Will you still use bitcoin when it gets banned?

[miztaziggy]

Question in the post title...

Answer Yes/No

And I am asking because of a line in this article:
http://themonetaryfuture.blogspot.com/2011/04/legal-tender-illegal-tender-will.html

"However, pragmatically it is necessary to understand that the majority of people now do see the government as legitimate and, if Bitcoin was banned, would not use it out of a desire to be good upstanding citizens. The Bitcoin economy would lose 90% of its user base and the value of Bitcoin would crash. Therefore, Bitcoin needs to become a viable currency for legitimate business transactions."

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[BiggieJohn]

yes
there is no way you can ever "ban" it completely, no way to filter the p2p traffic

[FractalUniverse]

yes i doubt it can be banned; and even if it is banned somewhere i don't see how could they ban it worldwide.

[venom]

Yes, in fact I can't wait till they ban it! That's when it will *really* start having value.

P.S. - you can do a 'poll' easily when you create a new post.

[elewton]

My numbers on my hard drive?  Yes, I'll move them around when I want to.

[sealkid]

there is no single head to cut off. genius of non-hierarchical system is many heads like a hydra, cut one off more rise up in its place.

next thing is to have a holographic-based system, where each node contains the whole network in it.

noob post number 5!

[echo465]

I sincerely doubt any government cares enough to try to ban bitcoin.

[Oldminer]

I sincerely doubt any government cares enough to try to ban bitcoin.

True, and even if they did BTC would just go underground...

[TiagoTiago]

They can't tell me what math i can and can't do

[wumpus]

yes i doubt it can be banned; and even if it is banned somewhere i don't see how could they ban it worldwide.

Any country banning cryptocurrency will be at a relative disadvantage in the future anyway...

[netrin]

I think it depends are how much teeth the ban has. I think the general users will continue to use it. After all, what will they do with their coins? Burn/deflate them? The extant mining pools, exchanges, and public services could be shut down. But this would not have the desired effect, it really would become a black market/laundering currency. Though many governments have the tendency to do just that - scare the legitimate users and legitimate the abusers.

[Smalleyster]

Yes I plan to use no matter what government says

[dentldir]

Honestly, I think that BTC will always be legal as a collectible item or commodity even if there is a push to make it illegal as a currency.  (within the USA's legal framework at least).  So in that regard, yes.  I would continue to "collect" and "trade" it.

I don't suspect governments will ever accept BTC for taxes, but I don't see what legal standing they have to regulate private transactions surrounding a virtual collectible.

[RogerR]

They cannot ban Bitcoins completely, but they could attempt to make their day to day use difficult (e.g. audit and supervise companies and any high value transactions). They cannot feasibly prohibit the use of BTCs, but once they ask for a bank receipt in order for you to be the new legal owner of property or other merchandise, it could become a bit nasty.

This being said... I plan to use and accept Bitcoins till I die - banned or not!

[Timo Y]

"However, pragmatically it is necessary to understand that the majority of people now do see the government as legitimate and, if Bitcoin was banned, would not use it out of a desire to be good upstanding citizens. The Bitcoin economy would lose 90% of its user base and the value of Bitcoin would crash. Therefore, Bitcoin needs to become a viable currency for legitimate business transactions."

I'm not so sure about that. Yeah, perhaps they don't litter in the park, but as soon as lots of money is involved, even "good upstanding citizens" start misbehaving.

At least half of the people I know would dodge taxation if they could get away with dodging taxation.  Even though they think of themselves as "good upstanding citizens".   Half of the people I know who can get away with dodging taxation do dodge taxation.

In less "developed" countries this number is much higher. People in South America for instance view government in a much more cynical light than in the US or Northern Europe.  In Brazil there is a saying, "that law didn't catch on".  I can so see that happening to a bitcoin ban.

[fascistmuffin]

I probably do a lot of of things the government "banned". If bitcoin still has good value if or when that time comes, then I'll continue to use it.

[Oldminer]

I probably do a lot of of things the government "banned".

Not all laws are good laws.

And what about prohibition? All that did was make alcohol more readily available than ever.

[Electronic Chaos]

I just don't see how a BTC ban would even work. The only legislation I could possibly see actually working is to make currency exchanges obtain some form of ID when opening an account. But this would be almost unenforceable if the country passing the legislation had no authority over the country the exchange was hosted in.

But, assuming bitcoins were made de facto illegal somehow, I would probably continue to use them, as long as people continued to accept them. 

[atomictornado]

I dont see it getting banned either, but the IRS wants "their" piece of the pie on EVERYTHING!   

[conjre]

They can't tell me what math i can and can't do

I'm writing a paper for a class of mine on different forms of wealth and currencies, and you just made my works cited list for this quote. :-P