the end is near....

[hchc]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20070268-17/senators-target-bitcoin-currency-citing-drug-sales/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

better cash in my btc quick  

[1714026463]

1714026463

[1714026463]

1714026463

[Jack of Diamonds]

Old news. Besides, bitcoin is not "based" in any country so it can't be shut down.

[digdugg67]

Hell they ought to outlaw the Fiat FRN's the US is using now. It buys way, way more drugs than Bitcoin ever will!

[1.21gigawatts]

senators can't even distinguish the difference between bitcoin and silk road

[AngelusWebDesign]

I like (read: not really) how they lump "silk road" and Bitcoin together, like they're partners in crime or something.

You could re-write that whole article, replacing "Bitcoin" with "US Dollars", and "digital" with "physical", and it would make just as much sense.

Bitcoin is just the currency these drug dealers are dealing in. They deal in any currency that has value!

That's like saying hammers are bad because a few people use them to bash people's skulls in.

Matthew

[cschmitz]

All you trolls who "register to post that bitcoin is about to die" please gtfo.

[kiwiasian]

So uh, how do they plan to shut down Bitcoin?

[Scientician!]

They can't shut down BTC.

They CAN shut down the excahnges, and will. Soon.

Anyone in the US who has cashed via Gox/Dwolla should be concerned also.

[stic.man]

i forgot that the US govt can arbitrarily shut down a company based in Japan.

Now Dwolla would be a bit more dicey...

[Scientician!]

i forgot that the US govt can arbitrarily shut down a company based in Japan.

Now Dwolla would be a bit more dicey...

You think the US govt. would have a hard time convincing any government that could be a potential host to an exchange to allow it to yank said exchange, especially an ally like Japan?

Gox could get darked with a couple of phone calls from the State Dept., I assure you.

[kokojie]

i forgot that the US govt can arbitrarily shut down a company based in Japan.

Now Dwolla would be a bit more dicey...

I think mtgox's bank account is US based, as it is required to obtain a dwolla account. Majority of their money has to be in the US bank account to facilitate dwolla withdrawals and deposits.

[JellyfishRancher]

It's funny that these guys act as if Silk Road is the ONLY underground blackmarket trading site. Before the publicity, SR only had ~2500 members! It's small potatoes compared to some of the other tor black markets.

[Scientician!]

i forgot that the US govt can arbitrarily shut down a company based in Japan.

Now Dwolla would be a bit more dicey...

Also, you think the NSA would have a hard time doing this covertly? Or would hesitate, at the Secret Service's behest, to behead any of these emerging exchanges?

They wouldn't, and they wouldn't, I assure you.


We need a TOR exchange. Now. and preferably with SSL/TLS at the exit nodes REQUIRED to transact.

[proudhon]

Buying and selling drugs and distributing copyrighted material should be illegal in the US, that way people will stop doing those things!

[LegitBit]

Buying and selling drugs and distributing copyrighted material should be illegal in the US, that way people will stop doing those things!

  lol

[LegitBit]

This is not going to shutdown bitcoin, a the act of buying/selling is illegal, not the currency or means used.

You haven't got anything to worry about unless you are participating in illegal activity.

[Scientician!]

This is not going to shutdown bitcoin, a the act of buying/selling is illegal, not the currency or means used.

You haven't got anything to worry about unless you are participating in illegal activity.

Converting BTC to USD will be declared illegal soon enough.

[TraderTimm]

We need a new category for these posts:

"Alarmist"

"Conspiracy"

"TrollLoLOLOLOL"

I mean, really - is there a purpose to this crap?

[kseistrup]

Buying and selling drugs and distributing copyrighted material should be illegal in the US, that way people will stop doing those things!

Obedience to the law is freedom:



War is peace, etc.

Cheers,

[rebuilder]

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Schumer et al. have *not* called for shutting Bitcoin down. I haven't read anything where they even call for investigating it. They want Silkroad taken down.

[Scientician!]

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Schumer et al. have *not* called for shutting Bitcoin down. I haven't read anything where they even call for investigating it. They want Silkroad taken down.

And when they find they cant actually behead SR on a whim, or at least without a seriously concerted SIGINT effort (taking away resources from things like, oh , i dunno, parsing cell phone traffic and automating voice recognition and algorithmically translating arabic, etc etc) they will go after the exchanges. Just my prediction.

Happy mining!

[RomertL]

Haha good point proudhon. I also agree with earlier comment that governments can never stop bitcoins entirely, for that they would need to seize all hdd:s and servers in the whole world that store bitcoins. That, of course, will never happen. What they can do is, like mentioned earlier, banning all the the sites that exchange bitcoins or accept it for payments. That is, those based in the country of the government in question, in this case US. If most other countries act like US, we will end up exchanging bitcoins in the same countries we today use for "anonymous" offshore-banking and webhosting: Isles of man, Panama, Cayman Islands, Channel islands etc. For the user, the physical location doesn't really matter so this will not change much. Another thing the governments can do is to use scare-tactics and propaganda (already happening), but that will only (maybe) change the exchange-rate, never kill the currency.

If mighty US gov. seriously tries to kill the Bitcoin, I say it's a good thing for two reasons: 1: They will fail and look stupid which will probably refrain many other governments from trying, and 2: The Bitcoin, surviving a attack from the worlds most powerful government, will look a lot more solid and reliable...

[alexbasasa]

Buying and selling drugs and distributing copyrighted material should be illegal in the US, that way people will stop doing those things!

LOL

[BitterTea]

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Schumer et al. have *not* called for shutting Bitcoin down. I haven't read anything where they even call for investigating it. They want Silkroad taken down.

"It's an online form of money laundering used to disguise the source of money, and to disguise who's both selling and buying the drug," [1]

[rebuilder]

"It's an online form of money laundering used to disguise the source of money, and to disguise who's both selling and buying the drug," [1]

Oh, I read that. But what do they mean by "it"? Silk Road does have a tumbling system designed to obfuscate sources for transactions, it's likely they're referring to that way of using Bitcoin, not Bitcoin itself.

Certainly it's possible there will be calls to ban Bitcoin wholesale later on, but as long as none of the politicians are publicly making the case that Bitcoins are just criminal, anyone calling for them not to ban it just ends up making the case there are reasons to ban it.

[zby]

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Schumer et al. have *not* called for shutting Bitcoin down. I haven't read anything where they even call for investigating it. They want Silkroad taken down.

I've heard they just want to buy some bitcoins cheap.

[Anonymous]

Silk Road buyers should start accepting cash in the mail just to make their heads explode...

[imperi]

1. Make bit coins illegal. Price plummets

3. Buy tons of bitcoins through sites that don't listen

3. Make bitcoins legal.

4. Profit.

[BitcoinStars.com]

with the title i thought someone let off a nuke. so much drama on the site the past week.

[AnonymousBat]

Silk Road buyers should start accepting cash in the mail just to make their heads explode...

This.

Bitcoins are basically cash anyway, the only risk is the cash being 'lost' in the mail.