Government ban on crypto

[ConnerDalfino]

Question

Do you guys think Bitcoin has any chance of being banned by the government? I keep hearing people say that Bitcoin has a chance of being banned, yet I don’t think so because very powerful people like Elon Musk along with other companies are large investors. Is their any weight to that statement?

Answer

Bitcoin being illegal in the United States is highly unlikely for the following reasons:

1-According to the Howey test, the Trendon Shavers case established legal precedent that Bitcoin is not an illegal protection.
2-The IRS has already formalised its approach to Bitcoin (as an asset)
3-Many rich and well-connected people have personally invested in Bitcoin, and they would be upset if their political colleagues make Bitcoin illegal.
4-Traditional financial institutions in the United States, such as ICE/BAKKT (owner of the NYSE), Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, CME, and others, are now actively involved in Bitcoin mining, investing, and trading.
5-Exchanges such as coinbase, square, gemini, and others are now very big businesses that are actively interested in Bitcoin.
6-Many local states have case law and regulations on Bitcoin that makes it more difficult to make illegal.
7-There is a significant body of current case law in US courts that defines encryption and code to be covered by the first amendment.
8-Making it illegal does not ban bitcoin, but would rather show that they are a totalitarian government, albeit an incompetent one, since stopping Bitcoin is much more complicated than winning the drug war.

What are your thoughts?

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[NeuroticFish]

Answer

I don't know the context of the question, but your "answer" doesn't seem to answer it.
Indeed, the chance Bitcoin get banned by US government is slim. But the world is bigger than US and the question may be related to another/any government. And in that case, in the same way the internet is censored in many countries, Bitcoin can be (and I think it is!) banned by certain governments. But also "the trend" is towards adoption, not ban, so on the long term I am confident it will be allowed/accepted in every country.

[20kevin20]

Many of your answers are thoughts only already-experienced people from crypto have. To most non-coiners, the crypto industry is either a get-rich-quick scheme or a criminal's currency of choice.

Speaking about declaring something illegal and billionaires, you have to understand that big names investing in an industry does not make that industry invincible or the perfect investment. In fact, it's even likely that a billionaire plotted with a government and invested in a certain stock for a specific purpose you may have no idea about.

The only (or one of the very few) reason I don't see a Bitcoin ban coming is because:
 1. Chainalysis was/is a wet dream of control-thirsty governments
 2. Bitcoin cannot effectively be banned considering there are alternatives to accessing the network such as Tor

Until they found out blockchain analysis can be a thing, they were showing a big oppression. Since they found out the Bitcoin network can actually be quite easily analyzed, everything seems to work flawlessly.

Bitcoin can't be stopped anymore. What happens is, instead of them banning BTC, they're turning the world into one of surveillance and full control.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

If US are going to ban bitcoin, they have done it years ago, but they let it flourish and now it's being used as a hedge by big institutions and companies. I think we don't know another discussions about it unless we see a change in the air as far as US government stance on bitcoin. There could be countries that have banned bitcoin, but they are only a few and look at what kind of government they have.

[zanezane]

If US are going to ban bitcoin, they have done it years ago, but they let it flourish and now it's being used as a hedge by big institutions and companies. I think we don't know another discussions about it unless we see a change in the air as far as US government stance on bitcoin. There could be countries that have banned bitcoin, but they are only a few and look at what kind of government they have.

Exactly, but I think that they can still ban bitcoin even if a lot of influential people are owning bitcoin because they can operate it outside the US, but that thing is close to impossible with cities in US that are trying to tax people through bitcoin and funding public projects through bitcoin, I don't think that it will be close to possible and not to mention that Silicon Valley is in the US and bitcoin is a technology and banning it is essentially not wanting progress.

[Upgrade00]

No one can access the bitcoins in your custodian wallet!
No one can restruct you from making a transaction to another wallet!
No one can restrict the introduction of new coins into the market!

The only way governments can control your assets is if you store them on centralized platforms or use such platforms to exchange.

To most non-coiners, the crypto industry is either a get-rich-quick scheme or a criminal's currency of choice.

Most of the no-coiners I have interacted with are actually being hesitant because they consider it to be a complex network for geeks, but they all actually wish they could get in.

[TheUltraElite]

US? No, they already use bitcoin regularly there are government would very less likely to be stopping its use. Other countries? Yes many countries have taken a negative standpoint on crypto and they are not moving from that for some years although there seems to be a spark of light.

The only way to stop bitcoin access is to cut electricity power supply. Essentially that would stop the internet from being accessed. But that is a too drastic step to be taken by anyone.

So you can be assured that such incidents will not happen and always hope for the best and betterment of the crypto space. Regulation may happen but remember that if you are a part of the law abiding citizen who does not take part in money laundering, you have nothing to worry about.

[Kittygalore]

The only way to stop bitcoin access is to cut electricity power supply. Essentially that would stop the internet from being accessed. But that is a too drastic step to be taken by anyone.

So you can be assured that such incidents will not happen and always hope for the best and betterment of the crypto space. Regulation may happen but remember that if you are a part of the law abiding citizen who does not take part in money laundering, you have nothing to worry about.

Or it could be the other way around too, shutting off Internet can also be a possibility or a apocalypse scale war like a full-on nuclear war. It is a pretty scary mindset that you have to not worry about regulations that they are going to put on bitcoin if you are a law abiding citizen because there will always be a possibility that you can be implicated or blamed for something that you didn't do, have you heard of frame up?

[YOSHIE]

Since Bitcoin was launched in 2009 and released on the global crypto market, pros and cons have emerged, various accusations and speculations that have been raised, no half-hearted, including the creators of Bitcoin themselves want to be caught, The proof is now, Bitcoin has entered the era of 13 years of travel, nothing has happened, Bitcoin continues to grow all over the world and to remote areas.

