A passage for those who really think the Government is a threat to Bitcoin...

[Anonymous]

I've considered it. I've made wrong assumptions. The people in higher places can do damage but this passage sums up the government's role in Bitcoin:

Freedom from Government

Most people seem to think of the government as an all-powerful giant with unlimited resources, super powers of control and surveillance, and the ability to keep every citizen in line. Such impressions are reinforced by movies and TV dramas that picture government agents calling upon vast resources of information and manpower to bring any criminal or dissenter to bay. And the impression is probably enhanced by newspaper accounts of crackdowns on narcotics rings, smuggling activities, and tax frauds, in which the government has used large numbers of agents to break a case.

All this can be pretty intimidating. But it has very little to do with your relationship to the government.
For one thing, the government has limited resources — just as you and I do. When a large number of agents are utilized to break a narcotics ring, that leaves fewer people to police the average marijuana smoker. And when they marshal their resources to crack a million-dollar tax fraud, that leaves less manpower to look after the normal individual tax returns.

If the government were as powerful as people seem to think it is, the War on Drugs would have been won long ago, crime wouldn’t be such a national issue, and the government’s grandiose social reforms would be successful. As it is, however, none of those things is true because the government can’t force many people at once to act in ways they don’t want to.

The government is one big Group Trap. To be efficient, it depends upon millions of bureaucrats whose incomes and careers don’t depend upon efficient action. The people who operate the super-secret spy agencies are simply human beings — with ulcers, family problems, interoffice memos to answer, staff meetings to attend, girl friends to see when they can sneak away from the office, office opponents to outmaneuver, and the constant interferences inherent in any bureaucracy.

The government is an inefficient, bureaucratic mess. It isn’t surprising that its programs always turn out to cost more than expected, that it almost never successfully completes a project, that bombers bomb the wrong cities in Vietnam, that it’s usually rallying its citizens to be patriotic and sacrifice to compensate for the government’s mistakes.

In the book 1984, George Orwell pictured a totalitarian society that has become the standard view of the total state of the future. Everyone’s life was controlled by computer, and there was a TV camera in every room to monitor everyone’s activities. Fortunately, such dramas overlook the fundamentals of economics. The larger the government, the less efficient and productive is the economy. Slaves don’t produce with the enthusiasm, incentive, and imagination that free people do. Bureaucratic programs just don’t work as intended.

So while the totalitarian state may include a TV camera in every room, I doubt that the camera will work.

- Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

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[Anonymous]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

[Anonymous]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

One would hope. It needs a lot of work.

[evoorhees]

bitcoin is THE threat to government.

fixed

[mouse]

I would say it more cautiously. Cryptocurrencies are the threat to governments.

[wujh]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

One would hope. It needs a lot of work.

well, if bitcoin define itself a threat to the government, you will see how much resources the government have as they can just ignore something else temporarily  as it was said in the post.

[Jaime Frontero]

When a large number of agents are utilized to break a narcotics ring, that leaves fewer people to police the average marijuana smoker. And when they marshal their resources to crack a million-dollar tax fraud, that leaves less manpower to look after the normal individual tax returns.

yes.

and as you ponder your front-page ads in the wall street journal, Atlas - keep that in mind.  and this:

"the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

[dennis_sweden]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

Government will be a threat to Bitcoin - depending on Bitcoin's success rate. The financial elite who control governments will not sit idle and watch Bitcoin take over a large share of trade/"money" transfers.

As to "the war on drugs" - the war is working perfectly, more than 1% of USA's population is incarcerated, of which a vast majority are serving time for narcotics crime. The prison-industrial comnplex provides corporations with cheap labor and thereby also distorts the "free market".

As to 1984; the society today is far worse than Orwell could have imagined; are you aware of that every car tire sold in the must in accordance with law have a unique RFID (Radio Frequency Identification?

"Tires have to have a unique identification number called a DOT number," he said. "Cars have a vehicle identification number. Under the TREAD Act, carmakers have to associate the unique number on each tire with the VIN of the car it's put on. RFID offers a cheaper way to do that association."

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/view/1223

In the not so distant future, everything one purchases in stores will have RFID chips, and scanners (like those in place to hinder theft) will scan  the items that you have on you, in order to "profile" you and market such products that are of your interest. Some people will even think that it is a good idea. Of course bureaucracy poses problems in itself - but the U.S. has surveilled millions of Americans  and countless others via electronic and other means, Britain has millions of CCTV, Sweden has secretly been collecting the DNA of every child born in hospitals since 1978, despite parents been given the choice to opt in or out from such a scheme; only a couple of years ago the government enlightened its "subjects" of the practice - which is in place to target health issues, or so they claim.

