If Bitcoin was made illegal by your government would you still use it?

[Text]

At this moment, I really don't know why should I do if that happens. I can't decide if I will still continue involve in bitcoin or stop it for the sake to be an abiding citizen. But if the law and penalty is hard like imprisonment I will be forced to stop.

[MMA]

Yes.  You can just use vpn or tor powered browser . I know some bitcoin users who still uses bitcoin even tho it is banned from their country.  I think they also use vpn or something.

Well everyone can actually do it. The problem here is that how can you convert your bitcoin earnings into fiat and when you get caught you will surely go to jail which is actually a hell so better safe than sorry.

I don't think the law about bitcoin will be that strong because in the first place, there's no reason for them to ban bitcoins. If getting caught selling bitcoins would put you in jail, I'm pretty sure exchangers are already gone and people would start doing P2P trading instead. They will just look for a trusted bitcoin buyer/sellers in their area that wouldn't report them to the police.

You are right but the thing here is that base on the current exchanger that i am using. Buying and selling is really not that easy because the certain exchanger is also trying to hold on the local regulations. So if they did able to do it then they surely can monitor your transaction and identity as well. Bitcoin law may be weak but when they attached law from your areas then it could become stronger

It is true that each and every country and state have their own law, and in some country still their is no law but still if you use bitcoin you can show as investment or if you are trading then show as short term profit and show in tax law.

yes i am agree with you that for every country they have their own laws and regulation, and still most of the countries has not yet given any statement about bitcoin that either bitcoin is legal currency or illegal currency, and same is the case in my country. but i am hopeful that very soon my country will accept bitcoin as legal currency

[kryptqnick]

It is sad that people choose 'yes' mostly. For me it is very important to follow the rules government sets, I'm Kantian in this way. Kant said that we mustn't lie or violate the rules even if it seems to be not a big deal, because thus we ruin the basement of all the law system. I know it's already too ruined but I prefer to stick to this rule.

[South Park]

Although it will pain me to do so I will stop to use bitcoin since I will not want to risk jail time since the jails in my county are really a place you don't want to be in.

[charmingfreddie]

gov. is corrupt.
bitcoins are legit.

my official bank "too big to fail/jail" close automaticly account when you transfer more than 1/3 of your salary to an identified SEPA linked to an Bitcoin Exchange.

http://imagize[Suspicious link removed]ageshack.us/a/img924/9479/rhjtiC.jpg

The banks still do not realize the paradigm shift taking place. This anonymous stuff is also headed for a showdown.

[dothebeats]

Although it will pain me to do so I will stop to use bitcoin since I will not want to risk jail time since the jails in my county are really a place you don't want to be in.

Well actually, to be honest with you, I'd rather do the things I know that I'd be happy with even if in the end it means jail time rather be a prisoner on this wide world that I'm "free" but being constantly monitored by the fucked up government. Also, why would I care if they made it as an illegal stuff? I mean, it's just a piece of cryptographical masterpiece lol. They are scared of getting dominated by anarchists believing in decentralization.

[bryant.coleman]

At this moment, I really don't know why should I do if that happens. I can't decide if I will still continue involve in bitcoin or stop it for the sake to be an abiding citizen. But if the law and penalty is hard like imprisonment I will be forced to stop.

It is not very easy to implement the Bitcoin ban. If you are using an IP hiding service such as TOR browser or a VPN, then it will be very hard to trace you. It is not 100% risk-free, but the government will have to spend millions of USD worth of resources to arrest a single person. It is near impossible to eradicate the BTC usage.

[Aamir1]

I've voted "not sure", because it would depend on the situation if something like that happens in my country, i will see if people around me who have been using bitcoin before are still using it in any way or not, and i will see if government is really taking serious actions if someone is caught using it or not, and then i will decide if what i need to do.

[Karartma1]

Of course I will keep on using it! How do they control or prevent me to hold bitcoins? If we don't advertise our bitcoin holdings no one knows hence the pseudonomity of it. It will be clearly hard to use them but that would not mean I should stop using them.

[Wandering Soul~]

Yes I will still use it cause it will be unfair on my side that why would the government banned bitcoin. The goodness of it is determined by its user.

If that happens, I will just use a vpn or a tor network that is more anonymous than vpn, though I will not use bitcoin often than before cause I need to be extra careful. I don't wanna go to jail.

[clickerz]

Of course I will keep on using it! How do they control or prevent me to hold bitcoins? If we don't advertise our bitcoin holdings no one knows hence the pseudonomity of it. It will be clearly hard to use them but that would not mean I should stop using them.

60.5% of the respondents here in this thread answer yes. Ready to defy the government and its happening in other countries that bitcoin are banned and illegal. Since bitcoin is decentralized and you can transact bitcoin from anywhere in the world,it became borderless already.

[serjent05]

I think I would stop using bitcoin.  It is the call of the government to stop using bitcoin.  They have their reason, and that reason I believe is very important in establishing the country.  The problem with people is that, they want a peaceful and prosperous country but they failed to abide their government law and start complaining about injustices when they were caught doing bad stuff or forbidden stuff that is labeled bad by the government.  If I don't want to follow my government rule maybe I need to fly out of the country and search for the government that will allow the things I like.

[uneng]

I would continue using that, because it's helping me a lot. And if it wouldn't be possible, I would try to change myself to another country where they accept bitcoins. Maybe a neighboor country or any other...
But I just hope it won't happen, never!

[n0ne]

If such a situation arise surely I would try to find an alternate solution to use bitcoin through some other gateway. If the restrictions were not able to bypass then might relocate to a region were bitcoin is in use and has good acceptance.

[chixka000]

I wasn been thinking this for the whole day. Government cant really monitor bitcoin easily as well especially when we only do talk about transactions because this technology is almost perfect privacy wise but converting it into fiat can be fatal

[Carlsen]

I still make my own choices.
If a government would declare posession of btc to be illegal, that would mean that I had to face some consequences if the authorities knew about my coins.
But it would not mean I would give my crypto stuff away. I don't do everything othere people want me to do, but of course I have to live with the consequences that produces.

[jak3]

ofcouse i will use it i do not care what government says about bitcoin i just care about its technology andits concept and by the way i am from india and everyone knows what actions our dear prime ministers are taking they are even more encouraging everyone to go digital

[QuestionAuthority]

Just the idea that someone would risk jail time for a payment system is kind of looney. If the government said you would get five years in a federal prison (no parole) would you risk using PayPal? ApplePay? M-Pesa? Google Wallet? WePay? Braintree? Skrill? I understand they are different from Bitcoin but they are still just value transfer systems.

You're all making Bitcoin sound more like a sinister cult than a Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System.

[Sithara007]

Just the idea that someone would risk jail time for a payment system is kind of looney. If the government said you would get five years in a federal prison (no parole) would you risk using PayPal?

Let me rephrase it a bit. If you are holding Bitcoins worth some $25 million, will you continue to use them if there is a 0.001% chance of imprisonment? Or are you going to dump them and forget about what happened?

[QuestionAuthority]

Just the idea that someone would risk jail time for a payment system is kind of looney. If the government said you would get five years in a federal prison (no parole) would you risk using PayPal?

Let me rephrase it a bit. If you are holding Bitcoins worth some $25 million, will you continue to use them if there is a 0.001% chance of imprisonment? Or are you going to dump them and forget about what happened?

For 25 million I think I could relocate to a more favorable country to liquidate them. I wouldn't need to risk jail time to sell them off.