is this a possible way 'they' could criminalise bitcoin?

[stompix]

I had too much about conspiracy theories, I think

Yeah, you had a bit too much.
Why would they bother going that way and create such a complicated plan.
They could just pick any local bitcoin trader who doesn't have all the papers and a license.
And that happened with BurtW.

Arrest 100 guys in a day and it will surely make the news.
Half of the population will chicken out and won't touch bitcoin for years.

But, those are just conspiracies. Aside from China (and we all know what kind of country communist China is) no democratic country is thinking about playing entrapment games with bitcoin.

[CloudCoinR]

No joke.

damn! that is what i have assumed 

If they (the governments, or other authorities) want to criminalise bitcoin, they can do that indirectly, like they start some ransomware virus and ask for the payment in bitcoin, everybody will blame bitcoin...

sounds like a little thing in comparison with cp.
cp is a knockout argument!

[Virtual miner]

anyone is able to put anything in the blockchain:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/39347/how-to-store-data-on-the-blockchain
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

if there would be some kind of highly illegal data sneaked into  
wouldn't that be a very easy way the blockchain could be de-legalized  

Yes it could be de legalized but it might really prove to be ineffective delegalizing it. People who store such things on blockchain already know its illegal yet they do so. I dont think delegalizing would make any difference.

[FrictionlessCoin]

I think it would be easy to do so, but watching the bitcoin is not an easy thing to do, it's hard, so it would be easier to ban it, you know, all that governments can not monitor their fear

[InvoKing]

anyone is able to put anything in the blockchain:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/39347/how-to-store-data-on-the-blockchain
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

if there would be some kind of highly illegal data sneaked into  
wouldn't that be a very easy way the blockchain could be de-legalized  

You can put anything in the Internet, should the Internet be criminalised?
Many websites have illegal contents and was blocked several times but they continue to exists. Should we ban the Internet after all?

[bitbunnny]

 No, this is not going to happen, no one is going to criminalise blockchain technology or Bitcoin because of no reason. This sounds more like the conspiracy theory to me. I think that too many users here are too many occupied with government-Bitcoin relations and they develope too many theories that have no ground.

[Mpamaegbu]

Law and Bitcoin there is no law to stop bitcoin because bitcoin is decentralized and users are anonymous who are using bitcoin so in my opnion bitcoin is legal everywhere no one can stop bitcoin.

Obviously, this is a noob question or you are just trolling. What could be more distant from reality than your statement that no law can stop Bitcoin. Isn't the Chinese on it already and strangulating exchanges registered in China? If other countries had towed the line of China, definitely that would have been the end of bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general.

[naidray]

anyone is able to put anything in the blockchain:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/39347/how-to-store-data-on-the-blockchain
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

if there would be some kind of highly illegal data sneaked into  
wouldn't that be a very easy way the blockchain could be de-legalized  

Actually the government has nothing much to do with bitcoins as bitcoin are completely decentralized and they can't be tracked by the government so perhaps the government too may ban the blockchain if they found something illegal. We can't actually predict the future of bitcoins but yes, we can trust bitcoins and wait for the future.

Many acts were previously launched by some peoples to ban bitcoin because of its illegal use in making anonymous payments and any such more news can really ban blockchain.

It might not be that easy perhaps to ban bitcoin because millions of peoples have invested hu8ge amount in bitcoin and if bitcoin is simply banned for no reason then for sure there would be a digital strike.

[Kprawn]

There's been child porn in the blockchain for years as far as I know. No one's said much about it in living memory. It would be interesting to see how a dedicated campaign of embedding filth and illegality would pan out.

Source? I have not seen or heard about this at all, and I have been in Bitcoin for a long time. How will you add high quality

images or videos in such a small space? I know there are some ASCII art of Nelson Mandela imbedded in some transactions,

but nothing more detailed. Would be interesting to see how you respond to this. 

[CloudCoinR]

should only be possible by investing a lot of money and effort.
good that bitcoin has no enemies with unlimited funds 

[12retepnat34]

Nowadays bitcoin is just an instrument of a wrongdoers person just like wannacry ransomware and that uses bitcoin as payment for their criminal liabilities.
I think no one can file claims or issue again bitcoin  because it is just a data and anonymous transactions.

