z

[tvbcof]

...

The main problem for us is the fact that the central banking debt based currency is printed out of thin air. All Rothschilds has to do, is print 10 Billion, buy all the bitcoins in existence and they will own 1/3 right off the bat. Then wait 5 years, and buy another 1/3.

"Give me Control over a nation's currency, and I care not who programs the algorithm."

Having a monopoly in just about anything certainly imparts a fair level of control.

I think the modern Rothchild would care more about 'who programs the algorithm' if a re-program of the algorithm (and sufficient adoption of it) could render their hoard valueless.

Back in the day, pitchforks were the answer when the pressure became to intense.  Normally it was fairly easy to mitigate the damages if you kept a low profile and planned sufficiently for an exit event.  The mobs tended to have a more immediate interest in food than in chunks of metal anyway I would suspect.

If the use of pitchforks could somehow shift to a method of paying attention to the options in terms of programmers and re-installing some software, I could see it as a good thing.  And a good reason why something like Bitcoin is unlikely to be very popular with any but the most benevolent of leaderships.

[the founder]

I could destroy bitcoins in 20 seconds flat if I was the US government.  Doing nothing illegal... and I could wipe out the currency in literally 6 weeks with about 3 - 5  million bucks..  

3 backroom deals with mt. gox,  tradehill and dwolla ...  1-2 million each for 51% ownership of each....    and any startup that get's a decent volume.. make a similar deal...  that would stop trading pretty quick... the owners would like the payout (which is huge to them, tiny to a country that takes in a few trillion a year in revenue)  so they have no incentive to hide their shit...  and the US government effectively would be in full control of bitcoins.. all without even passing a law.

[bitrebel]

I could destroy bitcoins in 20 seconds flat if I was the US government.  Doing nothing illegal... and I could wipe out the currency in literally 6 weeks with about 3 - 5  million bucks..  

3 backroom deals with mt. gox,  tradehill and dwolla ...  1-2 million each for 51% ownership of each....    and any startup that get's a decent volume.. make a similar deal...  that would stop trading pretty quick... the owners would like the payout (which is huge to them, tiny to a country that takes in a few trillion a year in revenue)  so they have no incentive to hide their shit...  and the US government effectively would be in full control of bitcoins.. all without even passing a law.

Buyouts.....the medium of last resort for Aristocrats

[fitty]

I could destroy bitcoins in 20 seconds flat if I was the US government.  Doing nothing illegal... and I could wipe out the currency in literally 6 weeks with about 3 - 5  million bucks..  

3 backroom deals with mt. gox,  tradehill and dwolla ...  1-2 million each for 51% ownership of each....    and any startup that get's a decent volume.. make a similar deal...  that would stop trading pretty quick... the owners would like the payout (which is huge to them, tiny to a country that takes in a few trillion a year in revenue)  so they have no incentive to hide their shit...  and the US government effectively would be in full control of bitcoins.. all without even passing a law.

You're joking right?

Bitcoin doesn't need the TradeHill, Gox, Dwolla. They could all fuck off right now and within a month things would be back to normal. You're assuming those 3 sites ARE Bitcoin. They're not.

Bitcoin is a currency, and it's about those people using it as a currency. It's like saying getting rid of ISOhunt, Pirbatebay and Torrentz would put a stop to pirating. *lol*

TradeHill only exists on the level it does now because Gox was hacked and down for 2 weeks. So what happens if all 3 of those places disappear? More pop up. Those get "bought out", more pop up. People will just make exchanges (someone will open source it) just to get bought up!

Compare it to pirating. Why doesn't the govt just buy all the torrent sites? Could probably get the top 500 torrent sites for maybe 100 million. Problem solved right? Pirating is costing billions if you listen to the music industry. Why don't they just buy up all the torrent sites! Genius!

[Piper67]

I could destroy bitcoins in 20 seconds flat if I was the US government.  Doing nothing illegal... and I could wipe out the currency in literally 6 weeks with about 3 - 5  million bucks..  

3 backroom deals with mt. gox,  tradehill and dwolla ...  1-2 million each for 51% ownership of each....    and any startup that get's a decent volume.. make a similar deal...  that would stop trading pretty quick... the owners would like the payout (which is huge to them, tiny to a country that takes in a few trillion a year in revenue)  so they have no incentive to hide their shit...  and the US government effectively would be in full control of bitcoins.. all without even passing a law.

You're joking right?

Bitcoin doesn't need the TradeHill, Gox, Dwolla. They could all fuck off right now and within a month things would be back to normal. You're assuming those 3 sites ARE Bitcoin. They're not.

Bitcoin is a currency, and it's about those people using it as a currency. It's like saying getting rid of ISOhunt, Pirbatebay and Torrentz would put a stop to pirating. *lol*

TradeHill only exists on the level it does now because Gox was hacked and down for 2 weeks. So what happens if all 3 of those places disappear? More pop up. Those get "bought out", more pop up. People will just make exchanges (someone will open source it) just to get bought up!

Compare it to pirating. Why doesn't the govt just buy all the torrent sites? Could probably get the top 500 torrent sites for maybe 100 million. Problem solved right? Pirating is costing billions if you listen to the music industry. Why don't they just buy up all the torrent sites! Genius!

Agreed... Bitcoin is the elegant idea... MtGox, Tradehill, Dwolla and, for that matter, US dollars, Canadian dollars, Euros and GBPs are but a means to an end.

