Why are some government scared of Bitcoin?

[Simplycallmecollins]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

Given the unstable nature of cryptocurrencies, and the untraceable nature, would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Recently, El Salvador and Central African Republic announced that they have adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

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1715394250

[mocacinno]

I'm not an economist, but i guess the biggest factor why they are scared is the lack of control... You can't just print some new bitcoin if your government needs more money, you cannot just take someone's bitcoin (even as a government), you cannot just ask the (nonexistent) bitcoin central authority how much bitcoin person X has...

And those are the things governments like to do: make their country important by having a strong local currency, print money, take money straight out of accounts (or lock accounts), ask the bank how much money person X has (so they can tax/take it). I'm not surprised they're not a big fan of bitcoin.

[CryptSafe]

I think every government wants to protect their interest in the sense that they want to get control of everything that goes on within their country's shore. As we all know, the government always wants to exercise their powers by checkmating every financial activities that goes on in their respective locality. More especially the tax and revenue generation which is a major sources of income for the government. At all cost,  they do not want the citizens to bypass tax payment which we all know bitcoin transaction safeguard transactions against third-party. Nevertheless, they claim of money laundry being perpetrated via bitcoin transactions which is the strong reasons for their clampdown on bitcoin whereas, they are just doing that to checkmate financial movements of account holders in and out of their country so as to know who the owners of huge moving funds are. Most times, these are done just to scare their opposition and also to control the people preventing them from doing any transaction untraced and unnoticed. Without the above reasons, i see no reasons why the government should be afraid of bitcoin.

[Beparanf]

In my country, It’s volatility is what makes Bitcoin a major turn off for our government to make serious about it. Bitcoin doesn’t have any special acknowledgment but only just an instrument for scam activities since it is commonly use by ponzi group here to scam people in my country. Our own SEC and Central Bank are also the one who gives warning to our people to not use Bitcoin and crypto since it’s risky due to its volatile nature.

I believe Bitcoin as legal tender will need a lot of years before it will be considered by the government. They need something to be controlled so that they can manage the risk to protect all the consumers of Bitcoin.

[noorman0]

-snip-
and the untraceable nature,

Bitcoin does not offer anonymity so it is trackable by default. However, several methods are believed to be able to at least minimize tracking, so it requires some additional effort to keep it tracked.

-snip-
would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Somewhat yes,
I just think that when bitcoin is not legalized, then almost all user transactions are illegal without exception (although it's not a crime) and that just gives everyone looking for an "untraceable" transaction method not to get caught. Indirectly, the government teaches its citizens to break the law, while everyone knows that bitcoin is valuable enough to be exchanged for anything.

[Gallar]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

Given the unstable nature of cryptocurrencies, and the untraceable nature, would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Recently, El Salvador and Central African Republic announced that they have adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

of course because the government respects currencies that have existed for a long time, because indeed the struggles of each country before independence were dark, so it's only natural for the government to make currency, and when someone replaces the currency there must be a lot of pros and cons that will occur.

in essence many governments retain their currencies from governments that have existed for a long time.

[Iroh]

It’s all about control. Any government would love to have absolute control over its citizens. A controlled citizenry is every government dream. While the government, having little or no control over its citizens use and adoption of bitcoin gets them scared.

They want something they could control and regulate. Bitcoin isn’t having any of that and that fact makes them jittery. So they go all out to spread propaganda and false claims to get people to fear and avoid bitcoin. But as bitcoin adoption gradually increases, these propaganda and untruths are steadily being debunked.

[irhact]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

The government approving Bitcoin as a legal tenders means they're giving up control which is something no government with power whats to do. If you noticed, those nations that made Bitcoin a legal tender are countries which are struggling financially and they're looking for a way out which Bitcoin provides. The dollar Standard has made many currencies useless while empowering the dollar that has no real backing but just can be printed from thin air. Since the fiats like dollars can be printed without needing a backing no government will want to give that up for a currency that they can't manipulate the supply or monitor.
Also you have the privacy features that Bitcoin has, the government can try centralizing Bitcoin service providers but they can't centralized Bitcoin as such it's uncontrollably and anything the government can't control is a threat to them which makes them scared of it and continuously badmouth Bitcoin so their citizens don't trust it.

[jokers10]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

Given the unstable nature of cryptocurrencies, and the untraceable nature, would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Recently, El Salvador and Central African Republic announced that they have adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

Inflationary fiat currencies give an additional option of manipulating economy: you can borrow expensive money today and repay cheaper money tomorrow. If you make a mistake administering countries economy you can hide it by devaluation of a national currency. Using Bitcoin makes you managing economy the other way: deflationary money mean you need some other tricks, and you feel yourself more comfort with tricks you already know and used a lot. Then why would people from governments be happy with prospective of changing all the economy model?

