Can bitcoin be blocked too by the government or isp ??

[apoorvlathey]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

[Teraboy]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

That's right the goverment just be able for blocking the bitcoin through the IP, in this time that is referring into the bitcoin'site and not for the bitcoin currency. but it's just useless step for the goverment and isp for blocking bitcoin. according from the a lot of the various vpn are offering a good service in this day for passing a block and like using a tor network. goverment and isp just wasting a lot of their time for doing a sueless things.

[virasisog]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

In my understanding it can be blocked by government if they don't want it to enter on your country and some of countries label bitcoins as illegal currency or illegal of using it .but you can still bypass and access it as many of IP's are created to enter some prohibited network and now can enter that sites blocked sites by changing your country and location server.

[pooya87]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

can you give more information about how they banned/blocked file sharing using torrent technology? because there is no single IP to ban and the port is also changeable that is why i am curious to know how this can be done.

and as for bitcoin you can always make your transactions offline and push them on a block explorer even if it is blocked somehow!

[lottery248]

for me, not because the network is decentralised unless there are no avaliable network even it is private, the bitcoin network is based on the method you won't know, like going the transaction via the vpn.

[MingLee]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

There is likely some system that exists to prevent people from being able to access it, however, if I remember correctly, they would have to block the nodes in order to really block the network. I'm not 100% sure about that, but that is my interpretation of the whitepaper.

[digaran2]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

I think it is impossible,because BTC is uncenter, u have net you can use btc !

[franky1]

governments cannot take down the network because the IP's are vast.
but lets not get lazy and think we are safe. apathy leads to vulnerability. by not keeping the network as secure as possible.

so lets be realistic and not have an apathetic utopian mindset.

worse case scenario:
(1) governments can take down this forum. the subreddits, github, and some IRC channels, and a couple other bitcoin sites/exchanges to cause some drama.
because that is only under 10 places to hit.

this will take more then a few days for people to try communicating with each other via social media to re establish a new assortment of collaboration of minds, code, markets.

but what i say above wont affect the bitcoin network at all.
however,
(2) governments take down the mining pools internet. because there are only ~20 pools.
causing block creation delays while mining pools switch servers.
this is a short term delay of under an hour. because pools do (well some should) have multiple servers(within their control but in different jurisdictions) to allow miners to "pool hop" to another server quite quickly.
some pools dont have a couple servers. meaning it will take more then an hour to allow their asics to "pool hop"

but what i say above wont see much interruption/delay on the network.

[Kakmakr]

People will just connect to these sites via proxies and anonymous browsers and find ways to bypass firewall restrictions. We have seen this with the Chinese " Golden Shield Project " where censorship and surveillance are applied to restrict internet use. You might find some ways to bypass these restrictions, but you might also end up with some jail time, if you did that.

The other thing they might also do, is to ban "Crypto currency" use on the merchant side. If these merchants are forbidden to accept "Crypto currencies" then you would have no place to spend your bitcoins.

In the end, we just have to work with these governments to find a solution to satisfy everyone's needs and hope that they would not over regulate it, which I doubt. ^hmmmmm^

[Herbert2020]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

i don't think anybody can block users and stop them from using bitcoin, they can always threaten people into not using bitcoin the same way they threaten the usage of Torrent and prosecute pirates but it will always exist. so the same thing will be true about bitcoin. it is p2p and as long as 2 pees are using it, the network and be alive

[noictib]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

yes , through location and ip service they can ban this connection of bitcoin .
but still they will not do the same because it is totally legal .
and also many bank services also comes in bitcoin to make bitcoin more clear .
so if there would be any chance to block or ban anything first of all government will announce already before ban or anything what you are saying

[franky1]

People will just connect to these sites via proxies and anonymous browsers and find ways to bypass firewall restrictions. We have seen this with the Chinese " Golden Shield Project " where censorship and surveillance are applied to restrict internet use. You might find some ways to bypass these restrictions, but you might also end up with some jail time, if you did that.

The other thing they might also do, is to ban "Crypto currency" use on the merchant side. If these merchants are forbidden to accept "Crypto currencies" then you would have no place to spend your bitcoins.

In the end, we just have to work with these governments to find a solution to satisfy everyone's needs and hope that they would not over regulate it, which I doubt. ^hmmmmm^

rather than having a merchant service such as coinbase/bitpay in one jurisdiction. those services should set up 'mirror' sites in multiple locations.
so that if they receive a cease and desist order. they can continue uninterrupted using their .au or .uk domains. (out of the orders jurisdiction)

same goes for this forum. and other communication platforms. to reduce the few days of setting up alternative domains.

as i said some smart pools have a few servers running to use as redundancies/backups. scattered over a few countries. again to reduce the delay in getting users back up and running.

we should not be throwing code (github), communication(irc server host) and community(forum) all into an american jurisdiction and then lean to american government to give permission of use.
we should remain worldwide, involving distribution and diversity to not REQUIRE permission.
apathy is the worse thing to have in regards to security and functionality.
but instead utilise the diversity to gain government acceptance to not cause any delays/distractions, on our open and borderless terms

[CuriousGeorge]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

There is no way for the government or the isp are wanna for blocking your connection to the bitcoin network. the possible things if the isp are trying for banning the ip for accessing the blog or site but the network is always there and can't be blocked. The worst thing in my day can blocking the network are caused by the electricity are down and that's so make me feel worried.

[Pursuer]

if the government decides to ban bitcoin they will first start with setting some laws against merchants and businesses accepting bitcoin and then they will move on to setting laws against people using bitcoin and then they will try and block sites and anything bitcoin related.

but in all this time the only people who could no longer use bitcoin are the merchants and the rest will continue using it.

[Snorek]

Bitcoin as a network can't be blocked via standard methods similar to which centralized services are destroyed (look at various torrent sites, file hosting providers).
But as some of you pointed already satellite bitcoin sites and services i.e. basically every exchange (as 99% of them are centralized), forums, reddit can be blocked.

IIRC something like that happened recently: Baidu the biggest Chinese search engine blocked word "bitcoin" from their search results.

[Zadicar]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

It would be still a  useless move  because  even  how  government would  block  or  banned  bitcoin . There are  still ways  that you could able to access it without  being   caught  or  detected.  If your isp prohibits you to do so, you could  still use tor and  tweak some  settings  in able not to be  detected by isp and also  if  you are  just using  data , there are lots  of  vpn out there. thats  why it would be still useless in any  way.

[Holliday]

Relevant: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=79913.0

I, personally, won't be satisfied until the Bitcoin network is running smoothly on a global wireless mesh network.

[davis196]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

There are good VPNs or people can use VPS or other methods.

Blocking IPs isn`t effective.

Bitcoin can`t be blocked by ISPs.

[bitbunnny]

Government can't block the Bitcoin network but they can block or seize coins in your wallet if they are product of criminal activities. At least in some countries they have the authority to do so. But ISPs don't have this possibility. Anyway, all this could be done only on valid legal basis.

[Red-Apple]

Recently many file sharing sites and torrents had been banned in my country to stop piracy.

Is there a way that the government or the isp may block the connection to bitcoin network by its users ??

so far there have been 1 or two countries that has blocked bitcoin and said using bitcoin is not legal and this is from what i have heard not my personal experience and these countries have already blocked sites that are related to bitcoin like bitcoin.org and this forum but i have neverheard them blocking the bitcoin wallets or the network in any way.