What if Government bans Bitcoins?

[Tamron Alps]

Bitcoin has been around the fringes of financial markets for less than a decade, but is slowly gaining prominence as an alternative asset class. Can the government of any major country step in and do the unthinkable – ban Bitcoin?
Flashback – Holding Gold Bullion is a Crime
Those who think that no government (except those run by tinpot dictators) would take the extreme step of banning Bitcoin need a lesson in history. There was a time when holding gold bullion was a crime in America, punishable by a sentence of up to ten years in prison. In 1933, American President Franklin D Roosevelt issued an order requiring all Americans to hand over their gold holdings to the Federal Reserve Bank. The ban on owning gold remained in place for more than four decades, before President Ford legalized gold ownership. This move was made easy by the fact that America had abandoned the gold standard a short while prior and hence had no need to own vast quantities of gold to back up the amount of currency it printed.

[Crypto Deep]

If a government decides to make trading or possessing Bitcoins illegal, questions will be raised about how exactly it will enforce such a ban. It is impossible for a government to seize your Bitcoins, unless you decide to handover your private keys. However, the majority of citizens and institutions like to stay on the right side of the law. So the demand for Bitcoin would plummet if the government decided to ban it. All exchanges in that country would also be shuttered and buying/selling Bitcoin would be difficult and risky. This would suffocate Bitcoin in that country and the government’s objectives might be achieved.

[maskeffec]

Looking at the decentralized nature of crypto-currencies,Wonder if govt bans Bitcoins in future??Is it possible let's say by blocking all sites which relate to Bitcoin wallets/payments etc over the internet.In that case what would happen to our existing coins held in those wallets??

If many countries prohibit Bitcoin activity in the country, it will not affect the amount of Bitcoin you have, but with the prohibition of some countries that will happen is the decline in prices. If very few people use cryptocurrency as a result of the ban, then Bitcoin will not be very valuable. That means your bitcoin amount is safe but you have lost money from the bitcoin price drop. Hopefully it will never happen.

[Adill Islam]

Government doesn't allow bitcoin in their country.Its possible for the government to ban bitcoins. As of now some of the countries are banned by using bitcoin. Because I think bitcoin has helped a lot to meet the economic needs of life in here.

[DenSamui]

In some countries, the government banned the bitcoin, but many countries find bitcoin as an interesting opportunity for people and a great help in the economy.

[Periodik]

Looking at the decentralized nature of crypto-currencies,Wonder if govt bans Bitcoins in future??Is it possible let's say by blocking all sites which relate to Bitcoin wallets/payments etc over the internet.In that case what would happen to our existing coins held in those wallets??

You know what, we should not trouble ourselves with stuff that is almost impossible to happen. Everything may be possible and we should be open about it but it is very obvious to us, according to the developments of today, which ones are probably going to happen and which ones are not. And looking at how Bitcoin is gaining support from governments, there is no point worrying about your concern.

[Amokomowo2005]

Banning bitcoin by the government does not stop people from using it because its decentralized and will never be easy for the government to have control over it.

[asevila]

It is almost impossible for the governments, as long as people support Bitcoin and believe in it.

[oni4an]

Many countries prohibit Bitcoin. It is directed, first of all, to bring down the price on cryptocurrency and from that it has ceased to make profit, the society itself has overlooked bitcoins. But it's really nonsense, they just see the opponent's bitcoins as their billions.

[skibikipapa69]

That would be bad not only for me but the other people using bitcoin. Here where I live my country supports the usage of bitcoin. There are even banks here that accepts bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. I am blessed that my country accepts and supports bitcoin.

[wisdomcn]

Well, the thing that interest me so much about about blockchain technology is it's anonymous  and decentralization. It is very difficult to trace and close all website that has coins in them. Though government can fight against bitcoin and exchange but there is still many channels we can make use of our coins.

[spadaccino]

You cannot stop Bitcoin. You can ban for legal activities and that's the only thing gov can do.
But in some way they did and the result is here to see: we are still alive and come stronger than ever - so they can actually seriously think to start accepting as a common currency.

Be prepare !

[panther427]

It's impossible because many country are including in USA and takes a lot of taxes from bitcoin profit.mane people belive in bitcoin and support it beacuse of the profit and otherwise the cryptocurrencies helps the economy of any country,so i think the goverment are not banned in bitcoin in future.

[Lima0396]

They will not want to ban it since they know is the future digital online currency and if they decided to ban it, it wont take much effect as people will still be making use of it being decentralized.

[beliveinsomeone]

That's my fear. Because government banned bitcoin in some countries, I am worrying about bitcoin's future. I hope this will not happen

[kingofworld92]

It's not easy to ban Bitcoin all over the world. I think It just happens in some countries

[Zurcermozz]

It's not easy to ban Bitcoin all over the world. I think It just happens in some countries

Agree, banning bitcoin is not easy, its too difficult to handle this kind of situation,  i guess why Countries banning bitcoin is because of mining and a huge amount of electricity is being use to mine

[ss890]

Government can not ban the crypto currencies because it is not controlled by them. So what they can do is just control it in legal way but still cant ban it. What government can do is keep us alerted about the scam projects, scam investments etc etc.

In India ban like situation has arrived over the crypto currencies but I dont see any significance of it as people are still using the bitcoin here. No matter what happens government can not control this in anyways. People will still find out the different ways of trading it, p2p transfers etc.

[pltgksl]

this is possible but this can not prevent use of Bitcoin.On the contrary it increases.

[jtrapirap]

I guess, banning bitcoin and all other cryptocurrency is impossible to happen now considering how big is it’s worldwide adoption and popularity. The least the government could do in case are to provide additional fees and to provide regulations and some safety measures to protect the welfare of the investors. The only way to solve the issue between crypto industry and government is acceptance. I strongly believe blockchain technology is the future and further enhance our existing monetary system.