Will BTC survive if encryption/cryptography becomes illegal?

[Husires]

Encryption covers much more areas than digital currencies and without it, the privacy issues would be much greater than the current situation where anyone can spy on your calls, your WhatsApp chats and much much more. Therefore, such a law will not be passed

[wxa7115]

I've read somewhere about the US proposing a ban on cryptography/encryption algorithms for good. Doing such a thing will not only mark the end of privacy, but also traditional cryptocurrencies we know and love today. Bitcoin will be the one cryptocurrency mostly affected by the government's measures. Imagine if other countries do the same as the US to try to prevent people from obfuscating their utmost sensitive data. How will developers carry on with crypto projects if the whole space will be deemed illegal? Their only option would be to continue developing "under the radar", but we all know this won't work especially when most crypto projects have their team members' identities publicly viewable across the web.

That said, do you think BTC will still survive after an encryption/cryptography ban comes into effect? Will such a law be approved by the US and other countries? What will be the implications for the development of the crypto/Blockchain industry? Your input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This is not possible, in fact there were some attempts in the past to try to penalize some developers of encryption tools, this was the case of PGP in which the author was accused of exporting weapons without a license but eventually the case was dismissed and the laws were relaxed.

However banning cryptography is not the real risk, the real risk is that governments want for those cryptographic algorithms to have some backdoors for them to exploit, which runs contrary to the goals of the people using those tools.

[darkangel11]

Yea, sure they'll ban encryption... haven't heard a dumber thing in a while.

All battlefield communication between soldiers is encrypted. Orders issued to submarines and nuclear silos are encrypted. Your emails on some secure hosting platforms are encrypted. Phone calls via some communicators like telegram and many more.

Are they going to ban the CIA now? Are they going to communicate with spy satellites on open radio frequencies? Please!

[darkv0rt3x]

I think there were reports that some people who are yet to discover fire that have been voted into the governments (the US have the most, other countries have a few though).

If encryption is banned, the Internet collapses. You're not accessing Facebook because Facebook can't fund itself anymore (the companies who used to pay to get Facebook to target their ads towards them are no longer doing it because they can just wiretap all the information they want from users and place their own targeted ads).

Every time you access the Internet now, you're given the site you want after 20 refreshes (sometimes), before then you're either getting a time out error (likely due to ddos and bad packet management because servers can't use keys to regulate that/verify users a real) or you're getting an ad to somewhere else or just a blank page because someone somewhere wants to see if they can do it (anyone can pretend to be a dns server if they want and point you wherever they like now SSL is no longer a thing).

FBI, CIA, NSA, MI6, FSB and all others alike would collapse.
All military system would be reduced to sticks, screams, rocks, etc. No communications, etc.
I mean, I can't see this even a possibililty. Nowadays, information, data and privacy means much more than what we think. I know that common and mortal people are already being harassed with privacy violations and etc, but imagine governments, states, counties, military, agencies, etc, without any kind of privacy... I can't picture that!

[jackg]

FBI, CIA, NSA, MI6, FSB and all others alike would collapse.
All military system would be reduced to sticks, screams, rocks, etc. No communications, etc.

The reports about Russian generals apparently came out because they were using unencrypted systems for communication (it's something I could partially believe - ie someone somewhere close by would be needed to collect the signal and would have to be "listening" to a lot of frequencies at once).
And most encryption algorithms are (potentially considered to be) devised by the West.

In a lot of cases, banning things for civilians and using them for military aspects is done a lot of the time but it normally makes their own systems worse.

I have a suspicion that 5G is being rolled out so there's less noise on the current technologies used for communication (the government allows people to broadcast over ~600-800MHz frequencies and ~2.45-2.5GHz - if 3 billion people are communicating over those channels you get a lot of noise but you also get a lot of advancements and efficiency increases. These two standard frequencies are also known to have a very high range (while 2.5ghz used to be bounded by a 10m range, a good receiver can pick it up 20 miles away).

I mean, I can't see this even a possibililty. Nowadays, information, data and privacy means much more than what we think. I know that common and mortal people are already being harassed with privacy violations and etc, but imagine governments, states, counties, military, agencies, etc, without any kind of privacy... I can't picture that!

I could imagine it being an opt-in procedure (and then Google and Microsoft being paid to ask users - while companies like Mozilla would probably just auto opt out) - for https for example.

Yep, this is very much a "your government has too many old fossils who don't understand technology in it" problem.  The same conversation came up in the UK parliament years ago.  David Cameron outlined his government's plans to ban encryption in 2015.  I laughed at their collective stupidity and naturally nothing ever came of it.  Encryption is just math.  You can't ban numbers, even if your government are cretins and believe they can.  Reality will give them a good hard slap across the face in due time.

