What can the government do to stop bitcoins?

[ALbitcoins]

can the government make it illegal? why can it be?
There are a lot of comments saying that when a government restrict the use of bitcoin it will lose its worth, but can a government stop us using it?

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[Sigmoid]

can the government make it illegal? why can it be?
There are a lot of comments saying that when a government restrict the use of bitcoin it will lose its worth, but can a government stop us using it?

Well, they cannot really stamp out bitcoin itself, but...

• They can outlaw exchanges that convert bitcoin to and from national currency.
• They can prohibit online merchants from accepting bitcoin.

The question is, WILL they? Unlikely. Especially since Europe has taken a pragmatic, laissez faire approach, and the US has accepted bitcoin as a legitimate currency, and is looking to implement regulation on exchanges.

So the fear of bitcoin becoming illegal is mostly lifted - which is part of the reason of the recent spike in price and hashing capacity.

[hilariousandco]

They can make it illegal, but it wont really hinder the people who want to use it, just like drugs.

They can regulate it and tax it, but it's going to be very interesting seeing how they try to deal with this beast. They're going to have to work with it, not against it, of they'll fail colossally.

[c789]

...and the US has accepted bitcoin as a legitimate currency...

Not trying to be sarcastic, but did I miss something? When did the US govt accept/approve of Bitcoin?

[ChessWhiz]

I think would be pretty effective for a government to make it illegal to exchange or facilitate exchange between that country's national currency and BTC. Such an action would force most of the legitimate BTC commerce in that country to shut down, if done today.

[grux]

If the U.S. gov't makes it illegal they may just make exchanging very tough.  But I'm sure this would just advertise it to other countries.

[yogi]

...and the US has accepted bitcoin as a legitimate currency...

Not trying to be sarcastic, but did I miss something? When did the US govt accept/approve of Bitcoin?

Bitcoin surges to high of $788 as US agencies tell Senate the virtual currency is a "legal means of exchange"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/10458459/Bitcoin-hits-new-high-after-US-Senate-hearing.html

[c789]

Thanks for the link. Here's an excerpt from that article:

While not an official seal of approval, the hearing has given some legitimacy to a payment mechanism that has been associated with illegal activities even as it gains acceptance by the general public and investment community.

So, it's not official yet as this was just a Senate committee hearing, but it does look like the outlook is positive.

[xpertoverlord]

Even if the governments tried to outlaw it, the exchanges and pools and all operations would just move overseas anyways to a place they could operate.

it's similar to the failed US war on drugs, even with increased enforcement and pouring millions of dollars into anti-drug measures, people will still use them and distribute them.

Bitcoin is being searched so heavily recently too. more people are getting interested in it with the global news coverage and so i do not see it ever being outlawed. the recent developments with the US calling it legitimate help add to my theory that it won't be going away anytime soon.