If encryption is outlawed wouldn't Bitcoin be too?

[smoothie]

Found this just now:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

LEGAL WARNING: Use of PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink is illegal in countries where encryption is outlawed. I believe it is legal to use PuTTY, PSCP, PSFTP and Plink in England and Wales and in many other countries, but I am not a lawyer and so if in doubt you should seek legal advice before downloading it. You may find this site useful (it's a survey of cryptography laws in many countries) but I can't vouch for its correctness.

If what they claim is true in a country, wouldn't Bitcoin also be illegal?

[1714674957]

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[1714674957]

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[bg002h]

Yes.  Next question.

Great historical stuff on this topic: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_United_States

http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/BookPreface.html

[DeathAndTaxes]

Bitcoin doesn't use encryption. 

[bg002h]

Bitcoin doesn't use encryption. 

Right, just spending them does.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Bitcoin doesn't use encryption. 

Right, just spending them does.

Nope.   The Bitcoin protocol uses absolutely no encryption anywhere for any purpose although some clients may encrypt wallets that isn't required or part of the protocol. 

Hint: encryption doesn't mean what you probably think it means.

[Carlton Banks]

If breathing were made illegal, would everyone suffocate?

[smoothie]

If breathing were made illegal, would everyone suffocate?

The lawmakers would live ~ 4 minutes before dying. Then we likely wouldn't have such a law because the news of it spreading probably would not happen in 4 minutes. But people dying en masse due to suffocation would make the news.

[Razick]

Bitcoin doesn't use encryption. 

Hashing is considered by some to be encryption; in fact it's sometimes referred to as one-way encryption. You are technically correct though.

[hayek]

If breathing were made illegal, would everyone suffocate?

The lawmakers would live ~ 4 minutes before dying. Then we likely wouldn't have such a law because the news of it spreading probably would not happen in 4 minutes. But people dying en masse due to suffocation would make the news.

Politicians don't follow laws lol.

It would be an interesting experiment though. I wonder how many wouldn't make it before someone questioned why the politicians were still breathing

[Razick]

If breathing were made illegal, would everyone suffocate?

The lawmakers would live ~ 4 minutes before dying. Then we likely wouldn't have such a law because the news of it spreading probably would not happen in 4 minutes. But people dying en masse due to suffocation would make the news.

Politicians don't follow laws lol.

It would be an interesting experiment though. I wonder how many wouldn't make it before someone questioned why the politicians were still breathing

True unfortunately. Encryption won't be outlawed, at least not in the US, it's too vital economically, not to mention it's been tried before.

[Mike Christ]

Why would encryption need to be outlawed?

[Carlton Banks]

Why would encryption need to be outlawed?

Serfs don't deserve to be able to keep secrets, only governments and corporations can. We're all potential terrorists after all, and the less like a terrorist we all behave, the more suspicious it is, we're bound to be hiding something... I could get turned terrorist tomorrow without even a hint of it today! Scary stuff.

[TippingPoint]

Encryption would be an unlawful attempt to deliberately thwart our nation's security procedures, which are in place to protect us all.  


"Law enforcement is in unanimous agreement that the widespread use of robust non-key recovery encryption ultimately will devastate our ability to fight crime and prevent terrorism. Uncrackable encryption will allow drug lords, spies, terrorists and even violent gangs to communicate about their crimes and their conspiracies with impunity." _{- Louis Freeh, (former) Director of the FBI}


They are in unanimous agreement that crackable encryption is sufficient for us.  Speaking in Pig Latin is recommended for members of the "general public". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_Latin

[Lethn]

You can't outlaw mathematics, if you did it would be a bit like medieval europe where we'd get intelligent people being persecuted by the church all over again.

[EscrowBTC]

What's wrong about ecryption?

We want our safety!