Can government shutdown Bitcoin

[ImmortalTJ]

Is it possible?

[aysg76]

Is it possible?

The government can try to ban in in their geographical jurisdiction but they can't shut down Bitcoin network because of its decentralisation functionality and nobody controls the network.Although they could try to create a situation of 51% attack by taking control of the network but for that they need to indulge in mining at huge scale with thousands of ASIC mining spread across different countries.But this is also not possible under POW algorithm because it will be very costly and still it would not be implemented.They can try to shut down the internet services but you can still sign your transaction offline but transaction will be recorded on blockchain with internet connectivity only.But will they shut down whole internet for Bitcoin only.So we can say it a currency which is not controlled by anyone irrespective of his wealth and power.

[avikz]

Technically it is not possible for a government to shut down bitcoin in any. They can disturb the network by forcefully taking over the mining operations and fill their own coffers. But a complete shutdown isn't possible by any government.

Government can legally ban bitcoin in their own country. They can strictly enforce the ban using various enforcement agencies so thay people don't use bitcoin out of fear. So again they can't shut down bitcoin. That's how the nature of decentralized network is!

[orions.belt19]

The most they can do is ban bitcoin or cryptocurrency in general in your country just like what happened to India very recently, making it hard for you to acquire or hold it but there's no way for them to totally shut it down. There's no single governing body which controls Bitcoin to allow you to shut it down. Even miners don't have that power. Restrictions can be imposed and be blocked off the internet, just like how China has treated Google but then again there's a workaround for that with offline transactions.

[Shohanur]

Is it possible?

It is not possible for government. Government can forbit to use bitcoin because some countries are not adopting it as a legal currency. But they can't control it for the decentralization system of bitcoin.

[madhursatija]

Is it possible?

In one simple word : NEVER

[BlackHatCoiner]

Is it possible?

You have to define what you mean by "shutdown". A shutdown can be a closure of a system, due to a fault or for maintenance. A shutdown can also be the act or process of ending the operations of a business/company permanently. In order for government to shutdown something, it must be controlled by an entity.

No one can shut it down, but:  They can damage it, by spreading FUD and they've already done it. It is pretty obvious that no government wants from its people financial freedom. An electronic currency that is decentralized wouldn't be liked from most governments. They know that they can't control it, so they try to scare their people to prevent its use. I think that in India it is still illegal to use bitcoin. A tech-guy, though, knows that making such thing illegal can't work practically. It is very hard to trace, especially if he/she's going through tor.

So no, governments can't shutdown Bitcoin, because they can't prevent the peer-to-peer sharing of the longest proof of work chain.

[Slow death]

if you look at the whole bitcoin system easily you will notice that any government does not have the power to turn off bitcoin ... but there are some things the government could do just to slow down the mass use of bitcoin, such things could be:

1 - governments if they wanted they could ban the use of bitcoin

2 - could prohibit banks and companies from also using bitcoin

With these measures, governments could make few people use bitcoin and consequently the price of bitcoin would fall a lot.

but in the current scenario bitcoin is in an advanced stage of use and with that it is practically impossible for important governments to ban bitcoin

[BrewMaster]

no and it is pretty simple actually, because bitcoin doesn't have any central server or a central owner/processor, etc. there is nothing to shut down. it runs on individual computers run by individuals who are located in all countries around the world.

one country could start raiding people's home and confistate all their computers from every single citizen to shut down bitcoin in that country but they would also shut down everything else that depends on a computer and the internet. meanwhile bitcoin thrives in the rest of the world.

[GeorgeJohn]

I don't think government can shutdown bitcoin because as long as there is internet service bitcoin transactions will take place that is why bitcoin is term the internet money. So my answer is government can not shutdown bitcoin entirely.

You're really right because government can only restrict regulation of cryptocurrency especially bitcoin in her country through bank, government don't have the veto power to ban Bitcoin because its is digital currency and no one can ban it or  stops its market transaction except people lost interest in btc.

[Kakmakr]

Depends on what you mean by "shutdown" ....

