have
to ban bitcoin is actually in their favor - they wouldn't be able to track physical fiat money now , would they now.

[Velkro]

What do you guys think it would happen if all the governments in the world declared bitcoin to be illegal?
How do you think the community would react? What could be the possible solutions?

That won't happen. Never in history every goverment agreed to anything.

[mercistheman]

We would form the island of Bitcoinopia...
Grow organics... solar powered.
With big ass guns to keep away govt cronies 

[croTek4]

I think it would become more valuable as its more risky to deal with. Look at weed prices in the US, dropping everywhere because its becoming legal in more parts of the country.

[thirdchance57]

If the government tried to ban Bitcoin, I think it would either go underground where people would use it for trade with out government involvement or there would be some form of working in which people would find loop holes to use it.  Here in the USA it is considered an asset, so there is no currency to ban!!

[Daniel91]

Nothing
We will continue to use bitcoin because government can't ban Internet and bitcoin is anonymous, nobody can find your true identity.
So, I don't worry about this point at all.

[Yakamoto]

If Bitcoin was to be banned, it would probably just be used even more by the underground markets.

There is no way they would be able to effectively ban Bitcoin, whatever they do to it will only dive it into more criminal activity. Certainly the value would drop a fairly large amount, but at the same time it might gain more "value" for some of the underground.

Most people who own Bitcoin would try to sell what they can, or at least the large whales would, and everyone else would aim to find some way to spend their remaining funds.

Plus Russia has "banned" Bitcoin in the past, and it hasn't meant much, if anything.

[lolgato]

I will continue using it as normal with my vpn always on and no difference.

[kpitti]

I wonder if there is at least one point where all goverments agree on.
I do not think that Bitcoin will be this point either. It will not happen. Q´