The difficulty of government control is economic; the apartheid system in South Africa became too expensive, too many costs were incurred and only when South African business lost competitiveness on the global stage were any sanctions reasonably enforced. However, control is aided by technology, and technically speaking, the possibilities of surveillance are endless. Efficiency is one of the reasons why all kinds of standards are adopted globally. I am not paranoid, some years ago I used to read a lot about the "control grid" - from a legislative and technical point - not some flimsy worded articles circulating on the internet.

[m0w3r]

Thank you OP, good point.  That whole book "How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World" [by Browne] is great too.

FYI, here is a PDF link to the book:  http://vishaldevgon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/freedom_in_an_unfree_world.pdf

[bcearl]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

One would hope. It needs a lot of work.

No. They may ban it, but what does that mean? They banned cocaine, cannabis, raw milk. Who gives a shit?

[LokeRundt]

Government isnt a threat to bitcoin - bitcoin is a threat to government.

Government will be a threat to Bitcoin - depending on Bitcoin's success rate. The financial elite who control governments will not sit idle and watch Bitcoin take over a large share of trade/"money" transfers.

I would mention that "attack" does not equal "be a threat".  A quadroplegic in an old-fashioned wheelchair can "attacke" me all he wants, but I being a paraplegic in a more advanced wheelchair will not be threatened.


I am curious as to what the financial elite/government/illuminati/reptilians could do besides sit idle and watch bitcoin take over.  And please something more than "they could declare it illegal/shut down the exchanges"

[TheGer]

This sums up what the Govt. thinks of it's role in Bitcoin(or any other material/digital currency).

http://www.fbi.gov/charlotte/press-releases/2011/defendant-convicted-of-minting-his-own-currency

I've considered it. I've made wrong assumptions. The people in higher places can do damage but this passage sums up the government's role in Bitcoin:

Freedom from Government

Most people seem to think of the government as an all-powerful giant with unlimited resources, super powers of control and surveillance, and the ability to keep every citizen in line. Such impressions are reinforced by movies and TV dramas that picture government agents calling upon vast resources of information and manpower to bring any criminal or dissenter to bay. And the impression is probably enhanced by newspaper accounts of crackdowns on narcotics rings, smuggling activities, and tax frauds, in which the government has used large numbers of agents to break a case.

All this can be pretty intimidating. But it has very little to do with your relationship to the government.
For one thing, the government has limited resources — just as you and I do. When a large number of agents are utilized to break a narcotics ring, that leaves fewer people to police the average marijuana smoker. And when they marshal their resources to crack a million-dollar tax fraud, that leaves less manpower to look after the normal individual tax returns.

If the government were as powerful as people seem to think it is, the War on Drugs would have been won long ago, crime wouldn’t be such a national issue, and the government’s grandiose social reforms would be successful. As it is, however, none of those things is true because the government can’t force many people at once to act in ways they don’t want to.

The government is one big Group Trap. To be efficient, it depends upon millions of bureaucrats whose incomes and careers don’t depend upon efficient action. The people who operate the super-secret spy agencies are simply human beings — with ulcers, family problems, interoffice memos to answer, staff meetings to attend, girl friends to see when they can sneak away from the office, office opponents to outmaneuver, and the constant interferences inherent in any bureaucracy.

The government is an inefficient, bureaucratic mess. It isn’t surprising that its programs always turn out to cost more than expected, that it almost never successfully completes a project, that bombers bomb the wrong cities in Vietnam, that it’s usually rallying its citizens to be patriotic and sacrifice to compensate for the government’s mistakes.

In the book 1984, George Orwell pictured a totalitarian society that has become the standard view of the total state of the future. Everyone’s life was controlled by computer, and there was a TV camera in every room to monitor everyone’s activities. Fortunately, such dramas overlook the fundamentals of economics. The larger the government, the less efficient and productive is the economy. Slaves don’t produce with the enthusiasm, incentive, and imagination that free people do. Bureaucratic programs just don’t work as intended.

So while the totalitarian state may include a TV camera in every room, I doubt that the camera will work.

- Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World