Is it possible for a country to block bitcoins (or even the whole cryptos)

[Naster]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

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[BitcoinBallerina]

Yes it is, and very easily in fact.

All they need to do is block websites related to Bitcoin, such as online wallets (i.e. blockchain.info) and also block exchanges.

This alone would kill any hope of Bitcoin becoming popular in a country as the only people who would go out of their way or risk buying would be hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, or criminals looking to use it for illegal purposes. This is one big problem Bitcoin has compared to gold, which cannot be easily controlled by the government.

[webtricks]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

Nope. It is certainly impossible for government to block cryptocurrency use in the country. Although it can be controlled and censored effectively by putting ban on major exchanges. Now suppose if a government decides to ban porn, does it delete files from your computer or server? Exactly not, it simply ban popular sites. But people easily access them via vpn, proxy, etc.
Similarly in case of cryptocurrencies, these can still easily be send/receive using vpn, proxies, etc but buying/selling would become nearly impossible except face-to-face trade.

[CryptonomyCapital]

In fact, the most important thing is whether it is possible to declare a coin in the tax. For example in Russia there is no regulation for bitcoin, but you could declare profit of trading bitcoin and pay taxes.

[HempMongolia]

Peep to peer decentralized networks such as bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are designed to circumvent blockage.

[googlebtc]

In my opinion it is not possible in every country to block bitcoin (or even all crypto) but depending on the state within the government that does not want bitcoin to break in their official currency ( bank )

[absy]

Yes , I think so. I know about a exchange which was blocked by our country because bitcoin wasn't being monitored by the government then and there were huge cash flow through that exchange to banks .

[SONG GEET]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

No I don't think it is possible what they can do is block few bitcoin web wallets in their country but they can't block whole bitcoin network because it is distributed all over the world and it is hard to get all IP of those bitcoin nodes used by wallets. Also anyone can run their own node/wallet in their PC this will make this process even more tedious.

Even US government haven't thought about this till now because they know how complex this is.

[just_Alice]

Yes, it is possible. Bitcoin is illegal in Ecuador, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan and if I were living in those countries I wouldn't dare to use it because they have severe laws so that would be very risky to violate those laws.

[Naster]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

No I don't think it is possible what they can do is block few bitcoin web wallets in their country but they can't block whole bitcoin network because it is distributed all over the world and it is hard to get all IP of those bitcoin nodes used by wallets. Also anyone can run their own node/wallet in their PC this will make this process even more tedious.

Even US government haven't thought about this till now because they know how complex this is.

Oh well, that's better then. Even though they can block online wallets and blockchain viewers, they can't block the entire bitcoin network itself.

Even if they blocked those services, they can be easily accessed through several means like using VPN or proxies.
 
Thanks for the elaboration!

[deejhay]

thats posible but the question is their success. You see, people can get around anything as long as they really want it by any means possible,
but with the current trend in bitcoin, i dont think government would do that since bitcoin are gaining more and more popularity and support so its possible but they wont. (my oppinion )

[GoodLuck2]

thats posible but the question is their success. You see, people can get around anything as long as they really want it by any means possible,
but with the current trend in bitcoin, i dont think government would do that since bitcoin are gaining more and more popularity and support so its possible but they wont. (my oppinion )

Legally any government can ban bitcoins since they have control over the internet in their state. But I don’t think so any government will take such idiotic step when they can earn a lot from bitcoins. Governments are going to put taxes on the bitcoin transactions because people are not going to leave bitcoins soon.

[cipotok]

impossible
Because each country has its own authority in determining whether or not its citizens may use bitcoin.tapi it all back to each country if my country is still given the freedom to use digital media but still there batainya provided that not out of course we will safe

[Smarty14392]

Accoeding to me, its not possible for the government to baan crypto currency. Its not actually that easy. millions of people use cryptocurrency including bitcoin. its not possible to shut them down. Goverent cant check each and every cell phone, laptop, pc, etc fpr cryptocurrency. And also there should be a valid reason to baan bitcoin along with cryptocurrency.