What I want to say is: the world has entered the era of globalization with super sophisticated technology, Crypto / Bitcoin is a super great alternative currently used by the general public, In doing transactions with money in digital.
Let state authorities talk about banning Bitcoin, the more he talks, the harder it is to ban Bitcoin.

[Maslate]

Many governments want to do this, but not many are able to do it. I still don't understand what is really happening in India.

What happens to India is just similar to what happens to China and some other countries that opposed crypto.
It gonna be a control issue. Their leaders (and even the others) wanted to keep Bitcoin on their hands which is very unlikely to happen no matter how powerful they are.
I don't know if they are totally thinking it right and they had tried to listen to the public coz probably it is not the wants of the people.

[Mr.sprin]

governments all over the world ban bitcoin and this is not new and bitcoin is increasingly in demand. Big investors have jumped into the world of crypto and they are collecting bitcoin as an asset in the future.

[Fundamentals Of]

Those people who are constantly talking about Bitcoin getting banned do not yet know Bitcoin. You have 2 options when faced with such people. Either you tell them that it is next to impossible to actually ban Bitcoin and perhaps argue a little since they will probably respond to it, or you just ignore them altogether and avoid wasting time with them.

If the US would have wanted to ban Bitcoin, it should have done it a long time ago. But I think they have already made attempts. All failed, though. Because how can you even ban Bitcoin? To the question of is there any chance of Bitcoin getting banned, there is none. Not because of external factors such as Elon has already accepted it but because by design it is impossible to ban Bitcoin.

[ultrloa]

Don't see any news something like this at this moment since government are now looking on the crypto venture since it offers good opportunities between the user and institution. And banning is not be seen right now since government regulate it thats why we see some local bitcoin exchange platform,Atm's and other entities who's business is related with crypto is now popping up doing a good business so far.

[androyster]

I'm not convinced Bitcoin would be banned in the USA.  Gold has a market cap of 10-11 trillion dollars and it is not being banned.  Bitcoin just touched the trillion dollar market cap.  It will take decades to even come close to Gold's market cap imho.

[adzino]

Question

Do you guys think Bitcoin has any chance of being banned by the government? I keep hearing people say that Bitcoin has a chance of being banned, yet I don’t think so because very powerful people like Elon Musk along with other companies are large investors. Is their any weight to that statement?

-snip-

Very highly unlikely for that to happen, specially now. In fact the opposite is going to happen. More and more government are starting to understand how bitcoin and other crypto currencies work and is trying to incorporate with the current existing system. They know that banning will just negatively affect the system. Again, they also realize that banning won't stop people from using it since it is decentralize. They are well aware banning will just cause rise in more illegal transactions. Hence, they are trying to legalize it through various policies and regulations. Only few countries out there that are totally against crypto currencies.

[livingfree]

If they are about to ban it, they should've done it before long time ago. IMHO, it's too late for them to ban it if they really want to get rid of it and avoid their citizen's attention being into it.

Too late in a sense that they see the importance of bitcoin because of its price and value. A country that's try to recover because of the pandemic will have its time to consider and avoid banning it as much as they can.

[hatshepsut93]

I agree with your points, but you can never be 100% sure with governments. Gold was a widely adopted form of money, and then it got seized because of the Great Depression. Now, you can't seize Bitcoin as easily, but you can ban trading it if government will decide that it hurts them.

Democracy can turn into tyranny in just a couple of years, so nothing is really set in stone in society.

[bitzizzix]

Since Bitcoin was launched in 2009 and released on the global crypto market, pros and cons have emerged, various accusations and speculations that have been raised, no half-hearted, including the creators of Bitcoin themselves want to be caught, The proof is now, Bitcoin has entered the era of 13 years of travel, nothing has happened, Bitcoin continues to grow all over the world and to remote areas.

What I want to say is: the world has entered the era of globalization with super sophisticated technology, Crypto / Bitcoin is a super great alternative currently used by the general public, In doing transactions with money in digital.
Let state authorities talk about banning Bitcoin, the more he talks, the harder it is to ban Bitcoin.

Yes, I will ignore anyone who is against bitcoin because it won't be easy to get rid of bitcoin.
whatever the reason, until now bitcoin is still around and even continues to spread to everyone and circles wherever they are.
and in the country where I live bitcoin continues to grow and is increasingly popular, especially during this pandemic and in the country where I live bitcoin is not prohibited and only allowed as an investment and not to be used as a buying and selling transaction using bitcoin and must convert it into fiat.

[romero121]

I don't get the information that OP is trying to convey. I've understood it as, USA on the urge of banning bitcoin. This might happen with different countries, but not with USA. Yesterday I had small conversation with a friend of mine working in usa, and he said about bitcoin, different gateways are available. USA has given access for bitcoin usage, only thing each and every transaction gets added to the taxation account with which taxation can be easily calculated.

[Argoo]

If they are about to ban it, they should've done it before long time ago. IMHO, it's too late for them to ban it if they really want to get rid of it and avoid their citizen's attention being into it.

Too late in a sense that they see the importance of bitcoin because of its price and value. A country that's try to recover because of the pandemic will have its time to consider and avoid banning it as much as they can.

Over time, it is impossible to completely exclude the possibility of a ban on cryptocurrency by states. The current position of the G20 countries was that cryptocurrency does not pose a threat to global financial stability. However, they can reconsider this position, and there are already calls from some high officials to do this. Until now, many states are looking at cryptocurrency.
Of course, the fact that large business structures invest large sums in bitcoin is a big plus for cryptocurrency. However, not one hundred percent guarantee.