Why haven't governments illegalized bitcoin transactions?

[Lucius]

For most countries Bitcoin is currently represents almost no significant threat for their financial system, and all you have to do is look at the numbers. Bitcoin market capitalization is only $181 billion, and this includes all mined Bitcoin from day 1 to this day.

For comparisson USA federal budget for 2020 should be $4.746 trillion which is 26+ more then value of all Bitcoins. When we look at it on a global scale and consider the amounts of money that flow through global financial networks, Bitcoin is as congressman Sherman say "just a small baby" (his comparison with Libra).

Governments cannot kill Bitcoin completely, but they can do a lot more then just declare transactions illegal. How about declaring crypto exchanges illegal as the ultimate measure to send Bitcoin in the underground?

[phamminhtan]

I have heard some stories about making bitcoin transactions illegal. It's all been a humor and I don't think any government have officially made bitcoin transactions illegal. Why is that?
Many governments are trying to regulate bitcoin, control exchanges and force people to be authorized. But I am sure government wish bitcoin was not created and there was no trouble of regulating bitcoin. They  prefer their fiat to any other currency.
Why no government have made bitcoin transactions illegal?
I think they want to avoid creating an underground market.They don't want bitcoin to be traded like Alcohol and drugs. They have to accept bitcoin as they cannot stop a decentralized network and now they can only try to regulate it. Do you agree with me? Is there any other things have caused governments to not make bitcoin illegal?

This is because they cannot control, cannot collect taxes from these activities, the government is still looking for ways to solve this problem.

[lobat999]

Making bitcoin transactions illegal is absurd and will be hotly contested among legal scholars since in a legal point of view, such transactions could have technicalities like jurisdiction limits, etc and its features will make it more difficult to accuse anyone and also, its very hard to prove it has caused unlawful violations or wrongdoings that  is why no wants to take it into court because it will only be a losing battle if they do so.

[jake zyrus]

Why would they illegalized it?? If they will or just did, how can they track the transaction and the information of the people who would do the transaction??
But I think the reason why some government are regulating crypto are because of some factors that may affect them; criminal activities using crypto, decentralized where they can't control it.

[mk4]

Why would they illegalized it?? If they will or just did, how can they track the transaction and the information of the people who would do the transaction??

Something something decentralized and that can't control. Worst case scenario, some countries follows the footsteps of China and apply mass surveillance, to the extent of disallowing the usage of physical cash, and instead let everything go through digitally for them to trace transactions for them to gain data on almost everything we pay for in our daily lives.

[DoublerHunter]

Why would they illegalized it?? If they will or just did, how can they track the transaction and the information of the people who would do the transaction??
But I think the reason why some government are regulating crypto are because of some factors that may affect them; criminal activities using crypto, decentralized where they can't control it.

^ Simple analogy, governments will illegalize the transactions of bitcoin if it is banned in your place. They can't track transactions but they can disable all website that related to crypto so that people can't use on it. As of now in our place, cryptos are recognized by our government as an alternative payment method on the internet or online business. No need to illegalize because they know that it will help also to the community not by seeing the negative side.

[HellZiemski]

Venezuela almost did this, take a look at my reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/cwg5nf/paid_our_employees_with_bitcoin_now_were/

Also; which topic can i choose to make a whole post about it?

[yoseph]

Making bitcoin transactions illegal is absurd and will be hotly contested among legal scholars since in a legal point of view, such transactions could have technicalities like jurisdiction limits, etc and its features will make it more difficult to accuse anyone and also, its very hard to prove it has caused unlawful violations or wrongdoings that  is why no wants to take it into court because it will only be a losing battle if they do so.

on one hand, how can it be debated in court, while bitcoin has not been legalized, meaning there is no law that governs it, for in my country. even though we know our assets have been stolen, we cannot ask for legal protection, let alone return our assets

At the moment most countries are actually on the fence on whether to legalize bitcoins and other cryptos or make it illegal, others have legalized which consist of a majority whiles a few decided to criminalize it's use in their respective countries.

[Slow death]

I have heard some stories about making bitcoin transactions illegal. It's all been a humor and I don't think any government have officially made bitcoin transactions illegal. Why is that?
Many governments are trying to regulate bitcoin, control exchanges and force people to be authorized. But I am sure government wish bitcoin was not created and there was no trouble of regulating bitcoin. They  prefer their fiat to any other currency.
Why no government have made bitcoin transactions illegal?
I think they want to avoid creating an underground market.They don't want bitcoin to be traded like Alcohol and drugs. They have to accept bitcoin as they cannot stop a decentralized network and now they can only try to regulate it. Do you agree with me? Is there any other things have caused governments to not make bitcoin illegal?

First you need to know that there is a very small number and if I am not wrong that number should not pass 10 countries in the world that have created bitcoin laws. Many countries only allow their citizens to use bitcoin while they decide what to do with bitcoin. But there are some countries that consider bitcoin illegal, which makes me curious about those countries that consider bitcoin illegal is that they have never created laws about bitcoin, how can they consider bitcoin illegal if they did not create laws about bitcoin? But fortunately, it is a very insignificant number of countries that consider bitcoin illegal. so relax and wait that in the future many countries will legalize bitcoin

[KofiAdepa]

Do You know the  number of politicians that hold BTC in disguise. They will never support that though they might not be able to come out any support BTC at the moment but things will change over time

[Herbet Fry]

ITs unconstitutional to make something like bitcoin illegal. They won't be able to prove who owns and who does not own bitcoin and the legal system doesn't need even more work load then it already has.
Who would vote in such a law? I am sure there are many more much more important things to attend to.

