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

[Barbarian]

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.

You are saying that as if it is impossible for people to circumvent that, and we know that is not the case, bitcoin is very similar to illegal downloads, it is illegal but everyone does it and almost no one is prosecuted by it, so not it is not going to work and it is way harder to block bitcoin than what you imagine.

[megynacuna]

It is impossible to block BTC or whole cryptos within a country, but they can censor it pretty effectively, if they prohibit the usage of cryptocurrencies companies and shops wont be able to accept them, but there can be exchanges among citizens. Finally there could be a block of major exchanges but that is easily solved via a VPN.

I don't think it's feasible for a single country to do this unless they agree globally to switch the internet off and stop using internet around the world and even with that there could arise black market networks and international networks that will still connect computers so I doubt if it's possible at least in the near future.

[Zenithar]

It is impossible to block BTC or whole cryptos within a country, but they can censor it pretty effectively, if they prohibit the usage of cryptocurrencies companies and shops wont be able to accept them, but there can be exchanges among citizens. Finally there could be a block of major exchanges but that is easily solved via a VPN.

I don't think it's feasible for a single country to do this unless they agree globally to switch the internet off and stop using internet around the world and even with that there could arise black market networks and international networks that will still connect computers so I doubt if it's possible at least in the near future.

i also do not think that it may be possible because there are so many other sites that government have already lock but still people are using the.  so i can say that it many not be possible that government will block bitcoin.

[xuan87]

Yeah it is possible for government to banned the sites and the Bitcoin usage, the government can banned the exchanger and wallet and other Bitcoin related sites, but people will find the way to break it, it is quite hard to stop people to used Bitcoin because Bitcoin is easy to setup and it is hard to track

[Webetcoins]

They will not block bitcoins because for sure government also using bitcoin. 
It is hard for them to block this cryptocurrencies especially bitcoin is international currency.

I do not know whether politicians also have their hands on bitcoins. May be secretly they have also bitcoin wallets. Governments always wear a mask in front of its public. If we talk about the blocking of crypto currencies, it can't happen. People use different proxies to break such restrictions.

[Harlot]

Well at my perspective if I was assigned to block all cryptocurrencies in my country I would simply disable all wallet providers for all cryptocurrencies rendering their services unavailable for my our citizens. With than being said it won't totally block the exchange and transactions of cryptocurrencies in my country because many new wallet will be available for them to be use by.

[seattletu]

They will not block bitcoins because for sure government also using bitcoin. 
It is hard for them to block this cryptocurrencies especially bitcoin is international currency.

I do not know whether politicians also have their hands on bitcoins. May be secretly they have also bitcoin wallets. Governments always wear a mask in front of its public. If we talk about the blocking of crypto currencies, it can't happen. People use different proxies to break such restrictions.

Bitcoin has no physical location to assault. On the off chance that there we to obstruct every one of the sites that individuals can download Bitcoin wallets from, new ones will come up and a few people will incorporate their own wallets from source code - Bitcoin resembles Bittorrent is that regard.There is no single association or individual that controls Bitcoin and exchanges don't experience a focal clearing house there is truly no chance a controller can prevent individuals from downloading Bitcoin wallets and sending each other bitcoins.  In the event that they close down the web, individuals will send each other Bitcoin through SMS and on the off chance that they close down the power supply, individuals will utilize sun powered and battery-fueled arrangements.

[Usui-Kun]

Blocking is not really the right term, the government and banks could actually control the flow or transactions using bitcoin. Bitcoin is so spread and popular enough for the government to ban or block it, they cannot just stop all transactions using bitcoins

[sandrun]

It is very easy to do by the government to block the bitcoin wallet and its trade. Maybe if a country indicates a big problem with bitcoin use and the amount of money laundering in that country with bitcoin mode .. maybe that could happen. Criminality caused by bitcoin transactions to the detriment of a country. It will cause the state will not allow bitcoin to flourish in that country.

[deppil]

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 )

Maybe not all countries will block on bitcoin, for example my country. In my case bitcoin is not prohibited but not legalized. So all risks borne by the users themselves. The government will not interfere with interests in cryptocurrency. I think it's better than banning bitcoin

[hello_good_sir]

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?