[coupable]

Blockchain has the ability to process different businesses in several different forms therefore traders are so excited about blockchain and they can create any idea into work by the help of this technology.
There are two segments involved with blockchain technology, the companies that want to utilize  the blockchain to make their business process better and the other segment that are trying to make any systems down.
So yeah second segment companies can creminalise bitcoin if not retarded by authoritatives.

I admire the guys accusating bitcoin for criminal activities, they are like dreamers. Yes, blockchain is wide and it tends to get used by different companies but why they blame bitcoin. I just don't undersand it.

I can't see the difference between using FIAT and scripturals via banks to achieve illegal activities and the use of Bitcoin for the same purpose. Road of Silk was the famous platform trading illegal products using bitcoin for anonymity before the crypto actual storm so its founder has been arrested without blaming bitcoin. This accusation against bitcoin is the only pretend for financial institutions to limit the crypto access as done in China.

[assyla]

anyone is able to put anything in the blockchain:

https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/39347/how-to-store-data-on-the-blockchain
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/ascii-bernanke-wikileaks-photographs.html
https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib/blob/master/examples/publish-text.py

if there would be some kind of highly illegal data sneaked into  
wouldn't that be a very easy way the blockchain could be de-legalized  

I think that if it will be de-legalized it is hard to find out who are the law breaker and how they will be found because as you can see there are a lot of applications that can hide your IP address and soon so that the law will be nonsense because of lack of tools that will may help them.

[Bay_Harbour_Butcher]

criminalization in the bitcoin world is not unfamiliar; once discussed so far, the bitcoin criminality inside is done in very simple terms, for example money laundering, money embezzlement, and they will hide the money in bitcoin, and surely it will very difficult to trace

[bitgolden]

You know what would be even easier, for a country to forbid use of bitcoin by law, just cause they can.

Law and Bitcoin there is no law to stop bitcoin because bitcoin is decentralized and users are anonymous who are using bitcoin so in my opnion bitcoin is legal everywhere no one can stop bitcoin.

But they can forbid exchanging bitcoin to fiat, what will btc be if you can't legally buy or sell no more. That alone would be a huge game changer.

It could really be a game changer.  We would not even think what it would matter to us if we can’t really exchange bitcoins to fiat. But even it would be difficult for the government to ban exchanging bitcoins to fiat.

A good example for it would be- In my country, we usually use PayTm for exchanging bitcoins to fiat. PayTm is a online wallet for accepting and sending payments. We can still continue selling or buying bitcoins by such wallets because they can’t really be tracked and the main function of these wallets is to send and receive payment.

[JohnBitCo]

You do realize that the biggest bumps Bitcoin in the beginning where because of criminal organizations yes?

[Qunenin]

If it wasn't for the criminal organizations in the beginning Bitcoin may have not gone anywhere. But it is those criminal organizations that made Bitcoin what it is today. You can't criminalize a currency. Bitcoin can be used by criminals  but at the same time Any other currecncy like USD can also be used as by criminals, no it is unfair to blame currency only.

[Hydrogen]

In the united states, there is a proposal known ominously as "Senate Bill 1241".

Under this bill, it would become legal for the government to confiscate crypto from end users without just cause or due process.

I think this represents a likely policy that will be pursued worldwide. Instead of attacking crypto or criminalising the powers that be can simply confiscate it.

I remember reading a post on this forum authored by someone claiming to be in germany who said police tried to confiscate their bitcoin. It is possible this is already happening.

More info:

“Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”

Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

This new bill adds a laundry list of offenses for which they can legally seize your assets… all of which pertain to money laundering and other financial crimes.

Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.

Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.

If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.

They even go so far as to specifically name “safety deposit boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-14/you-wont-believe-stupid-new-law-against-cash-and-bitcoin

[pitiflin]

Governments can ban crypto related websites, that's what is possible in their power. Inserting data in the block chain is easy but then I dotn think that they can do anything against because it's encrypted version is so very hard to crack and I think hackers have been struggling hard to manipulate the data but since they haven't been able to yet, they instead are hacking the websites and getting their things done which is more easier to do.

[BeerPanda]

if there would be some kind of highly illegal data sneaked into  
wouldn't that be a very easy way the blockchain could be de-legalized  

The way data is inserted into blockchain is not that easy.
Its complicated and data is split/encrypted into it.

You can't easily read it.
You can easily insert it into blockchain.

So no, its not a way to delegalize it, its impossible to delegalize bitcoin because its decentralized and worldwide. One country can do it or two, thats it.

Good point. I didn't think about it in thet way!