[kaya11]

I have heard some stories about making bitcoin transactions illegal. It's all been a humor and I don't think any government have officially made bitcoin transactions illegal. Why is that?
Many governments are trying to regulate bitcoin, control exchanges and force people to be authorized. But I am sure government wish bitcoin was not created and there was no trouble of regulating bitcoin. They  prefer their fiat to any other currency.
Why no government have made bitcoin transactions illegal?
I think they want to avoid creating an underground market.They don't want bitcoin to be traded like Alcohol and drugs. They have to accept bitcoin as they cannot stop a decentralized network and now they can only try to regulate it. Do you agree with me? Is there any other things have caused governments to not make bitcoin illegal?

One reason maybe that here in our country bitcoin is legal is that they have portion of profits earned by the bitcoin traders ou here. Another is maybe they don't see bitcoin as treat and thus leave it alone as it is, but they are monitoring it and investigate about illegal transactions such as using it to buy illegal things.

[FlightyPouch]

Do You know the  number of politicians that hold BTC in disguise. They will never support that though they might not be able to come out any support BTC at the moment but things will change over time

And I'm wondering how did you know that they are hiding their BTCs in their computers at home? Another thing is that, when Mark Zauckerburg was asked by some people at the government, obviously, they do not know what they are talking about and that also proves that they might not know or even agree with the idea of decentralization.

[Coyster]

ITs unconstitutional to make something like bitcoin illegal. They won't be able to prove who owns and who does not own bitcoin and the legal system doesn't need even more work load then it already has.
Who would vote in such a law? I am sure there are many more much more important things to attend to.

It's not unconstitutional, bitcoin has no constitution, and the constitution in effect in every country is made my the country itself and they can decide what's constitutional or not

Anyways you're correct, people can easily bypass this laws due to the way the network is set up, in a decentralized and anonymous way, just that people wouldn't be able to openly use bitcoin and it would hamper it's adoption in those areas.

I think they can make such laws if they notice bitcoin competing strongly with their fiat currency.

[Leonardo7]

Yes, anything that gives financial power to the people is perceived as a great threat to the government. But as for bitcoin, they know they are just helpless in trying to stop what they can't actually do.

[rahmatullah9305]

I agree with what you say, a little extra from me, in my country Indonesia. Because it has no formal and official agreements, bitcoin tends to be misused for illegal transactions, money laundering, and financing terrorism. It was emphasized there, all transactions carried out in the territory of Indonesia must use the rupiah (IDR) currency. Bitcoin circulation also becomes illegal because it cannot be reached by the Central Bank.
This is considered to cause bubble values. Reasons, transactions, speculative virtual currency values. Not only does it harm the public, this transaction can also divert the country's financial system.

[2double0]

They cannot do that because Bitcoins can be used for illegal things but that doesn't make Bitcoins illegal as the same is with cash. They cannot illegalize the transactions as whether they are anonymous or pseudonymous but they have an existence online and that's blockchain. One big reason is that it has the Globe involved in it and when your citizens are supporting something, you need to have a leader sort of personality to drive them away off Bitcoins but I don't think many countries have that influential person who has the accent to stop others from using it and the fear of losing your citizens and your superiority over them will not let you stop them.

[Krismanto]

I have heard some stories about making bitcoin transactions illegal. It's all been a humor and I don't think any government have officially made bitcoin transactions illegal. Why is that?
Many governments are trying to regulate bitcoin, control exchanges and force people to be authorized. But I am sure government wish bitcoin was not created and there was no trouble of regulating bitcoin. They  prefer their fiat to any other currency.
Why no government have made bitcoin transactions illegal?
I think they want to avoid creating an underground market.They don't want bitcoin to be traded like Alcohol and drugs. They have to accept bitcoin as they cannot stop a decentralized network and now they can only try to regulate it. Do you agree with me? Is there any other things have caused governments to not make bitcoin illegal?

Bitcoin is accessible worldwide, so this coin does not have a clear standard. With a selling value that is easy to change. So the government difficulties to regulate Bitcoin, even at an unstable price, can make people lose. And its impact on local currency is of course very negative.

Until now the government is still reviewing Bitcoin. And perhaps this year there will be more information from the Government about the development of Bitcoin, especially the clarity about the status of Bitcoin.

[Janation]

Because they can't really.

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency and even if a country bans it, they will never know who is using it since they will never be able to pinpoint a certain user since it is anonymous. Pseudo anonymous it is but still, they will never be able to determine the users so, despite their ban, people can still use it unless the user is a known user.

[Leo Twin]

When you outlaw something, you make people curious about it. Just like alcohol, pot, etc. The strategy is to manipulate BTC, make it look entirely unstable, and let it die a natural death. It's also possible that they just don't see it as a threat. You have to understand, even now BTC is tiny in the grand scheme of money.