Not really doable.

cryptocurrencies are designed to counter this sort of government intervention in transactions. There is no central point of failure, for a country's government to say no to bitcoin completely they would have to shut down every single node that runs bitcoin which is impossible. This is in stark contrast with centralized payment processors such as LibertyReserve and e-gold which all got taken down very easily.

Your idea about ISP blocking online payments will firstly spark public outrage and secondly, probably wouldn't work very effectively as workarounds can be implemented quite easily. And plus, how are they going to block bitcoin transactions in the first place? I'm not aware of any obvious ways of doing that.

[Barbarian]

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?

Not really doable.

cryptocurrencies are designed to counter this sort of government intervention in transactions. There is no central point of failure, for a country's government to say no to bitcoin completely they would have to shut down every single node that runs bitcoin which is impossible. This is in stark contrast with centralized payment processors such as LibertyReserve and e-gold which all got taken down very easily.

Your idea about ISP blocking online payments will firstly spark public outrage and secondly, probably wouldn't work very effectively as workarounds can be implemented quite easily. And plus, how are they going to block bitcoin transactions in the first place? I'm not aware of any obvious ways of doing that.

The only way I can imagine a government blocking transactions could be if they got their own mining equipment and use it to try to get 51% of the hash power and then reject all transactions except their own but that will be very costly to do for any government.

[perfect999]

Any country that attempts to do that has to be kidding. Bitcoin is anonymous for christ’s sake so how would you plan on blocking it when you don’t even know who is carrying out the transactions.

[milewilda]

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?

Its possible to block some sites that do related on crypto or any other services related to it but its impossible to block it completely or restrict people on engaging on it. We do know there are lots of ways to access without being traced or blocked. Theres vpn services specially on using Tor too, you can access anytime without their awareness no matter how hard they try to block. Its impossible to isolate such thing.

[Oceat]

In what matters or problem why would the government is blocking bitcoin in your area? As far as i know the government doesn't care about much for bitcoin as long as it is not causing any trouble for any certain areas.

For the record if the government will ever going to do that i think there is already a chaos happening because if they did block it like what you said 'block the IPs/ISPs' there's a serious business going on that matters about the crypto currencies world.

I think you were just thinking too much or beyond because first and foremost why would they have to block it anyway? People can always find a way to access the internet even if you have to block their ISPs or IP addresses, so it doesn't make sense at all.

[Adbitco]

I think it's possible for the government of a country to block bitcoins or all of the other cryptocurrencies but whether they will be successful in doing so is doubtful. They have tried to curb so many illegal things which can be done with the fiat in the past but haven't been successful in abolishing them completely, people always come up with a way or two to make governments efforts in blocking something ineffective and keep on doing things they love and make money with so it's useless for governments to block bitcoins rather they should try to legalize it.

[BTCLovingDude]

Any country that attempts to do that has to be kidding. Bitcoin is anonymous for christ’s sake so how would you plan on blocking it when you don’t even know who is carrying out the transactions.

it is not as anonymous as you may think although it can not be completely blocked. but causing a lot of troubles is easy, just announce it illegal and people will simply stop using it!

[J Gambler]

I think its hardly not possible for a country to do so.Bitcoin could not be completely banned unless internet is banned.If it had been possible to ban or block bitcoin,then countries like china,russia would have already banned bitcoins instead of regulating it.Almost all countries are aware of the fact that bitcoin could not be banned.Only thing they could do is to just regulate bitcoin exchanges in the country which china and russia has been doing now.

yes if they want it they will hold or block it, i think every country has the right to do it and every country has the department to do it, and they can regulate people on when and where they will about to surf if its in bitcoin or in other sites. but as long as they didnt prohibit bitcoin to its countrymen then it is good.

[Barbarian]

Any country that attempts to do that has to be kidding. Bitcoin is anonymous for christ’s sake so how would you plan on blocking it when you don’t even know who is carrying out the transactions.

Maybe they do not have a direct way to block bitcoin, but if they find a way to differentiate between normal traffic and bitcoin traffic they could try to block it, or they may try to block websites that talk about bitcoin like this forum and exchanges.

[RedX]

It's possible. For example, if there are no exchanges that would accept your btc and convert it to cash then it's useless having bitcoins in that country. All of the sites that are connected to btc are banned is also the worst case scenario if your government is really serious to prevent them from the market. You might need to go to other country so you can use them.