[tinhyeumaunang]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

The network is quite large so I do not think they can block all online transactions. They can block some cases but not all.

[Kevin13]

it will be possible if really the government are serious of not accepting bitcoin anymore in a certain territory or country and it will be chaotic for some bitcoiners to accept it. I hope it will not, I am hoping they should provide some good opportunities about bitcoins..

[pooya87]

"block" no.
"make illegal" yes.

they can never prevent people from using bitcoin or any other system that is peer to peer. there will always be a workaround. there is no server to raid, there is no IP to block, there is no "1 or a couple of master nodes" to raid and shut down.
and this last one is actually one of the many concerns about bitcoin cash! with the 8 MB blocks soon the number of nodes will fall and in a year or two it will become centralized. of course this won't happen if the blocks are never full and area always about 200 to 500 bytes!!! but then again that would mean they forked for nothing!

[cellard]

Yes it is, and very easily in fact.

All they need to do is block websites related to Bitcoin, such as online wallets (i.e. blockchain.info) and also block exchanges.

This alone would kill any hope of Bitcoin becoming popular in a country as the only people who would go out of their way or risk buying would be hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, or criminals looking to use it for illegal purposes. This is one big problem Bitcoin has compared to gold, which cannot be easily controlled by the government.

It depends at what level block is. If somehow they can block it at ISP level then it would be hard to surpass. Im not sure if they block it at ISP level, an VPN would work. In theory it would, because the VPN would come after the ISP.

Real IP -> VPN IP -> exchanger

This would allow you to bypass the tyrannical governments blocking stuff in theory.

But they can block VPNs, TOR or anything else by passing laws... in that case I don't see any way out.

[craZyLovE0916]

Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

Nope. It is certainly impossible for government to block cryptocurrency use in the country. Although it can be controlled and censored effectively by putting ban on major exchanges. Now suppose if a government decides to ban porn, does it delete files from your computer or server? Exactly not, it simply ban popular sites. But people easily access them via vpn, proxy, etc.
Similarly in case of cryptocurrencies, these can still easily be send/receive using vpn, proxies, etc but buying/selling would become nearly impossible except face-to-face trade.

This is obvious. The point is, if a country were to ban exchanges and the most popular Bitcoin-related sites, there is no question it would lead to the demise of cryptocurrency.

There is no way this goes mainstream without the government being involved. With that said, with the recent BTC-e fiasco it seems the government is trying to build up their crypto portfolio, so the chances of this happening anyway are slim.

[aleksej996]

It honestly surprises me a bit that so many people here don't really know this now
No, it is absolutely impossible, in theory or in practice, to block any type of knowledge.

Bitcoin is a protocol, based on mathematics. it is a concept, it can exist on paper or using a calculator for help. It exists on Internet and Internet has a long history of attempted censorship. None of it worked for too long. People learn how to bypass it, you can't follow everyone at all the times. You remember the terror attacks on France not that long ago? EU started banning all kinds of encryption to prevent terrorist from talking to each other, but police reported that they played some first person shooter like CS or CoD and were shooting messages on the walls with bullets. Try stopping that...

Projects like Tor exist for years now and they have been doing an amazing job so far. Many countries banned Tor, some use to ban Bitcoin as well.
China still tries to block Tor, but Tor bridges still work. I believe Bitcoin Core runs by default on Tor if you have it installed, if not, it is one check box to set it up.
Not only did Bitcoin exist before centralized exchanges existed, by it grew as well. People used to get together in a town square and exchange bitcoins, the so called Satoshi squares. By now, even decentralized exchanges exist, like Bisq (former Bitsquare). You had hidden services on Tor for a vary long time, many have fallen, but they always came back even more advanced.

So no. Don't worry. You can't stop a revolution, you can only give more incentive for people to join it by trying to stop it.
Bitcoin will have help from the goverment in the end, because people always run the goverment in the end. It is process that has been going around the world for thousands of years, the democratization. Bitcoin is just a part of it.