Can any government ban Bitcoin?

[nhoj25]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

[1713519364]

1713519364

[User365]

Yes, of course, this can occur, but I think it is very unlikely right now.

EU will Not Regulate Digital Currencies like Bitcoin: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/26/eu-will-not-regulate-digital-currencies-like-bitcoin/
Federal Reserve Chair: US Central Bank Can't Regulate Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/federal-reserve-chair-us-central-bank-cant-regulate-bitcoin/
China: Banned facebook, twitter, snapchat, gambling, people in the Chinese military are not allowed to access the internet, google,... So I think it is an achievement for BTC that it is "banned" in China 

[Dexion]

Yes, of course, this can occur, but I think it is very unlikely right now.

EU will Not Regulate Digital Currencies like Bitcoin: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/26/eu-will-not-regulate-digital-currencies-like-bitcoin/
Federal Reserve Chair: US Central Bank Can't Regulate Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/federal-reserve-chair-us-central-bank-cant-regulate-bitcoin/
China: Banned facebook, twitter, snapchat, gambling, people in the Chinese military are not allowed to access the internet, google,... So I think it is an achievement for BTC that it is "banned" in China 

yes, I agree with your opinion, it will happen but not today, because today bitcoin is getting stronger.
but I would argue that it will happen if someday the bitcoin weakens in dying conditions. and it's hard to predict ..

[Lmaooo]

Bitcoin is not owned or controlled by any government or corporation. Bitcoin network is peer to peer and fully decentralized.

[Erkallys]

They can not actually ban it by making it unable to to be reached, but however any state in the World can perfectly make it outlaw and then sentence anyone who would be caught using it. Hopefully the fashion is more to the legalisation lately than the ban.

[kueyen]

Yes, of course, this can occur, but I think it is very unlikely right now.

EU will Not Regulate Digital Currencies like Bitcoin: http://www.newsbtc.com/2016/01/26/eu-will-not-regulate-digital-currencies-like-bitcoin/
Federal Reserve Chair: US Central Bank Can't Regulate Bitcoin: https://www.coindesk.com/federal-reserve-chair-us-central-bank-cant-regulate-bitcoin/
China: Banned facebook, twitter, snapchat, gambling, people in the Chinese military are not allowed to access the internet, google,... So I think it is an achievement for BTC that it is "banned" in China 

yes, I agree with your opinion, it will happen but not today, because today bitcoin is getting stronger.
but I would argue that it will happen if someday the bitcoin weakens in dying conditions. and it's hard to predict ..

Not sure if I got that correct. Why would the governments want to ban bitcoin if it is losing power? The reason governments are thinking about how they can deal with bitcoin is because bitcoin has a lot of value right now and people are taking their money off the grid to invest in it. If bitcoin becomes irrelevant in the future, there is no need for governments to monitor it because the market cap and trade volume will be negligible.

[Aleksabit]

Eu, like any other state, definitely can not be bitcoin, but it does not have any control from other countries, but if that happens, it will not happen soon enough. Bitcoin is growing and growing stronger ...

[setifien19]

To be more specific, governments can just forbid the use of Bitcoin and cut the access to bitcoin exchanges and wallets in their local area , they can not ban bitcoin since it's treated in a decentralised way ( the is no control )

[Cyberczar]

It is possible for any government to ban bitcoin. Banning it would mean that people can no longer use the digital currency within that country's economy. There won't be exchanges to convert to fiat and no businesses would openly accept it. However, it'll be sold in a sort of peer to peer black market. And be used for international transactions between that country's citizens and those from other countries. This is based on the presumption that that country wouldn't cut their citizens off the internet.

[Emoclaw]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

They could ban it in the sense of declaring possesion of Bitcoin illegal.
However they can't really block it. It's simply not possible to do without blocking the Internet.
Even if they try to seriously cripple the experience by blocking all Bitcoin-related services, people can always use some sort of circumvention technology like VPNs or Tor to access such services.
I'd say that it's pretty much unstoppable.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Theoretically yes the can ban it but they can not stop people from using it because its easy to use a vpn to hide you digital foot print and if the government really wanted to enforce this, it just might turn out to be an expensive operaation which can be seen as a waste of  tax payers money.

