[2021-03-25]Ray Dalio on the possibility of banning BTC in the US

[Daltonik]

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Ray Dalio talks about the high probability of a ban on BTC in the United States, referring to the actions of the authorities to confiscate gold during the Great Depression. Then the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 was passed, which prohibited the possession of gold by private individuals. Thus, the government excluded the possibility of gold competing with cash and credit.

Could something similar happen to bitcoin, which has surged amid high debt levels, low interest rates, and investors looking for alternatives to bonds and currencies. At the time of this writing, the price of bitcoin was around $56,559. 98, rising sharply after Elon Musk tweeted that you can use it to buy Teslas. He also added that the Indian government is already considering the possibility of introducing a ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

"Every country treasures its monopoly on controlling the supply and demand. They don’t want other monies to be operating or competing, because things can get out of control. So I think that it would be very likely that you will have it under a certain set of circumstances outlawed the way gold was outlawed"

Dalio says, referring to people close to government circles, that perhaps the supervisory authorities can understand and determine who exactly owns this wallet and he is not sure about the full protection of privacy in bitcoin, specifying that he is not an expert in this matter. At the same time, he states the obvious advantages of bitcoin, it is resistant to hacking, attracting a huge number of followers around the world and using bitcoin as a means of accumulating wealth.

[1714311286]

1714311286

[1714311286]

1714311286

[davis196]

Back in the 30s gold was competing with cash and credit,that's why the government decided to confiscate all the gold.
Nowadays,Bitcoin isn't competing with fiat money,despite what all the Bitcoin supporters are saying.
Bitcoin is more like a financial asset,rather than a currency,so there's little to no room for comparison.
A possible US government ban over Bitcoin will drive the Bitcoin price into a great crash.Many institutional investors,that hold Bitcoins will be damaged severely.Who is going to compensate them?
This is something that the US government doesn't want.

[Lucius]

We should not delude ourselves that such a possibility does not exist, it is quite realistic if the US government estimates that Bitcoin is starting to pose a serious threat to their national security as they like to say. The problem for Bitcoin is actually that too much has been centralized in just one country, so some kind of ban would really have a catastrophic effect first on Bitcoin, but also on the entire crypto industry.

Still, we need to ask ourselves, are all those who invest in BTC are so stupid (I mean US investors) that they don't have at least some insider information that would suggest that something like this could happen at all? I hope that they still know better than us ordinary people, and that they are an indicator that the ban will not happen - which does not mean that we should not expect even tighter regulation when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

[acquafredda]

It's too late to outlaw a few billion dollar industry that also pay quite some nice taxes to the Uncle Sam government. The States will see their best talents and companies leaving the country and losing a competitive advantage over other competing countries. It is vey unlikely to witness such a ban on BTC.

[bbc.reporter]

The government cannot confiscate if it does not know for certain who the owner is or if it is not under the custody of a centralized institution. Bitcoin addresses are not bank accounts where it can be frozen through a court order. However, the government can attack the VASP. Virtual Asset Service Providers, this is their term hehehehe.

[Kittygalore]

It's too late to outlaw a few billion dollar industry that also pay quite some nice taxes to the Uncle Sam government. The States will see their best talents and companies leaving the country and losing a competitive advantage over other competing countries. It is vey unlikely to witness such a ban on BTC.

I think that we are underestimating the US government considering that they can overthrow regimes in South America, I think that this is just an easy task for them because they have the resources to do it, the people just have to be ready about it. Maybe it won't come to banning but maybe a regulation.

[Lucius]

The government cannot confiscate if it does not know for certain who the owner is or if it is not under the custody of a centralized institution.

Why do you think they can't seize something under their direct jurisdiction? All the crypto that is under the control of Coinbase is in the true sense of the word theirs, not those who bought it or stored it with them - if they only confiscated the funds that are there, we are talking about 1 million BTC. There is no need to know whose funds are on the crypto exchange, you simply confiscate everything.

All those who haven’t figured out what Bitcoin allows them compared to a bank account, live in one big lie to own something - and in fact they can be left without it at any time. If anything went wrong, then it’s the fact that people didn’t realize they needed to be their own bank - instead they still believe in banks, only in this case it’s a crypto bank.

[bbc.reporter]

@Lucius. I said the government cannot confiscate cryptocoins that is not under the custody of a centralized institution. I reckon we agree unless I misunderstood you hehehe.

