The Law of Blockchain: Beyond Government Control?

[BitHodler]

I doubt if they will be able to do it indefinitely

Not only that, but there isn't really a reason for them to do so. Bitcoin isn't a threat but will turn out to function as solid cross-border tool allowing them to conduct all types of transactions in a safe and impossible to alter manner.

Bitcoin's advantage is that it is open of nature, and its ecosystem is easy to control. In the end I think the conspiracy theories are quite exaggerated and we'll see a more overall friendly Bitcoin regulatory framework.

People keep blaming Bitcoin for not being anonymous and whatnot, but this is actually one of the main reasons it won't be facing harsh restrictions in the coming years. In other words, it's what makes Bitcoin only stronger.

In the same way people should be happy that Bitcoin isn't being used much as a currency. It makes sure governments don't feel threatened by Bitcoin, and that also leads to less hostility in the end.

[seoincorporation]

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One of the most interesting paragraphs on the article: "Drawing on the model described by Lessig in Code, the authors point out law is not the only tool to regulate blockchains. Governments can also employ more subtle tools, like market operations or social norms, to shape the direction of the technology. For instance, they could participate in mining operations on blockchain networks, like bitcoin, in order to control prices and vote on coding decisions."

I think they are already taking this path, in order to have enough crypto coins to maintain some control over the market. Besides, mining or acquiring coins is not the only way. For instance, in Russia, there's a new law regarding exchanges so all of them must ask for personal data to their users and provide the data to the government if asked.
There are many ways to control the blockchain-based "money" from governments. Maybe it is quite difficult to control the bitcoin technology, but they can control all the other necessary tech to have and use this coin, as exchanges or wallets. If you don't have a decentralized exchanger, then you are not using a decentralized coin in a decentralized way. That's the hand they're playing, I'm afraid.
Even so, new exchanges will be appearing, but they will be probably considered illegal, so the risk of having your coins in there is going to begin to be too high, due to the possibility of them being closed or banned. Nevertheless, this is going to take time for the governments to agree in one action.

Good debate, people. I think this is a book we should read...

[lynttrs]

Blockchain is the most disruptive technology since the Internet, and its arrival raises hard questions about how — or if — judges and governments can control it. Should federal agencies, for instance, seek to impose “net neutrality” style rules to promote fairness on blockchain networks? Should treasury departments run mining operations to influence digital currencies like bitcoin?

Read more: http://fortune.com/2018/05/10/blockchain-law/

What makes bitcoin unique is its decentralized nature being uncontrolled by one sole authority. Though there are certain situations wherein the use of bitcoin can be regulated, like when there is a company that is between you and your use of bitcoin. But it can only be regulated at a certain limit. They cannot totally take control of the inner workings of bitcon with its blockchain technology.

[ahmad21]

You have raised a very interesting topic here. The answer is no for bitcoin or for any other similar currency. I am not considering centralized currencies like smart contract tokens or Tether. If we consider currencies like bitcoin and litecoin, trying to get control over it will remain as a big joke for the government watchdogs because it is not possible technically due to the pseudo anonymous nature of blockchain. Without any central location to track, the governments will end up chasing a non existent oasis in the dessert.

However, if you maintain an account with an online wallet provider, then there is a chance of being caught if the company agrees to hand over the user's data to a particular government.

The government can even try to restrict access to the internet within their boundaries the way India tried to ban porn sites. But using tor or vpn, this restriction can be easily bypassed. So it is indeed beyond control of the governments and that's the only bottleneck we are facing towards the adoption.

Government cannot restrict the access. Reason why porn websites were ban were because there IP addresses were ban. When the DNS of any system tried to look up for such websites notice would go to the government which sent an error message or whatever message. Same thing cannot happen for bitcoin because it does not uses any IP addresses. We have our bitcoin clients which use to create P2P network with every person. There is no IP address at all existing in the crypto world as far as I know so how could they ban this?

[kashkarev55@mail.r]

Yes, now the blockchain technology is compared to the revolutionary technology. As one of the leading enthusiasts ( how much the Internet has made it convenient and fast to exchange information, as well as the blockchain technology has done for trust), this is the Foundation of this technology.

[stomachgrowls]

You have raised a very interesting topic here. The answer is no for bitcoin or for any other similar currency. I am not considering centralized currencies like smart contract tokens or Tether. If we consider currencies like bitcoin and litecoin, trying to get control over it will remain as a big joke for the government watchdogs because it is not possible technically due to the pseudo anonymous nature of blockchain. Without any central location to track, the governments will end up chasing a non existent oasis in the dessert.

However, if you maintain an account with an online wallet provider, then there is a chance of being caught if the company agrees to hand over the user's data to a particular government.

The government can even try to restrict access to the internet within their boundaries the way India tried to ban porn sites. But using tor or vpn, this restriction can be easily bypassed. So it is indeed beyond control of the governments and that's the only bottleneck we are facing towards the adoption.

Government cannot restrict the access. Reason why porn websites were ban were because there IP addresses were ban. When the DNS of any system tried to look up for such websites notice would go to the government which sent an error message or whatever message. Same thing cannot happen for bitcoin because it does not uses any IP addresses. We have our bitcoin clients which use to create P2P network with every person. There is no IP address at all existing in the crypto world as far as I know so how could they ban this?

Government is already aware on that stuff where they do figure out that they cant really completely ban bitcoin when it comes to network restriction. They cant control anything that goes thru the network and thats the benefit of blockchain technology which is commonly used by cryptocurrencies. It way out of control when it comes to technical aspect but in some areas government could make an involvement when we do talk about exchangers.

[marielbeckham]

Such an interesting topic is discussed right here.