Will bitcoins be illegalized in 2013?

[dennisn]

Will 2013 finally be the year that statists take bitcoins seriously?

[collaghost]

Will 2013 finally be the year that statists take bitcoins seriously?

Are you talking about the US or the whole world? I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen anyways. At the moment there's nothing extraordinary you can buy with bitcoins that you can't with various offshore payment systems like Liberty Reserve.

[ladamin]

I can't really think of a way to make BTC illegal. Unless everything related to computers become illegal as well.

[dennisn]

The question applies to any state in the world.

It's trivial to make illegal. It might be hard to enforce such a law, but that doesn't matter -- just like copyright laws, all one wants is the majority to be scared shitless and to stay in line.

[Raoul Duke]

Yes, it will. So will be stupidity.

[Luno]

The story from yesterday where a programmer was charged with illegal gambling because the asian guy who bought his software had american customers. So philosophical assumptions about Bitcoin is borderless, immaterial. no different from cash, does not matter. Bitcoin can be made illegal for no sane reason at all that's how it works.

One thing to consider, is that if exchanging USD for BTC is made illegal, is that Bitcoin might fulfill it's true purpose: Not as a vehicle for currency speculation, but a medium for the exchange of goods.

If such a black market future scares you, don't worry, gold has worked like that for ages. And no government would consider it illegal gold is to big to fail, Bitcoin maybe also.

[RyNinDaCleM]

I can't really think of a way to make BTC illegal. Unless everything related to computers become illegal as well.

Not exactly "a way" per se, but the US gov technically "owns" the sha2 encryption algo, and can disallow the use of it. Still, the enforcement would be tricky.

[knight22]

IMO that would be pretty stupid for any government to try making illegal  something international as bitcoin. That would be way more profitable for them to find a way to tax it instead of fighting it.

[RyNinDaCleM]

IMO that would be pretty stupid for any government to try making illegal  something international as bitcoin. That would be way more profitable for them to find a way to tax it instead of fighting it.

Yes! Even to invest in it, then support it and realize huge gains.

[K1773R]

Yes, it will. So will be stupidity.

so all stupid ppls are executed? finally!

[Jakers]

Well, it's obvious that the large majority of Bitcoin usage goes toward illegal activities. I would say it's going to be frowned upon always, but it will never be completely outlawed. I could see in the distant future controversy over this topic once BTC become more widespread and popular and also stable out. If businesses were to accept BTC, I think it would help the name out. Even if they accepted them for 65% of their value, it's still a start, and look their making that much more profit.

[Landgull]

The problem with any state attempting to forbid bitcoins is that as soon as they do, it is incentivized for other states not to do so.

Let's say for example the US, UK, Canada, Eurozone, Australia, and New Zealand all decided to work together to crack down on "The new way that terrorism is funded." They would most likely go after the miners, rather than the users - miners are easy to detect with that pattern of power usage. These states also are the ones with fiat currencies that have been sufficiently debased to cause bitcoin to be a serious risk to them, so a black market for bitcoin will continue to exist among people in the US, much like black markets for "hard currency" in places like Cuba and the Soviet Union.

So, we have a spike in demand and a drop in supply. This means that foreign miners will have a huge profit incentive, and mining will move to countries where there is no prohibition on bitcoin.

But wait, you say! Those states will just fall in line and ban it!

Except these are smaller states that have basically been required to maintain sound monetary policy because they are too small to sustain insane amounts of debt. For instance, much of Latin America isn't being hurt badly in this "World Financial Crisis." They're booming, and rightly so - they have adopted policies that attract investment. If there is a market for bitcoin mining, and there is profit to be derived, the smaller states who are poorer and do not derive their wealth from abusive monetary policy, but by legitimate trade will have an incentive to allow bitcoin mining within their borders. It would bring in profit and cashflow to poor parts of the world, and so if the US were to try to treat bitcoin like, say, marijuana...it would fail miserably. There's no customs and border patrol on the Internet, and lots of incentive for other competitors to enter the market.

There are two areas I see as a vulnerability to Bitcoin from a major state who decides that bitcoins are a risk. Firstly, the next-gen mining rigs, which I expect will soon come to be the driving force in the market are "Export-controlled munitions." If the "first world" states decided bitcoins were a risk, the vast majority of the processing power would be located within their borders because the processing power that was obtainable outside of them was no longer competitive against the new mining rigs. This means that an attack against the miners would have a much higher risk of legitimately crippling the network, or weakening it to the point of vulnerability against a 50%+1 attack.

Secondly, if a major state wanted to attack bitcoins, they would be better suited to do it via a Stuxnet type virus. If they could successfully infect several of the large mining pools with a state-funded virus distribution, they could pull off a 50%+1 attack and take the network down that way.

[Lethn]

I don't think it will be a simple case of people taking sides here, I think there will be many different reactions to Bitcoin, much like with the collapse of the Euro which will be happening soon, I suspect though because it directly threatens them a lot of the super powers will be predictable and try to make it illegal and stamp it out but smaller countries may take a different view and actually use it to boost their economy, perhaps they'll even increase currency competition within their own country.

[thomison360]

money isn't illegal but items and services people buy with it can be same concept im thinking with bitcoins. If some1 buys a pound of crack 4 100btc they still breaking the law buying crack lol

[Wardenconner]

Well its more likly they will get bans for sure mostly because the growth is exponential

[Lethn]

I think the U.S will ban it definitely, don't know about the other countries though but Bitcoin is a direct threat to a lot of country's sovereignty however you look at it.

[drakahn]

What would a law banning bitcoin look like?

[Lethn]

What would a law banning bitcoin look like?

Hilarious

[TheButterZone]

What would a law banning bitcoin look like?

Banning? As long as someone's brain is alive, they can access their BTC, or tell someone how to. Summary execution of the bitcoin user, and use of extreme prejudice to prevent transfer upon death by any dead-man switch type services or estate lawyers.

If the object was merely to regulate and tax the living fuck out of it, forced brain scans to reveal private key/brainwallet access. As long as the rights enumerated in the 4th Amendment are infringed out of existence anyway...

[crazyates]

Well, it's obvious that the large majority of Bitcoin usage goes toward illegal activities.

Care to prove that statement? Most of the Bitcoin trading I've done here, or even seen here on the forums, has been pretty legal.