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

[Gunawan82]

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 )

True what you say, there may be a country that blocks bitcoin, but whether it can be when in this country there are many who use bitcoin and crypto for human survival.

[Arkann]

I think that in every government of any state there will always be sensible people to understand that it is necessary not to prohibit the crypto currency, but to use it for profit. Why destroy the chicken that carries the golden eggs. In some states, they will certainly try to impose all kinds of restrictions on the circulation of the crypto currency, but they will not bring much success since the crypto currency is difficult to control

[Aleya]

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.

No its not possible.we can use VPN proxy for change IP and can easily use those site.its never possible to stop using bitcoin by only stooping block website.In my country Porno video is not allowed so government block all website (porn site)but here people using VPN,proxy for watching porn videos. so its very easy to use block chain and using bitcoin.

[batako]

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?

Everything is possible. If a country want to block bitcoin and any other type of cryptocurrencies, They can make laws to ban their citizens using cryptocurrency. That's easy!

[aleksej996]

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?

Everything is possible. If a country want to block bitcoin and any other type of cryptocurrencies, They can make laws to ban their citizens using cryptocurrency. That's easy!

The question is, can they block it, not can they outlaw it. They can't stop it. It is a bit ironic that your signature ad actually boosts about the use of Tor (they did write TOR instead of Tor tho).

[franco123]

Yes it can! A government has a full control of the regulatory and legality of Bitcoin. And if it chooses not to allow Bitcoin in their country, they can easily block the sites that is associated with the usage and transaction of Bitcoins. This is just like blocking social medias in countries like North Korea and some parts of China.

The reason why the government of that country wants to block Bitcoin is because of the possible threat that it may cause when it will fall. The Economy of country can be affected when something goes wrong which will affect all the businesses of that country.

[SonOfNorth]

No its not possible.we can use VPN proxy for change IP and can easily use those site.its never possible to stop using bitcoin by only stooping block website.In my country Porno video is not allowed so government block all website (porn site)but here people using VPN,proxy for watching porn videos. so its very easy to use block chain and using bitcoin.

Yes, you can get around blocks, but the thing is that if the government was to force ISP's block addresses of major exchanges and required protocols it would hinder the whole system in that country enough for it all to just remain within the grasp of those technologically savvy. And let's face it, even without any extra hurdles BTC is still somewhat hard concept for the layman to understand and use, so even a small distortion could have great negative impact.

[AleSergio]

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.

What about proxy and vpns? Even if the goverment will block such sites, who need to buy and trade bitcoins or altcoins wil find a way easily. It would be the same situation as with piratebay Nobody cares about goverment website block

[aleksej996]

No its not possible.we can use VPN proxy for change IP and can easily use those site.its never possible to stop using bitcoin by only stooping block website.In my country Porno video is not allowed so government block all website (porn site)but here people using VPN,proxy for watching porn videos. so its very easy to use block chain and using bitcoin.

Yes, you can get around blocks, but the thing is that if the government was to force ISP's block addresses of major exchanges and required protocols it would hinder the whole system in that country enough for it all to just remain within the grasp of those technologically savvy. And let's face it, even without any extra hurdles BTC is still somewhat hard concept for the layman to understand and use, so even a small distortion could have great negative impact.

You would be surprised how many people in China use VPNs and Tor. Usually everyone has someone to set it up for them, since you only need to set it up once. It is just like when people don't know how to use cracks for programs and video games or even torrents. They just ask someone who knows. It really isn't that hard, is isn't programing or nothing needing skill or education, it is a normal function of an OS. Same as people setup WiFi or anything else that is not an everyday task.

[aoluain]

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?

Im not so sure this would happen,
think of all the bad stuff online that people have access to, Why is that not blocked already?

The only thing that is actively being pursued is not paying for T.V packages and illegal streaming. Because that hurts big business!
All those Soccer stars being paid Hundreds of Thousands on a monthly/yearly basis have to be paid, and it aint gonna happen if more
and more people are illegally streaming.

We over here in our crypto corner are not on the radar [yet] generally speaking.

[Fundamentals Of]

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?

Yes, of course. Any country can block bitcoin if they really want bitcoin to stay away from their country. As a matter of fact, there are several countries where bitcoin is illegal. Who would then try to spread bitcoin in a place where bitcoin is too alien a concept?

And some countries that are now open to bitcoin used to discourage the use of bitcoin.

[krishnapramod]

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?

Bangladesh banned bitcoin in 2014 under anti-money laundering law and using it is a punishable offense, up to 12 years in jail. There are a few other countries that banned bitcoin around 2013 - 2014, at a time when bitcoin adoption was in its very early stages.

Countries can ban bitcoins by proclaiming it illegal, but still it would be a bit tough to enforce this ban. It ain't 2014 anymore, bitcoin has tremendously grown in popularity. When countries like Japan, Australia, India, Russia, US etc are in favor of bitcoin, developing or underdeveloped countries wouldn't outright ban bitcoin, neither lilegal nor banned.

