Why hasn't any government stopped Bitcoin?

[Ghondronk]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seem to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

Bitcoin has no central authority

[Minerfortyniner]

The same reason they cant stop DeepOnion or the TOR network. Because they are decentralized.
Bitcoin is a decentralized p2p open source crypto network.

[godwyn50]

I see that yet again, this question has been merged in with one that does not ask the same thing. The question I answered was “If a government body wanted to shut down Bitcoin - could they even do it?”

Governments probably cannot shut it down through "technical" means, i.e. hacking the system, thus crashing the value or preventing it from working. (Juergen Nieveler discusses this in his answer.) Thus, if I were a government that saw Bitcoin as a threat, I would try a three-pronged attack:

[BTCeminjas]

I see that yet again, this question has been merged in with one that does not ask the same thing. The question I answered was “If a government body wanted to shut down Bitcoin - could they even do it?”

Governments probably cannot shut it down through "technical" means, i.e. hacking the system, thus crashing the value or preventing it from working. (Juergen Nieveler discusses this in his answer.) Thus, if I were a government that saw Bitcoin as a threat, I would try a three-pronged attack:

Of course, they are not going to manipulate bitcoin because it has own blockchain technology that they used in bitcoin and also it being decentralized nobody behind this cryptocurrency bitcoin. Some of the countries are embrace and recognized bitcoin but others are refusing bitcoin due to afraid of bitcoin may abuse their community by doing illegal activities.

[ubercab90]

They are trying to do it now. Hope that this is just a temporary phenomenon, cryptos aren't supposed to be blocked cause they're not illegal at all

[ersmny1]

I think bitcoin extremely difficult to track transactions and collect taxes. therefore there is nothing to seize and no central location to shut down.

[Stegobit]

No govt have enough resources to stop Bitcoin, therefore they chose to tax and regulate it.

[klarnetcijamie]

I think that because they need union stop from all government all over the world that make this stop impossible..

[KorakPawon]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seem to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

Governments have done enough to dissuade common people from using BItcoin extensively. Being charged with operating unlicensed money changing businesses is a possibility if you engage in cash-bitcoin conversion.

how the government can stop the development of bitcoin if the internet is still there, because the internet is the way to get bitcoin, no matter how hard it is to be eliminated. except as the north korea country actually shut down internet access. can just stop the development of bitcoin.

[binhvo1505]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seem to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

I think the governments of Russia and China have recognized the value of Bitcoin. I and my friends saw the great potential of bitcoin for the world economy.
Current countries in the world are very interested in foreign trade, because their country only develops when it has a better change in all aspects. Therefore, bitcoin is very useful for foreign trade when trading through countries is not a big problem for it.

[gogrowglow]

They cannot because BITCOIN is using BLOCKCHAIN technology which is a decentralized technology.  BITCOIN is managed by it's network and not by anyone central authority. Government cannot taxed it because they cannot traced it.  I think this is one best solution for the rampant corruption in the government today, especially in my coutry.

[asy7]

They can try but they will never succeed.   

[imsotiredofmoviereboots]

Some country already like China. But as we can see, their efforts were useless because Chinese-owned crypto markets are still leading the way and Binance is still the largest exchange at this moment.

[KorakPawon]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seem to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

it is impossible for the government to block the Bitcoin ecosystem, including the activities of digging bitcoin (mining). just block the buying and selling sites and prohibit the development of a Bitcoin payment platform for expenditure. It also is a futile effort, because users will find a way to monetize Bitcoin or use it to transact.

[Woolles890]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seems to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

The government actually knows that Bitcoin is very helpful and profitable for its users. Hence in many countries, the Government has not really dismissed Bitcoin because it still believes in Bitcoin. But now there are also some countries that dismiss Bitcoin in any case and if it violates it will be sanctioned. But I am sure in the future later Governments all over the country will really accept the sophistication of this blockchain technology. We just have to wait for the right time to see it all.

[cetald]

I think that the governments of all countries understand the advantages and potential of the cryptocurrency market. Therefore, they do not want to stop the growth of this market.
They just want to control it.

[auliasilvana]

At the early stages Russia ruled it as illegal, China outlawed all withdrawals and some other country also spoke against it. But now everything seems to be smoothing up at least on the government side. Surely Bitcoin must be seen as challenging their authority. Is there something I am failing to see? All it would take is a 51% attack or a new law.

The government did not stop Bitcoin because there is still a sense of government trust in Bitcoin. It's just that the Government is waiting for the right time to legalize Bitcoin in the country. But the Government did not stop Bitcoin this is proof that Bitcoin is still worth keeping. So we all be patient and wait for the time when all the Governments of the World can legalize Bitcoin and not prohibit anymore.

[futureofeth]

Yes, Government still, doesn't have any clue to stop the Bitcoin but instead of banning to want to make Bitcoin as legal tender because of it's technology behind it. Technology is convincing the government and has the efficient growth in terms of their economic growth.

[cryptorocket84]

Government can not stop bitcoin reason because it is programmed online, i know they have taught of it but i think it will be a wasted effort, Is bitcoin threatening or destabilizing the government? there are lots of illegal deals that need to be stopped by Government not Bitcoin.

[budz0425]

Government can not stop bitcoin reason because it is programmed online, i know they have taught of it but i think it will be a wasted effort, Is bitcoin threatening or destabilizing the government? there are lots of illegal deals that need to be stopped by Government not Bitcoin.

They have seen that here there is a chance for their people so why they need to stop it? some countries are stopping this since they don't want their country to be involved in a Ponzi scheme that until now they are still thinking that bitcoin was a big Ponzi scheme.