Can the government shut down BitCoin?

[GotBitCoins]

Yes...

I know the standard answer... - the government can't do nothing about BitCoin, it's a peer-2-peer thing, and it shall survive just like bit-torrent survived no matter what, and they will have to shut the internet in order to shut down bitcoin....

Yea right....

80% of BitCoins are located in one site MtGox - if they put their hands on this site, block the exits, confiscate, or whatever - then it's the end of BitCoin. The truth is that we need the banks or MtGox to keep our $s and coins respectively. We don't have the guts to put all our coins in our computer, our paper wallet or our brain. Just think of it - you forget the password, you lose that paper, your safe is broken - we need that entity that has our ID to give us our coins back after we prove who we are.

GotBitCoins.

[solareclipse64236]

they can block the ip addresses

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
80% of BitCoins are located in one site MtGox
- snip -

Where did you get this information.  I believe you may be mistaken.

We don't have the guts to put all our coins in our computer, our paper wallet or our brain. Just think of it - you forget the password, you lose that paper, your safe is broken - we need that entity that has our ID to give us our coins back after we prove who we are.

This may be true of some people, but I suspect that most current bitcoin users maintain control of their private keys.  In other words, I suspect that most bitcoin users have their bitcoins in one of the following wallets:

• Bitcoins-Qt
• Armory
• Electrum
• MultiBit
• https://blockchain.info/wallet
• paper (or other non-digital) wallet

[Gabi]

they can block the ip addresses

Of the whole world? 

[solareclipse64236]

any... blacklisting at the Internet service provider is very possible

[chmod755]

- snip -
80% of BitCoins are located in one site MtGox
- snip -

Actually less than 10%…

any... blacklisting at the Internet service provider is very possible

A government could temporarily 'block' it, but there are even people behind the "Great Firewall of China" using it so they'd have to do it like North Korea (ban almost everything - no internet access for most people)……

[Twerka]

They can make your ISP to block the IP. The goverment of USA has the control over the domains (see what happens with MegaUpload).

Anyway, I think bitcoins are not a problem for goverments, nor for economy. The only guys who should not like the bitcoins are banks, who has no control over it.

The great thing about bitcoin is that it show anything can be used as money, it's like the first old representation of money (gold, salt, shells, etc).

[AnonyMint]

Re: Can the government shut down BitCoin?

Yes...

I know the standard answer... - the government can't do nothing about BitCoin, it's a peer-2-peer thing, and it shall survive just like bit-torrent survived no matter what, and they will have to shut the internet in order to shut down bitcoin....

You are expecting the less likely threat, because the power elite don't shutdown what is popular, they find a way to own it.

The bigger threat is the government will not shut it down, but rather embrace, help it grow, and control it so they can turn off your ability to eat individually if they don't like you:

Bitcoin: The Digital Kill Switch

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160612.0

Bitcoin is diabolical, but only an expert can see it.

[AnonyMint]

If you read my technical thesis in the OP (opening post) in the Bitcoin: The Digital Kill Switch, then realize that the alleged takeover by corporations will occur subtly over a decade or two.

You will be lulled to sleep. Then once it is too late, they can start turning off the ability for dissidants to transact. By that time, probably all payments will be digital, even in the local market using your mobile phone (which by that time may be wearable).

Thus you won't eat if the corporate-fascist government apparatus doesn't like your behavior (politics, open source projects, etc).