WHO CAN SHUTDOWN BITCOIN?

[omone1]

Okay guys, this question may have been asked before, was trying to locate a past thread but couldn't seems to get my search on this forum.

My question is: can bitcoin be shutdown by world government? And does bitcoin need bitcoin.org domain when calling its protocol or trying to get access to its network? Or what is the relationship between bitcoin.org and the survival of I bitcoin? Thanks

Hello , don't start abuses, I am currently defending that bitcoin can't be shutdown, while a discussant said it can be shutdown. I know  it' can't be. Just dropped this post here to backup my claim and argument. I know it requires shutting down all power and internet to be able to cause a damage. Which in any which is not possible.

[DooMAD]

Governments have the same issue with Bitcoin as they have with torrenting and other peer to peer filesharing.  They can declare it illegal, but that doesn't stop people doing it.  It's incredibly difficult for authorities to physically prevent the use of software.

As for bitcoin.org, nothing at protocol level relies on that domain name.  Bitcoin can function without it.  But it has been a longstanding focal point for the community.  It serves as a primary gateway for new users to discover Bitcoin.

Hope that helps.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

600 posts on BITCOINtalk forum and 0 basic knowledge. How did you achieved that?

1-There is no way to shout down BTC by any government. If so than which country? There is no global government. All government can do is to ban it in their country but... it will not stop people from doing it.
2-bitcoin is not dependent on bitcoin.org domain.

Bitcoin is decentralized thing ... as long as 1 person wants to mine it as long bitcoin exist.

[AB de Royse777]

The Simple answer is no. The government or anyone else can not shutdown Bitcoin. They can make the use of bitcoin harder.

Bitcoin lives by nodes. Until the last node is off or destroyed completely, Bitcoin is alive. Imagine, you and I have two nodes (one each) and all other nodes were destroyed by a catastrophic incident. Bitcoin is not still dead because you and me still can exchange our coins.

There are 10858 NODES alive currently. This means to shut-off Bitcoin, anyone will need to shut down these 10858  nodes. Even if they were able to shut down all these nodes, who will guarantee that there are no saved copy to individuals?

So, get 99.999% sure that it's not possible to shut down Bitcoin.

[ranochigo]

My question is: can bitcoin be shutdown by world government?

There's no world government. You can attempt to make Bitcoin harder to use, think Great FireWall of China. But there are always ways to circumvent it, plenty of them.

And does bitcoin need bitcoin.org domain when calling its protocol or trying to get access to its network?

No. It's purely P2P. The node discovery is generally done through the pre-set DNS seeds within the nodes. The nodes will populate the list of IP addresses that is known to be the functional Bitcoin nodes. Through that, the full node can continue to populate it's peers list through addr messages and stuff.

Or what is the relationship between bitcoin.org and the survival of I bitcoin? Thanks

You don't technically need it. It's just useful to have a domain that contains everything a newbie needs to get started.

[bitmover]

Bitcoin only need a couple of full nodes to stay alive.

Bitcoin already have enough hashrate to resist a continental scale attack.

Bitcoin, as far as we know, cannot be shutdown with the current technologies.

This is why it is important to keep it decentralized, with no central point of failure. There isn't a single guy who can be put in jail that and shut down the ecosystem.

[mardaed]

600 posts on BITCOINtalk forum and 0 basic knowledge. How did you achived that?

1-There is no way to shout down BTC
2-bitcoin is not dependent on bitcoin.org domain

Bitcoin is decentralized thing ... as long as 1 person wants to mine it as long bitcoin exist.

You made me laugh haha. Well you are right there's no way for the government to shut down the Bitcoin not unless all the miners will be shutdown then the Bitcoin will shut down. Also I think the Bitcoin.org is just the official website and there's nothing to do with Bitcoin/Blockchain.

[Lucius]

Bitcoin cannot be literally shut down if some government gets an idea for something like that because the world is divided into interest groups of countries that can never agree on their opinions at the global level, so there will always be those who will mine and keep the network alive. When you say world government, you probably know that such a thing does not exist - because the world is divided into interest groups of countries that can never agree on their opinions at the global level.

The domain you mention is just one website, and it has nothing to do with how Bitcoin works, because if that were the case then it would be very easy to shut down the whole thing. The topic of whether Bitcoin can be shut down is very common among beginners, and here I have chosen something that may be worth reading.

So, can government “close down” bitcoin? And even if they can, should they?

While government could certainly hamper ease of use and discourage use, it is impossible for any government “shut down” crypto. Officials from the US government have even admitted it. On the November 1, 2016, Forbes’ Unchained podcast #14 US federal prosecutor Kathryn Haun stated that “you can’t shut bitcoin down.”

Haun noted, “I don’t think the reason the government didn’t shut down bitcoin (previously) was because the blockchain is useful to the government. I think the reason is that the government realized they can’t shut down bitcoin. There’s simply no way. With these technologies, once the genie is out of the bottle you can’t put it back in.”

[omone1]

600 posts on BITCOINtalk forum and 0 basic knowledge. How did you achieved that?

Alright, I am currently defending a claim I made that bitcoin can't be shutdown. Just needed comments to defend my technical discuss in a community of crypto investors that is all. I understand and know it can't be shutdown.

[Zackgeno96]

I think the one who can shut down the Bitcoin is the Bitcoin miner itself nor the government or anyone in the government. As you can see that the government can't fully shut down the use of cryptocurrency on their country and just made a law that it's prohibited to use it on their country.