I don't actually know how they got things to news articles without a technology journalist telling them the gaps in their plan.

[PX-Z]

Asking rhetorical questions things like this will makes you looks like stupid. CRYPTOgraphy is the foundation of CRYPTOcurrency.

Gerontocracy problems ~ such proposals in any the government branch makes them look stupid. This why we need young ones in the government.

Encryption and cryptography is global, banning this will only result to chaos. If its done. Banks and internet will fall before they can solve their problems about cryptocurrencies.

[Abiky]

Heavens forbid you post a few links to what 'you read somewhere'.....
Without examples you are just posting worthless trash and personal speculation.

I just want to ask sir, do you have a source link or article on this thing you say the U.S. did about Cryptocurrency? Because, it seems that this is just a story from your own point of view Sir. It would have been a better discussion if you had references to hold. You know the other community here on this forum will inevitably criticize you for losing any source.

Moreover, Bitcoin has been surviving in the industry for almost ten years and is still being enjoyed
by Bitcoin Enthusiasts in this world we live in today.

Guys if you really want to know where I've read that, check out the following link:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/senates-new-anti-encryption-bill-even-worse-earn-it-and-thats-saying-something

Apparently, the US senate proposed an anti-encryption bill. It doesn't explicitly say anything about cryptocurrencies, but we all know crypto is deeply related to encryption. That was proposed in 2020, but it was left in "limbo". Still, this tells us the intention of governments to take any measures necessary to prevent people from gaining privacy/freedom. Who knows what other measures mainstream governments will come up with to stifle or minimize crypto's growth?

Apart from cryptocurrency, 36% of the companies were using the encryption procedure to secure data. It includes government systems too. With such an increased usage, ban over encryption algorithms will lead to collapse of the internet. The much used industries were the finance, medical, bio technology and media. So, such a law isn't gonna pass.

Earlier when internet usage started to increase, there were rumours that it is going to be banned. Same as that now it is over the encryption algorithm as governments were tired of stating we'll ban bitcoin.

Yeah. Banning encryption for good doesn't make sense when that's what keeps the Internet safe. Maybe it'll only apply to citizens, while the government will continue to use encryption techniques for security? It's something that will really harm cyberspace if it comes into fruition. The US senate bill was never approved (as far as I'm aware) so there should be nothing to worry about.

[2stout]

Who knows maybe this was meant for encryption for iphones and devices as such but we all know this wouldn't be the only target.  I'm sure it would be written in a way to target crypto in which encryption play a vital role.  But it seems this may too broad and overreaching for which there would be severe unintended consequences.  I think this won't see the light of day but it is rather an eye opener that this apparently has been given some serious thought in the form of a draft bill.

[pooya87]

It doesn't explicitly say anything about cryptocurrencies, but we all know crypto is deeply related to encryption.

It is worth knowing that there is absolutely no "encryption" used anywhere in Bitcoin protocol.

Who knows what other measures mainstream governments will come up with to stifle or minimize crypto's growth?

They don't need to ban cryptography to prevent "crypto's growth". There are much easier ways like banning exchanges, making usage of cryptocurrencies illegal, etc. Like what Bangladesh did!

[darkv0rt3x]

FBI, CIA, NSA, MI6, FSB and all others alike would collapse.
All military system would be reduced to sticks, screams, rocks, etc. No communications, etc.

The reports about Russian generals apparently came out because they were using unencrypted systems for communication (it's something I could partially believe - ie someone somewhere close by would be needed to collect the signal and would have to be "listening" to a lot of frequencies at once).
And most encryption algorithms are (potentially considered to be) devised by the West.

In a lot of cases, banning things for civilians and using them for military aspects is done a lot of the time but it normally makes their own systems worse.

I have a suspicion that 5G is being rolled out so there's less noise on the current technologies used for communication (the government allows people to broadcast over ~600-800MHz frequencies and ~2.45-2.5GHz - if 3 billion people are communicating over those channels you get a lot of noise but you also get a lot of advancements and efficiency increases. These two standard frequencies are also known to have a very high range (while 2.5ghz used to be bounded by a 10m range, a good receiver can pick it up 20 miles away).

I mean, I can't see this even a possibililty. Nowadays, information, data and privacy means much more than what we think. I know that common and mortal people are already being harassed with privacy violations and etc, but imagine governments, states, counties, military, agencies, etc, without any kind of privacy... I can't picture that!

I could imagine it being an opt-in procedure (and then Google and Microsoft being paid to ask users - while companies like Mozilla would probably just auto opt out) - for https for example.

