U.S. government is going after Bitcoin

[avero]

Senators Charles Schumer and Joe Manchin are pressing officials to take action against Bitcoin, which Gawker recently claimed is being used on underground black markets to purchase illegal drugs.

Story at http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/08/government-crackdown-on-bitcoin/?obref=obinsite

Gawker reference is at http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable

[1714134654]

1714134654

[sudzandbudz]

Fortunately the US govt does not control the world, try as they might. They might be able to do something about Silk Road, but 10 other sites will spring up (as they have already started to). They could never shut down bitcoin.

[Joker007]

Ignore the gov. They are trolls.

If you don't like the way gov does then stop feeding to it.

[TomTom85]

The US Government has shown us all how important an alternative currency is:
They have shutted down Wikileaks bank accounts arbitrarily. That shows: No one can trust in currencies controlled by some unpredictable governments.

[torusJKL]

The US gov definitely could have a big impact on the Bitcoin economy.

They might not be able to shut the network down.
But if they could make it hard for the average person to buy or sell Bitcoins from/to USD.
That would cripple the system and might be it's downfall.

This is a real threat to the system.

[Rassah]

The US gov definitely could have a big impact on the Bitcoin economy.

They might not be able to shut the network down.
But if they could make it hard for the average person to buy or sell Bitcoins from/to USD.
That would cripple the system and might be it's downfall.

This is a real threat to the system.

U.S. government is not World Government. They may cause problems for USD users, but other countries will continue to adopt it. And if US blocks BTC <=> USD transactions, I'll just switch to BTC <=> Linden <=> USD or something similar.

[bruteoger]

What rassah meant was that though the US can't bring down the network, as no one government can.  But by preventing every american site based on or accepting bitcoins from using them then the bitcoins essential value will plummet.

[Shad3dOne]

..and until then.. better get busy mining / selling/ buying bitcoins.

-Shad3d

[Oldminer]

Good luck shutting down a P2P network lol

Mine on guys.. 

[rafval]

it would be economic isolation in the long run, the US cant afford to do it

What rassah meant was that though the US can't bring down the network, as no one government can.  But by preventing every american site based on or accepting bitcoins from using them then the bitcoins essential value will plummet.

[Ampersand]

I'm kind of realizing the amazingness of BTC -- with a way to freely exchange USD to BTC, there is a way to take your actual money under your own protection, albeit with the risk of losing it physically on the hardware or losing it virtually in the exchange rates.

[bitrader8082418]

The only action the US Government can do is first of all go after any US based Bitcoin ties, like this forum or web sites hosted in the US. Secondly, they can go after exchangers in connection with suspected money laundering. I should note the exchanger does not have to be in the US if they deal with US customers as this gives them the ability to go after an exchanger in any country that will cooperate such as Canada and the EU.

They have to date not tried this with Liberty Reserve...yet... which is used for large scale investment fraud and money laundering.

[janez]

It might be observed by governments but it is still safe, I think.

[Gabi]

Oh June 2011, it was epic back then. No wait, today is epic too  Bitcoin, no matter when, it is always epic

[martynw2000]

True the US government doesn't rule the world - but no-one can deny they have a ton of resources. If they wanted to shut down Bitcoin, could they not devote an entire building to mining operations, and effectively take all the coins for themselves? If the goal is to break the system, rather than making a profit, then surely anyone with a spare $1M could do this?

[Matthew N. Wright]

True the US government doesn't rule the world - but no-one can deny they have a ton of resources. If they wanted to shut down Bitcoin, could they not devote an entire building to mining operations, and effectively take all the coins for themselves? If the goal is to break the system, rather than making a profit, then surely anyone with a spare $1M could do this?

It'd be pointless to try, because we'd just restart a new blockchain or 100 of them even. It'll take a while, but people will soon realize that you can't stop progress. You can however influence human beings with threats against their reputation, and that will be happening a lot to businesses that accept bitcoin, the then labeled "money laundering currency of criminals", and it won't even be coming from the government, just the closed minded masses who would equally shun evolution taught in the schools.

[cryptotrade]

The internet moves to fast for this kind of shutdown.  Another currency will immediately take it's place.  The US government should spend more time cleaning up it's own house and it's own currency.  All this fuss proves only one thing - that alternate currencies are real threats to the USD and other traditional currencies.

If the USD was that strong, it wouldn't give bitcoin a second thought.

Their over-reaction is actually quite troubling.

[martynw2000]

What's this thing I hear about a 51% attack? I've read a few posts about it, but I still don't really understand what it means. I figured it meant that if someone took over 51% or more of the network they could shut it down. I could be wrong though - newbie alert!

[Aahzman]

Wow. Zombie thread.

[Matthew N. Wright]

What's this thing I hear about a 51% attack? I've read a few posts about it, but I still don't really understand what it means. I figured it meant that if someone took over 51% or more of the network they could shut it down. I could be wrong though - newbie alert!

In layman's terms, it's when 51% in the room are shouting something as truth and the other 49% are confused as to who to believe because majority rules in this room. They can't change what the 49% says, but they can try to keep it from being heard as loudly and theoretically keep their voice the loudest.

[HW4Bitcoins]

The internet moves to fast for this kind of shutdown.  Another currency will immediately take it's place.  The US government should spend more time cleaning up it's own house and it's own currency.  All this fuss proves only one thing - that alternate currencies are real threats to the USD and other traditional currencies.

If the USD was that strong, it wouldn't give bitcoin a second thought.

Their over-reaction is actually quite troubling.

Online currencies will only work if there is 1 established one

[Mike Christ]

I'm assume those senators were unsuccessful. 

[Equality]

i personally threatened them and they backed down. not violently of course i threatened to withhold my $1 million campaign contribution and they immediately said "yes master." then got on their knees and performed the bobble-head motion until i was satisfied.