[Fesatmas]

My question is: can bitcoin be shutdown by world government? And does bitcoin need bitcoin.org domain when calling its protocol or trying to get access to its network? Or what is the relationship between bitcoin.org and the survival of I bitcoin? Thanks

allow me to correct the related question you made. because it is necessary to pay attention to how to make good and correct questions, so that what is called multiple questions does not occur. because the double question is so irrelevant. therefore it is better if you divide the question into points. makes it easier for someone to absorb the gist of what you are questioning.
For example: from your question I identified three points in one question, namely:
1. About bitcoin is closed.
2. about the bitcoin domain.
and 3. about the relationship between the bitcoin.org domain and bitcoin viability.

Correct if I'm wrong.
thanks

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Alright, I am currently defending a claim I made that bitcoin can't be shutdown. Just needed comments that is all. I understand and know it can't be shutdown.

Sorry for being harsh than. It looked like basic question not part of research. Grab some links. There is a lot of this googling "can bitcoin be shutdown by world government?".

https://medium.com/ensourceable/the-battle-for-bitcoin-can-government-shut-down-cryptocurrency-d1b233471c32
https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2019/10/08/the-us-government-tried-to-shut-down-bitcoin/
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-for-Bitcoin-to-completely-shut-down
https://www.cato.org/blog/can-government-destroy-bitcoin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJtVt5QuIAE&ab_channel=TraderUniversity

Good luck with defending your claim.

[GeorgeJohn]

Actually in a normal sense bitcoin can only shutdown by Satoshi Nakamoto which is the founder of bitcoin since 2009 and it's obvious that government which many people feel or taugt that, they have the ability or the capacity to shutdown bitcoin are not authorized to discusse about bitcoin rather to shut it down, the reason while bitcoin is decentralized currency is because government don't have any impact concerning it's control or over its management, so in that aspect btc can't be shutdown it's really obvious.

[AB de Royse777]

Actually in a normal sense bitcoin can only shutdown by Satoshi Nakamoto which is the founder of bitcoin since 2009

How LOL?

the reason while bitcoin is decentralized currency

I doubt that you understand decentralization or how satoshi can shut it down :-D

Note: Satoshi, government or anyone else can not shut down bitcoin. It's in no single person or organization's hand. It's us, all of us who keep Bitcoin alive.

[Charles-Tim]

Actually in a normal sense bitcoin can only shutdown by Satoshi Nakamoto which is the founder of bitcoin since 2009

You are right, the governments can not shut down bitcoin, why would they? It is a decentralized currency. About Satoshi Nakamoto, he too can never be able to shut down bitcoin, although, he created bitcoin but it is makes it to be decentralized and not controllable by any central body, which means even Satoshi Nakamoto himself can not countrol bitcoin.

[avikz]

My question is: can bitcoin be shutdown by world government? And does bitcoin need bitcoin.org domain when calling its protocol or trying to get access to its network? Or what is the relationship between bitcoin.org and the survival of I bitcoin? Thanks

There are few ways through which bitcoin can be closed down. Let me explain them for you,

1. If one single entity or organization buys all bitcoins from the market. There will be no supply so demand will not be fulfilled. So bitcoin will die.
2. If the UN start rulling the world in Kim Jong Un's style and confiscates every single mining equipments from the miners and starts shooting people for using bitcon, then there is a possibility that bitcoin will die.

Do you think these above mentioned scenarios will ever happen on earth? I believe no! So even if it is possible to technically shut down bitcoin, it won't happen in reality!

[GeorgeJohn]

Actually in a normal sense bitcoin can only shutdown by Satoshi Nakamoto which is the founder of bitcoin since 2009

How LOL?

the reason while bitcoin is decentralized currency

I doubt that you understand decentralization or how satoshi can shut it down :-D

Note: Satoshi, government or anyone else can not shut down bitcoin. It's in no single person or organization's hand. It's us, all of us who keep Bitcoin alive.

Yeah, I admit to your point that is a collective efforts to keep bitcoin moving but while I said that it's only satoshi that has the power to shut btc down is because is the founder of btc and provided that he has all necessary documents concerning btc, I hope he can bring it down if he wishes, shall their is no much argument about it, I really agree with you.

[The Cryptovator]

The website bitcoin dot org is for learning and information purposes only. There is no other role on that site. So even that site is shut down by any legal authority, it will not affect bitcoin. No, it's no possible to shut down the use of bitcoin because it's using and backed by the community. The government would able to prevent 100% to use bitcoin. As we know currently much government isn't allowing their residents to use Bitcoin, but are they succeed in their goal? I don't think so. So the situation will be the same, then peoples will use illegally.

[mk4]

Yeah, I admit to your point that is a collective efforts to keep bitcoin moving but while I said that it's only satoshi that has the power to shut btc down is because is the founder of btc and provided that he has all necessary documents concerning btc, I hope he can bring it down if he wishes, shall their is no much argument about it, I really agree with you.

Broski if it's the case that Bitcoin can just be shut down by Satoshi or by literally anyone just because of some documents, then Bitcoin is crap. It's actually the fact that it can't be shut down that's why there are a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts. Even the government itself couldn't shut it down.

[Leviathan.007]

I don't know how it's possible for someone with more than 600 posts asking such questions. None can shutdown bitcoin it's not like a computer with on/off button. Even if people stop mining and buying bitcoin, the project won't be destroyed or get shutdown. The only way to fight against bitcoin for the governments is to make bitcoin banned on their countries but this can't hurt bitcoin at all. No government can shutdown bitcoin. Also, about the bitcoin.org, bitcoin is not dependent to this website.