Yep, this is very much a "your government has too many old fossils who don't understand technology in it" problem.  The same conversation came up in the UK parliament years ago.  David Cameron outlined his government's plans to ban encryption in 2015.  I laughed at their collective stupidity and naturally nothing ever came of it.  Encryption is just math.  You can't ban numbers, even if your government are cretins and believe they can.  Reality will give them a good hard slap across the face in due time.

I don't actually know how they got things to news articles without a technology journalist telling them the gaps in their plan.

About the Russian general reports, what I've heard/watch (in Telegram channels) was that Russians were using buggy chinese communication devices and it was easy for the Ukrainian services to sneak in and listen communications. But as we well know, the first victims of war is always the truth!
I also saw quite some pictures of aftermath remains collected by Ukrainians showing Russia was using quite old equipments and all sorts of low tech techniques among them! If it was true, it's sad to see how bad can a, so called, 2nd world military power equipping their troops so poorly.

Anyway, off the offtopic :p, you may be making a good point about 5G, however, 5G seems to have lower reach, so despite the fact that you can operate in different ranges of frequencies and avoid interference such as crosstalk and other phenomena, you may also lose some reach.

About the opt in and opt out companies, I didn't understand. You mean companies like Google opt in like in dropping encryption for regular people but keep it for government/military/economic purposes?? And I didn't understand the part "being paid to ask users". Ask users what?

Heavens forbid you post a few links to what 'you read somewhere'.....
Without examples you are just posting worthless trash and personal speculation.

I just want to ask sir, do you have a source link or article on this thing you say the U.S. did about Cryptocurrency? Because, it seems that this is just a story from your own point of view Sir. It would have been a better discussion if you had references to hold. You know the other community here on this forum will inevitably criticize you for losing any source.

Moreover, Bitcoin has been surviving in the industry for almost ten years and is still being enjoyed
by Bitcoin Enthusiasts in this world we live in today.

Guys if you really want to know where I've read that, check out the following link:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/senates-new-anti-encryption-bill-even-worse-earn-it-and-thats-saying-something

Apparently, the US senate proposed an anti-encryption bill. It doesn't explicitly say anything about cryptocurrencies, but we all know crypto is deeply related to encryption. That was proposed in 2020, but it was left in "limbo". Still, this tells us the intention of governments to take any measures necessary to prevent people from gaining privacy/freedom. Who knows what other measures mainstream governments will come up with to stifle or minimize crypto's growth?

Apart from cryptocurrency, 36% of the companies were using the encryption procedure to secure data. It includes government systems too. With such an increased usage, ban over encryption algorithms will lead to collapse of the internet. The much used industries were the finance, medical, bio technology and media. So, such a law isn't gonna pass.

Earlier when internet usage started to increase, there were rumours that it is going to be banned. Same as that now it is over the encryption algorithm as governments were tired of stating we'll ban bitcoin.

Yeah. Banning encryption for good doesn't make sense when that's what keeps the Internet safe. Maybe it'll only apply to citizens, while the government will continue to use encryption techniques for security? It's something that will really harm cyberspace if it comes into fruition. The US senate bill was never approved (as far as I'm aware) so there should be nothing to worry about.

That link is back from 2020. How is that? Like, how did it turn out?
I found a similar act from 2022 here, but from the .gov site, and the summary masks this thing behind child abuse, child porn etc. Ok, this would be good if it was possible to filter out only these targets, but I guess that is not possible and many other things would be affected.

EARN IT act 2022

Is this act/bill the same as your link suggests in 2020?

[DooMAD]

I don't actually know how they got things to news articles without a technology journalist telling them the gaps in their plan.

I usually chalk it up to creeping authoritarianism.  When your elected representatives care more about controlling people than they do about helping them, take it as a warning sign they have a propensity towards fascism.  "Protecting" people shouldn't mean stripping them of their freedoms, but that's all these idiots care about.

[AakZaki]

I don't think that anyone will ever ban cryptographic algorithms because they are not used only in cryptocurrencies. The only thing that could be a threat to cryptographic algorithms and to cryptocurrencies are quantum computers. I didn't do any research about it and I don't know how developed is that technology, but I think that is the only threat for now.

It's hard to imagine. But until now there is no world regulation that agrees with it. It's just that each country has the right to apply its own rules. What I see is China, until now I haven't heard from cryto from there. They managed to shut down crypto it seems. So far I've actually observed that crypto is actually very beneficial, although there are downsides. I think the new crypto technologies of the early generations, they will continue to evolve. Because we know that the world's needs will increasingly change to the digital era.

[slackovic]

It's hard to imagine. But until now there is no world regulation that agrees with it. It's just that each country has the right to apply its own rules. What I see is China, until now I haven't heard from cryto from there. They managed to shut down crypto it seems. So far I've actually observed that crypto is actually very beneficial, although there are downsides. I think the new crypto technologies of the early generations, they will continue to evolve. Because we know that the world's needs will increasingly change to the digital era.