With its store of value aspect, similar to gold, and a safe haven during political, economical, and social uncertainties, neither belonging to any particular country nor correlated with other assets/conventional currencies. All these makes bitcoin a good alternative world reserve currency. Rather than banning bitcoin, I think in future most countries would be competing to cash in on bitcoins reserve qualities.

[farhaan]

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 think its hardly difficult for a country to ban bitcoins completely.If it had been possible to do so,china and russia would have done it much before.What they could do is just block some popular sites to avoid trading.The two main reasons for which most governments fear bitcoin is that they would not be able to control illegal activities funded with bitcoins and they would not be able to impose tax on bitcoin earnings fully.

[Chicago]

Hello,

    Let's think about a solution outside of the context of a regulatory ban or outright denial of service.

    Here's the hypothetical.  Let's suppose you wanted to broadcast a transaction but didn't have a node which was caught up with the network for one reason or another.

    If you're lucky enough to have just an input or two in the transaction; then the transaction will be very small (in bytes).
    In a disaster situation where there are people helping people, it wouldn't be hard at all to imagine a scenario where some guy with a paper wallet finds some guy with a HAM radio.

    It would be very easy to modulate a small signed transaction even in Morse code; so that it could be verified and broadcast over the network.

    This probably only works easily to get your Bitcoins *out* of the disaster zone.

    Another way could be through steganography.
    Let's suppose in this case, the ISP has a something equivalent to the Sandvine traffic management filter which was used to kill Bittorrent P2p networks... such that the wire protocol was inspected and Bitcoin nodes weren't able to operate in the clear because forged TCP RST had been sent to the remote end of the connection.

    Maybe you can't run the full node, but you could get a signed transaction out to someone who does.  It is doubtful that in the same parallel dimension where Bitcoin is blocked that posting images or sharing music would be blocked too...  otherwise, why have an Internet?  There would then be easy ways to encode your signed transaction steganographically into some image you uploaded in a new facebook post.  A contingency where you pay someone in a safe country to watch your facebook posts to see if the images contain a concealed transaction -- is definitely far from ideal, but technically a possibility.

    With the growth rate of the blockchain and the 1MB blocks; it wouldn't even been too imaginative to consider a situation where the same street markets which sell pirated DVDs and CDs could have a "July 2017" bootstrap.dat for you to import all of the blocks that you missed since the end of June 2017 (on DVD or Blu-ray) -- so that your "offline node" is still able to have a valid (albeit latent) copy of the blockchain and verify that the Bitcoins you had sent covertly had indeed been broadcast to the network and included in a block.

    I guess in short -- censorship of the Internet or legislative blockades to Bitcoin will in all actually only slow down the ability for the determined to transact in Bitcoin.
    I don't think it would ever be able to make transacting an impossibility.

    Remember the BGP hijacking in the Arab Spring when Egypt cut off most Internet and cell phone service?
    How successful were they in totally blocking all of that reporting... (hint: not so successful)

    What are some of your Sci-Fi Cypherpunk Bitcoin Hero hypotheticals?
    How would you get a transaction broadcast -- how would you go about keeping a node going and ensuring the copy you have is the Best Chain?
    Would it be a team effort or the story of a solo practitioner; would you just say, "Fugget About It" and then be a good boy working in the labor camp?

Best Regards,
-Chicago

[Maheshkumar_Hrangkhawl]

How can they block Bitcoins, when the blockchain is decentralized? The only option is to impose a blanket ban on internet (that will be extremely difficult, with satellite phones available on every nook and corner of the earth).

[coin_1122]

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?

Everything is possible. If a country want to block bitcoin and any other type of cryptocurrencies, They can make laws to ban their citizens using cryptocurrency. That's easy!

Sometimes it is not possible because Bitcoin is not paper currency, everyone has the right to register in any exchange where we can trade.
But will insist them not to use the Bitcoin but people who invested will still, using the Bitcoin buying and selling.

[elite3000]

Some countries block the whole internet for most of their populations, like North Korea. No internet, no bitcoins.

Some less drastic resolutions: make Bitcoin illegal and punish everyone caught using Bitcoin, block all connections related to Bitcoin nodes for the whole country

[SvenBomvolen]

It is actually possible. They will just block sites which support bitcoin payment or exchange. That is not so hard if the government developed in this sense. It is going to be the same as the government make some porn sites or online casinos unavailable if they hold politic against this.

[Hellacopter]

No, I believe it is not possible to block bitcoins because its decentralized and people need only connection to get this crypto currency, buy and sell it everytime without any issue.

[Kprawn]

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.

You can accumulate it and then spend it online. How would they know? If you buy something online, nobody asks you how you

paid for it. You just pay the import duties and taxes with Fiat, then they are happy.  The other option is to spend it on a Bitcoin

holiday in another country, where Bitcoin is accepted. Japan will be a shopping Holiday of a life time.