Can the government hijack Bitcoin?

[Masplanc]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

[mu_enrico]

You are not asking a specific question mate, hijack what aspect? How do you know government does not create it in the first place? You can find many scenarios from conspiracy theorist, but they cannot prove it.

Also, don't underestimate the power of a tyrannical government. Let's say Kim Jong-un banned Bitcoin, 99% of North Korean won't be dare to touch it. However, from the technological aspect, it depends on hash power.

[zeuner]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

Which government? Those that have money use it to smoothed COVID-19 impact on society.

If any government wanted to, they could have done it while Bitcoin was cheap.

[SaiyanSS3]

They’re trying to create a centralised xrp es queta pump and dump coin, that come with surveillance as a bonus and a kill switch to boom the coin access everywhere everytime.

[wheelz1200]

What do you mean hijack it?  Its not as though they can freeze p2p transfer.  Biggest way they could possibly curtail its use is by banning it which we've already seen been done and reversed because ultimately that government and country will be left behind.  Right now bitcoin IS too big to fail now.

[sunsilk]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

Not only in some countries but for every country where there are holders of it, we're all using it if it's needed for purchases that we want. It's for the application and contribution that we do because it's really made for that purpose.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

They cannot, they can stop the exchanges but transactions will continue because it can be done through peer-to-peer transactions. It's useless if they will "hijack" bitcoin not unless there's an outlet that they will unplug the wire of internet connection to stop mining which will affect all of the transactions.

[harizen]

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

By "hijacking", what are you trying to say? Do you mean taking over "fully" control of bitcoin? I don't see how it will become possible as bitcoins are not issued or backed by any banks or governments.

Or you mean, suddenly the government will ban bitcoin on that country? It's possible but I doubt it can quickly be implemented into a crypto-friendly country right away and there should be a big reason for doing that.

What the government can do to keep up with the phase of bitcoin is to have their own crypto or if not, close to the features of crypto.

[dothebeats]

Hijacking is near impossible since bitcoin is running on thousands, if not millions, of decentralized machines all over the world. They can prohibit the use of bitcoin on their respective territories, but hijacking or taking over fully is a stretch. Perhaps taking taxes from bitcoin proceeds and profits would be the best that they can do and the route that they will take instead of getting it for themselves. With the amount of money pouring in bitcoin every day, who wouldn't want to get a slice of the pie in this industry anyway? That's still a lot of $ for the governments to tax, and rather than rashly banning or hijacking it, they might as well just convert some of those $ into tax dollars instead.

[Matimtim]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

Since bitcoin is digital currency and one of the  decentralize currency that we can use in online form of payment thus there's no reason or  possibilities that bitcoin be controlled by the government without any permission to the person who use it.

[Darker45]

First, don't take my word for this. This is a mere opinion of a crypto layman. Anyway, I suppose by hijack you mean take control of it. Theoretically, yes. That is possible as there is what we call the 51% attack. A government may succeed in taking over at least 51% of Bitcoin's hash rate and therefore manipulate transactions. However, it will be very costly and unsustainable. After all, Bitcoin is worth almost $1.2 trillion. It would be more practical, and indeed it happened to altcoins such as Ethereum Classic and Verge, to attack smaller blockchains.

I don't think there is a government hell-bent to hijack Bitcoin at this point in time. There wasn't a 51% attack on Bitcoin's blockchain in its earliest years. There won't be any today as it has already grown up unimaginably stronger.

[Ludmilla_rose1995]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

Hijacked like what? it seems your question is incomplete. The government can only prohibit the use and circulation of bitcoin. all websites related to cryptocurrency can be banned by the government and the country. But we can still access it using VPN.

[so98nn]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

There are only two things that government can do really! First one either they BAN it, or second one they ACCEPT it. There is no such thing as hijacking the crypto currency. I mean that just does not fit with the nature of cryto currencies.

You might be imagining if government could just go around and hack the whole crypto technology and take it down! Frankly speaking, government can not touch the public ledger / public property unless and until it has proper legal protocol. Government can be sued for interfering public stuff legally and thus blockchain is safe guarded by this bypassed rule!

At least this is what it means in some of the asian countries. But as whole I doubt government can really hijack crypto.

[Ucy]

It's unlikely that a Just Government will target a Community-driven Network that's well  Decentralized, Transparent, Immutable, Ruled via network consensus, Anonymity-friendly/Privacy-friendly, Censorship resistance,  Secure, Based on good rules etc ..

The above main principles/ideals can  also make hijacking BItcoin by a lawless one difficult .

[nicecrypto]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

I do not think this is very visible or that a government can hijack Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not controlled by one person or Government so it will be difficult in my opinion for a particular government to hijack it or may be they might Ban the use and trade of Bitcoin in their country but Hijacking it is not an option.

[TastyChillySauce00]

It's decentralized meaning if government really trying to hijack it they need to manipulate all the running nodes across the world which no government has authority too but they could manipulate it using tons of money I guess but considering the market capitalization of bitcoin or crypto market in general have been increasing like crazy I doubt any countries could do that, if any it's those top 5 richest countries by gdp I guess and if there's any government that could use 51% attack maybe it's china.

[ReiMomo]

I don’t think Hijack is the best term to use for this. I guess the best term is to take over.
And if that’s the case, the answer is yes. Governments can take over or remove the effect of bitcoin as long as they find a very good reason to do so. But still, that depends if they can benefit from it or not.

There was a theory that the people who founded Bitcoin has an agenda to remove currency as a medium of exchange. It said that they find currency as stupid and manipulative that’s why they had to do something about it.

In the theory, it says that once Bitcoin has been accepted by the world, it will have vanished. Resulting in worldwide recession and an alternative medium of exchange.

[ilovealtcoins]

Governments have deliberately undermined bitcoin for years in many ways, but they have failed. True to Bitcoin's proclamation, it is a private bank and people manage their own money.
Governments can only put regulations in place to prevent Bitcoin from expanding within the community. There's nothing they can do about Bitcoin because it's a decentralized currency that exists on the internet. Only when the world runs out of the internet can Bitcoin kill. Surely it won't happen.

[jrrsparkles]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

Government can't stop bitcoin which was already discussed million times in bitcointalk, bitcoin is not controlled by anyone so it is not possible to hijack or stop the Bitcoin network.

[ultrloa]

Bitcoin is known as to be the biggest cryptocurrency. in some countries it can be used to purchase goods and services and some see cryptocurrency as a threat.

if Bitcoin comes to be number one currency in the world today, can it  be hijack by the government?

Government can't stop bitcoin which was already discussed million times in bitcointalk, bitcoin is not controlled by anyone so it is not possible to hijack or stop the Bitcoin network.

Actually government can if they really want to since remember they can control the usage on it by banning this on their country. But this one will never happen as there are so many good benefits brought by bitcoin to its citizen already. But if scamming is so rampant maybe government can decide on controlling it and hopefully this will never happen.

[Sanitough]

The government cannot touch the system as it's decentralized, no one can crack it. All the government can do is use their power on regulation, if they are against bitcoin, they can simply ban bitcoin and banning bitcoin will certainly affect its good price now, slowly it will loss its investors and the government again win the battle.