I don't think that you understood me right. I'm not saying that no one will ever ban cryptocurrency. It might happen, but I don't think that it will. I was saying that no one will ever ban cryptographic algorithms because crypto is just a small part of what cryptographic algorithms are used for. Like someone mentioned it before they are used in network communications, digital signatures... The whole world would have much bigger problems than cryptocurrencies being banned if someone would ban cryptographic algorithms. That's why I think it will never happen.

[Ryker1]

Well on my own that is impossible to happen as long as we have internet we are free any of what we want, banning bitcoin means vanishing the internet too and if you ask that is legal, this answer depends now on which country you are, some are illegalized and some are forbidden using bitcoin. That is why bitcoin was designed in a decentralized way of encryption to the internet so that you can protect your privacy against other people that you have to own a huge fund that could be a threat to your health and your family.

[uchegod-21]

I don't just understand where OP got this news and idea. It is very scary to reason let alone for it to happen.
But since there is a question, let me drop my opinion.
Encryption cannot be illegal. If Encryption becomes illegal the world's privacy system will collapse. The social media chats will be public, banks cannot secure their funds and many websites will cease to exist.

Talking about cryptography. It may also not be illegal and even the government it's is into the blockchain now promoting their CBDCs. Any country who bans cryptography is risking being relegated in technology.

[kryptqnick]

I can't see sources on this particular ban, but overall I hope it's not anything discussed seriously. Encryption is everywhere, banning it would outlaw tons of things on the Internet, including messenger apps, online banking security and probably even https. So I think it's highly unlikely that will ever happen because of how much damage it can do to various areas, even if we ignore the cryptocurrency question. As for cryptos, it would make them illegal, but it doesn't mean they'd stop existing. Some would probably still use them, but the capitalization can experience a huge drop of, like, 99%. At the same time, it won't be topic #1 because outlawing encryption would cause a lot of problems which concern more people that crypto market does.

[danadc]

The framework of illegality is only imposed by governments to not allow people's freedoms, for them the best thing is what they impose and they do not think about what it can bring as a benefit to people, it is known that when there is a type of freedom economic through which it is not what they say, it is not legal, for this reason I think that bitcoin exists, but they cannot prohibit people from having money, if they mess with it they will not be able to do anything, because always There will be civil disobedience and if it is against governments for acquiring bitcoin they will do it.

[edgycorner]

Yea, there's no specific law that prohibits the US government from banning cryptography or encryption algorithms.
However, any such attempt would likely be met with significant resistance from the technology community and would likely be unconstitutional ( ).

Cryptography is a fundamental part of the architecture of the internet(https), maybe they can ban certain algorithms? But I don't see it happening.

They can definitely make it harder to implement algorithms that can't be backdoored by the NSA(by pushing weak encryption which they can exploit) . Maybe it's already happening.

[Abiky]

I don't just understand where OP got this news and idea. It is very scary to reason let alone for it to happen.
But since there is a question, let me drop my opinion.
Encryption cannot be illegal. If Encryption becomes illegal the world's privacy system will collapse. The social media chats will be public, banks cannot secure their funds and many websites will cease to exist.

Talking about cryptography. It may also not be illegal and even the government it's is into the blockchain now promoting their CBDCs. Any country who bans cryptography is risking being relegated in technology.

It's very unlikely encryption/cryptography will be banned, since they're the basis of our online security. Without these, cyberspace will become extremely vulnerable against external attacks, and manipulation by malicious actors. I think the US government was just speculating to see how the public will react towards a full encryption ban. The proposed bill in 2020 will never be approved by both chambers of Congress simply because many people oppose it. Such a ban might come into fruition in non-democratic countries (eg: China, Venezuela, Russia, North Korea) but they won't destroy the space in its entirety.

As long as there's one country supporting cryptography/encryption techniques, there's still hope to preserve the very foundations of cyberspace. Cryptocurrencies have gotten this far, so I doubt they'll disappear anytime soon. Just my thoughts

[DooMAD]

Think of it purely from a practical perspective.  Banning technology has a distinct tendency to force the usage of that technology underground.  And if any technology is going to thrive when its usage is driven underground, it's encryption.  I can't think of anything more perfectly suited for hostile environments.  The whole idea is that it makes your opponent's job more difficult.  Attempting to make encryption illegal would likely backfire spectacularly in my view, as it might encourage more people to start using it. 

Not only is it impractical to ban numbers, it's also an incredibly foolish endeavour.  Not least because of the consequences it would have to our everyday security, but also the conflict it potentially creates when the authorities effectively prompt the public into weaponising this tool in order to evade them.