[phelix]

it is hard to destroy bitcoin but easy for a government to suppress it.

if it is prohibited to sell for bitcoins they have little use for most people.

[BCEmporium]

Sorry OP, that "sabotage plan" would only work if you assume something like all (or at least 50%) of the bitcoin users are completely retards.
Gvmts can however shake bitcoin, ie by creating a price bubble and let it blast, do it 3 or 4 times in a row and the community starts to disintegrate due to lack of trust and general high losses (high gains to some but overall a HYIP). Or they can forbid its use... but the experiences about "dry laws" aren't that good, are they?

[kwukduck]

Most effective i think, would be to just make bitcoin exchange illegal.
Arrest a few people, give them a few years jail-time.
Everybody gets scared, value drops, more people cash out, only a hand full of die-hard hackers/anons keep using it at 0.05USD/BTC

[the founder]

how about 1/2 a dozen datacenters dedicated to mining rigs setup by the NSA...  after it get's to the point where they have a decent majority of of the mining then they start messing around with double spending, etc etc... 

[xcooling]

Most likly scenario will be that Hackers and scammers will destroy bitcoin, Because there is no way to make sure all the numerous endpoints have correct security mechanisms in place and that they will stay honest over a long period... there lies the very weekness.

Example would be mybitcoin, which for a novice user is like paypal for bitcoin. We need the novice users (investors) to make the currency work. Everytime they get scammed or hacked you loose investor confidence. I lost a large portion of bitcoin.. do i care no.. but most will.

For a government to destroy bitcoin or any large company, they could buy up all the bitcoin and wipeout the martket. us$~100million is not that much for them to loose. Or a corporate entity could lobby governments and have bitcoin declared as illegal.. thus freezing all the bank accounts that are suspected of trading or handling bitcoin.

If u are unable to freely buy and sell bitcoin with physical currency, bitcoin will die.

Oh and one final point to ponder.. how long until someone figures out how to counterfeit a bitcoin...

[Piper67]

Most effective i think, would be to just make bitcoin exchange illegal.
Arrest a few people, give them a few years jail-time.
Everybody gets scared, value drops, more people cash out, only a hand full of die-hard hackers/anons keep using it at 0.05USD/BTC

Yup, just like music downloads, porn, the war on drugs... That'll work 

[BCEmporium]

Most effective i think, would be to just make bitcoin exchange illegal.
Arrest a few people, give them a few years jail-time.
Everybody gets scared, value drops, more people cash out, only a hand full of die-hard hackers/anons keep using it at 0.05USD/BTC

Yup, just like music downloads, porn, the war on drugs... That'll work 

...and because "the World is USA", so "Uncle Sam" would make it illegal and that's it... 
US already has no money to cover its own debt and it's a few hours away from being downgraded to bellow junk (along with consequential USD plummeting), let alone set up another global campaign, like the so called "war on drugs", financing.

[Rassah]

For a government to destroy bitcoin or any large company, they could buy up all the bitcoin and wipeout the martket. us$~100million is not that much for them to loose.

Every time someone buys a Bitcoin, the next Bitcoin costs them more. If a government tried to buy all the Bitcoins, the first Bitcoin may cost them $13.50, but very last Bitcoin they buy will likely cost them over $100million.

[Piper67]

For a government to destroy bitcoin or any large company, they could buy up all the bitcoin and wipeout the martket. us$~100million is not that much for them to loose.

Every time someone buys a Bitcoin, the next Bitcoin costs them more. If a government tried to buy all the Bitcoins, the first Bitcoin may cost them $13.50, but very last Bitcoin they buy will likely cost them over $100million.

They wouldn't need to buy them all, probably more like a million or so. Yes, it would drive the price up, but it would still be a bargain by US government spending standards.

[xcooling]

USA wont be downgraded.. look at the companies that do the ratings, they all got handouts in 2008/9.

The "debt crisis" was just a bunch of politics to make the average joe feel like their government is doing something to curb debt spending.

[JoelKatz]

They wouldn't need to buy them all, probably more like a million or so. Yes, it would drive the price up, but it would still be a bargain by US government spending standards.

So you're suggesting that they could kill bitcoin by making everyone involved in it rich?

[BCEmporium]

USA wont be downgraded.. look at the companies that do the ratings, they all got handouts in 2008/9.

hrm.

He was just believing that US could keep raising its debt to the infinite by increasing debt ceiling, way beyond any possible payment, without any penalty...

[Bazil]

If the government wanted to destroy bitcoin what they could do is do business with bitcoins and every bitcoin they got, just send to one wallet file and either destroy it or never use it.  This would cause deflation till there were very few bitcoins left.  With the current amount of bitcoins they could go on an exchange and buy them all up pretty easy.

[phelix]

If the government wanted to destroy bitcoin what they could do is do business with bitcoins and every bitcoin they got, just send to one wallet file and either destroy it or never use it.  This would cause deflation till there were very few bitcoins left.  With the current amount of bitcoins they could go on an exchange and buy them all up pretty easy.

that is impossible because the price would rise like crazy.

[the founder]

perhaps the scariest,  have the IRS start auditing dowalla and filter from there for people that transferred to mtgox, tradehill, etc.   that would shut it down or at least partially shut it down for a long time.