[Titanos]

Any gov can ban using and dealing with cryptos in its country but i don't think it really matters. They can't control it.

[jekjekman]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

Any country in the world can ban Bitcoin in their jurisdiction but they can't really stop their citizens as there is so many ways to access Bitcoin if the people insist in using it.

I don't see any reason for any government in the world to ban Bitcoin because it's not an illegal type of digital money even though bad people can do different kinds of cyber crime with it but that's not a valid reason for me as FIAT money can be use too in making bad activities.

[Risktaker31]

Bitcoin is not owned or controlled by any government or corporation. Bitcoin network is peer to peer and fully decentralized.

You are correct there dude bitcoin cant be controlled by anything people even the government Because of its quality and features . I think government can only do is make a regulation about how the people use it or make a law that will govern how to use bitcoin.

[Kelvinid]

Bitcoin is not owned or controlled by any government or corporation. Bitcoin network is peer to peer and fully decentralized.

You are correct there dude bitcoin cant be controlled by anything people even the government Because of its quality and features . I think government can only do is make a regulation about how the people use it or make a law that will govern how to use bitcoin.

I agree too.The government cannot totally ban bitcoin since it is regulated in a decentralized form.And it would give them hard times identifying the users knowing we are not using our real identities.What the government can do is to impose laws against bitcoin and giving sanctions to those who violate their laws.

[ranman09]

Bitcoin is not owned or controlled by any government or corporation. Bitcoin network is peer to peer and fully decentralized.

You are correct there dude bitcoin cant be controlled by anything people even the government Because of its quality and features . I think government can only do is make a regulation about how the people use it or make a law that will govern how to use bitcoin.

I agree too.The government cannot totally ban bitcoin since it is regulated in a decentralized form.And it would give them hard times identifying the users knowing we are not using our real identities.What the government can do is to impose laws against bitcoin and giving sanctions to those who violate their laws.

You are right, government can only impose laws on the user and not the bitcoin system itself as it is decentralized. Plus it runs thru the internet which is today a minimum requirement for almost any businesses, schools, homes and etc.

[Bakemat]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

Well it is possible that they can do that and ban Bitcoin but not totally ban to use by its people maybe they will only some rules and regulation regarding on how Bitcoin works. Bitcoin can not be hold or control by banks so government can not also hold it or control it. But lets not hope that it will not happen that they will ban it because Bitcoin has some features and benefits to its user or investor

[bitart]

Today is a new day, a new start and a new topic about banning bitcoin...
Yesterday there were at least 2 of them...
Why on earth a government would ban bitcoin if they will be able to tax it in the near future? People will have to cash out some bitcoins before it get's widely accepted (like in Japan), so as soon as people cash out the government can tax the income. There's no reason to ban it... It's like smoking that kills... Do governments ban smoking? No, they just tax it heavily, and they say they heal people got sick because of smoking from that income... Bitcoin does not harm your health... Today there are only a few countries who really ban bitcoin, but they also ban nearly everything in those countries too...

[BlackPanda]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

Yes the government of a country is free to do what they want. The government has the authority to do anything against Bitcoin, it could be bitcoin banned in a country and Bitcoin could be used legally because of a regulation that regulates Bitcoin. Some of the weaknesses that exist today are Bitcoin does not get the trust of a government. Governments are usually frightened because Bitcoin sometimes experiences negative price shocks, so this makes the basis for decisions to be made by a country's government.

[CuriousGeorge]

Bitcoin has been around the borders of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining importance as an alternative asset class.
Can the government of any major country step in and do the unlikely?

Yes the government of a country is free to do what they want. The government has the authority to do anything against Bitcoin, it could be bitcoin banned in a country and Bitcoin could be used legally because of a regulation that regulates Bitcoin. Some of the weaknesses that exist today are Bitcoin does not get the trust of a government. Governments are usually frightened because Bitcoin sometimes experiences negative price shocks, so this makes the basis for decisions to be made by a country's government.

the government is not frightened but about close minded for cryptocurrencies because they think it's not yet proven to be a convenient method of payment and by that they will never accept bitcoin
until atleast, it's proven to be convenient to be used, however control over currencies also important and bitcoin's nature is decentralized, really the opposite and it's what makes the adoption becoming harder.