[acquafredda]

The government cannot confiscate if it does not know for certain who the owner is or if it is not under the custody of a centralized institution.

Why do you think they can't seize something under their direct jurisdiction? All the crypto that is under the control of Coinbase is in the true sense of the word theirs, not those who bought it or stored it with them - if they only confiscated the funds that are there, we are talking about 1 million BTC. There is no need to know whose funds are on the crypto exchange, you simply confiscate everything.

All those who haven’t figured out what Bitcoin allows them compared to a bank account, live in one big lie to own something - and in fact they can be left without it at any time. If anything went wrong, then it’s the fact that people didn’t realize they needed to be their own bank - instead they still believe in banks, only in this case it’s a crypto bank.

I would love to see everyone able to running a node, even a pruned one, controlling their bitcoin wealth via a wallet where the keys are under their strict control but that is never going to happen. The Coinbase and friends will have always have the majority of users and therefore funds and that is probably nothing we can do about.
I know it is bad, but after 12 years if we got to this point there is no going back.

[Myleschetty]

Ray is a Gold enthusiast and I don't expect him to support Bitcoin as he did with Gold cause Bitcoin is already affecting the price of Gold market.
Having said that, the only thing I think will lead to Bitcoin ban is if it not an innovative/future currency and fortunately Bitcoin is. However, the worse things the US government would do is try to regulate the exchange and I don't see them ban Bitcoin because of that though they may place some restriction on Bitcoin when the launch their CBDC so that Bitcoin won't compete It.

[hulla]

Ray is a Gold enthusiast and I don't expect him to support Bitcoin as he did with Gold cause Bitcoin is already affecting the price of Gold market.
Having said that, the only thing I think will lead to Bitcoin ban is if it not an innovative/future currency and fortunately Bitcoin is. However, the worse things the US government would do is try to regulate the exchange and I don't see them ban Bitcoin because of that though they may place some restriction on Bitcoin when the launch their CBDC so that Bitcoin won't compete It.

He have once accept that he's wrong about Bitcoin and he explained his reason which the reason why I don't think we should blame for his naiveness then cause we also once not believe in Bitcoin before. However, he seems not to be Bitcoin hater but he never invest in it.
Aside from that, I honestly supported what Ray Dalio said and it not about him not crypto enthusiast but he's talking from experience and if we look into the situation that happened in China before the creation of their Central Bank Digital Currency, they first ban Bitcoin though the US may not do that but they wont want Bitcoin to compete with their CBDC.

[Theb]

Looks like Yahoo interviewed a guy who is just reaching on the idea of a US ban for Bitcoin but has failed to establish any kind of fact that the government is indeed banning cryptocurrencies. They just cited how gold was banned in the past but it doesn't mean it will be the same for Bitcoin or for any cryptocurrency in this matter. What I have only seen so far is authorities are striving more regulations and more ways on how to track crypto transactions but nothing about a blanket ban being a solution for any kind of problem here.

[Kakmakr]

I do not think the US will issue a blanket ban on Crypto currencies, because this will hurt them too. Bitcoin has it's Pros and Cons and one of the Pros ..are the creation of jobs...something that are needed after the impact of Covid-19 has caused a much higher unemployment rate in the US.

The "Gold" ban did not resolve the issues that the government had back then and it was eventually turned over, after they saw that it failed. (The same goes for the prohibition of Alcohol)

I think the US government are just going to tighten regulations to control Crypto currency ownership to enable them to farm taxes and also to control it. (monitoring for criminal actions)

[hv_]

Like starting here

https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/canary-islands-to-liquidate-bitcoin-investments-for-ethical-reasons/

[Slow death]

this comment gets to be a little funny. something I’ve learned over time:

Wealthy don't invest in things they know that governments can create big barriers in the future

The wealthy have lawyers, experts in finance law and several financial advisers and have privileged news and connections with politicians. by this I mean that paypal would not risk entering the crypto world if it did not have great guarantees that the government would not create many barriers

today's news:

According an exclusive report from Reuters, PayPal is set to release a formal announcement later on the day in which it will unveil its long-awaited cryptocurrency payment feature for U.S. customers.

[tabas]

Yeah, ban but it's not going to do a thing anymore. With those companies that are giving huge tax to the US government, after their announcement and acquisition of bitcoin. That won't do.
That "just like confiscating gold". Good luck to their enforcement knowing who are those people who holds bitcoin in their state.