They can make it illegal to run the "mining" software ...which will be VERY difficult to police and they will have to enforce that globally. Making these laws in one country, will not "shutdown" the Bitcoin network, because people will run it in other countries where it is allowed and they will run it illegally in countries where it is not allowed. 

Also, governments might make laws to regulate it ... but we know people will use it outside of this centralized/regulated platforms. (Not using exchanges and using Dark markets)

The moment when they do this a secondary economy will be created, where taxes will not be paid on eCommerce. 

[repear7]

Government can't shutdown bitcoin, But they can ban bitcoin in their country. Bitcoin is decentralised currency. No one can control it. If any country think, BTC is bad for their country then they can ban but shutdown isn’t possible.

[bassbity]

you should make the thread clearer, because the government you mean is the global government or each government of each country. these have different functions. Remember the word government is "general" and to make it special if you add the role in front of it, the government of the country? or world government?
think again?

[masterzino]

Technically it is not possible for a government to shut down bitcoin in any. They can disturb the network by forcefully taking over the mining operations and fill their own coffers. But a complete shutdown isn't possible by any government.

Government can legally ban bitcoin in their own country. They can strictly enforce the ban using various enforcement agencies so thay people don't use bitcoin out of fear. So again they can't shut down bitcoin. That's how the nature of decentralized network is!

Actually, they can shut it down technically by tracking all pools' IPs (as nobody is mining as a standalone miner), IPs of all nodes, etc. and block them.
DDoS pools, seize pools' domain names, block miners' ports  + much other nasty stuff.

Is it worth it is another call.

[The Cryptovator]

I will ask the OP, do you know about the decentralized ecosystem? Let's see a quote from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralization

Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group. 

The summary is, a decentralized ecosystem is out of control from any centralized authority. Since a government is a centralized authority, means they can't shut down Bitcoin. Even the creator couldn't shut down the whole system since it has been deployed on the Blockchain and there is much backup which is enough to continue the current system.

[kryptqnick]

It is technically completely impossible. However, they can heavily discourage people from using Bitcoin by, say, criminalizing the usage. So that would effectively make the majority avoid risking prison time, and Bitcoin wouldn't be used (or would be used by a very small number of people) in a particular country. If this country used to have lots of users, it can also affect the public image of Bitcoin in other places and bring the price down. In case of consolidated effort from major political players to forbid Bitcoin, the price can move down drastically. However, Bitcoin would still continue to exist and be used by some enthusiasts because as such it cannot be killed like that.

[Lewan]

Evet yapabilirler. Ama bunu neden yapsınlar? Devletler isterlerse Bitcoin'i kendi yararlarına kullanabilirler. Ancak gelecekte bitcoin'i yasaklayan devletler göreceğiz. Vergi uygulayan birkaç ülke var.

[solarmainframe]

From the perspective of possibility, the a government could theoretically ban access to the internet, which would make adding transactions to the blockchain impossible, although that is very unlikely. Any traditionally means of regulation would likely center around withdrawaling currency into fiat money, which the government can control. For example, capital gains tax is assessed on cryptocurrency in some countries. The United States, for example, attributes cryptocurrencies to its standard capital gains tax. On the other hand, if one keeps their transactions within the Bitcoin network, it is almost impossible for a government to do anything about it. As others before me have stated, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin means that an organization would have to succeed in a 51% attack against it, which is nearly impossible.

[Hippocrypto]

That won't happen, bitcoin has its own freedom as currency and it circulated within internet blockchain network. Government can only regulate what's within the jurisdiction of law, which particularly involves fiat money because the economy was control by the system within a specific country law implementation.
It would only be shutdown if internet communication will be banned for use in each individuals, but that's not possible if you're in a democratic country. But, for those communist type possibility of banning bitcoin as part of regulations can be implemented.

[tyz]

Is it possible?

It seems that you haven't really looked into Bitcoin and the blockchain technology yet. The answer is short: no. Bitcoin can be banned, but Bitcoin cannot be shut down. That is the strength of decentralized systems.