[tadamichi]

It’s all about control. Any government would love to have absolute control over its citizens. A controlled citizenry is every government dream. While the government, having little or no control over its citizens use and adoption of bitcoin gets them scared.

It goes one step further in addition to that. The individuals inside and close to the government are profiting from the fiat shitshow personally. So it’s not just about control, but also about their current and future wealth. Fiat guarantees them steady power and wealth without the hassle of needing to earn it on a fair playing field. Bitcoin would end this party and no one inside these circles would like that. Their life's would become worse, there’s just disadvantages for them by adopting it. So change will likely come from the bottom up, the people and governments most disadvantaged by fiat will adopt it first as they’re the ones benefiting from having a fair playing field again.

[sunsilk]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

Given the unstable nature of cryptocurrencies, and the untraceable nature, would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Recently, El Salvador and Central African Republic announced that they have adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

It's wise for them and they've understood what's in it for bitcoin. They wouldn't just adopt it as a legal tender if there's nothing that they can benefit from it.

I'll just leave it to the experts not just in cryptocurrencies but also to their advisers for their economic affairs. They would have taken lots of consultations before they've finally passed on law about bitcoin as a legal tender.

[Yatsan]

I'm not an economist, but i guess the biggest factor why they are scared is the lack of control...

That's simply it. But I doubt they are scared of it. Governments are just being cautious 'coz they won't be able to tax every transaction if efer they will adapt such technology. I said they are not afraid simply because there are already countries wherein Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are widely being accepted as a mode of payment and aforementioned reason might be why there are countries wherein it is still not yet. Observe how this technology is allowed in countries, but are not that supported unless if it is thru third party apps. Another factor is volatility wherein they might be worried people who are negligent, would complain about profit loss, and they could take the blame if they're about to support it. Last thing I guess is lack if assurance with this technology in general.

[Sayakaaja]

it may depend on the existing economy in the country itself. if the people and government support, yes for sure. but if nothing else supports it then maybe not. also, bitcoin price is not always stable.

[royalfestus]

In spite of them not being able to control bitcoin and avoiding volatility of the coin, there are stable coins that anyone can produce. Can you tell me why no country has deemed it appropriate to introduce their stable coins to this market in order to allow digital transactions on blockchain/cryptocurrency? It is at least likely they will be able to control the process and allow fiat exchange, even being able to monitor the coins' transactions in some cases.

[avikz]

Making Bitcoin a legal tender means when a person goes to purchase a commodity, instead of paying with dollar or whatever currency is being used, they pay with BTC.

Given the unstable nature of cryptocurrencies, and the untraceable nature, would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender?

Recently, El Salvador and Central African Republic announced that they have adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender.

There are multiple factors in play. I will try to summarize them for you,

• Government can't control cryptocurrency. It is controlled by miners so a government can't print more if their banks need it.
• Cryptos are pseudo anonymous. With the availability of coinjoin and mixing services, it is next to impossible to trace any illegal transaction. So it can be very easily used for illegal activities including money laundering and terrorism financing.
• The price volatility is a real challenge and can affect a country in a very bad way.

These are the major reasons why governments are reluctant in adopting bitcoin or any other cryptos. Also for a country with huge population, may pose some new challenges which we may not have an idea right away!

[mrongoz_imut]

It’s all about control. Any government would love to have absolute control over its citizens. A controlled citizenry is every government dream. While the government, having little or no control over its citizens use and adoption of bitcoin gets them scared.

They want something they could control and regulate. Bitcoin isn’t having any of that and that fact makes them jittery. So they go all out to spread propaganda and false claims to get people to fear and avoid bitcoin. But as bitcoin adoption gradually increases, these propaganda and untruths are steadily being debunked.

It is very true as you said, the reason the government is afraid of bitcoin is because of control issues, because bitcoin is decentralized and bitcoin cannot be managed by third parties, so of course the government is very afraid of this, because the government's goal is to definitely want everything to be able to set under their control, the government also does not want to lose the tax revenue of its citizens.

[fuguebtc]

I believe Bitcoin as legal tender will need a lot of years before it will be considered by the government. They need something to be controlled so that they can manage the risk to protect all the consumers of Bitcoin.

Are they really trying to protect consumers or are they trying to find a way to control bitcoin to protect their power? If everyone is using bitcoin and giving up fiat altogether, how can they manage us, how can they tax us? The bank is their ultimate power, they use it to manage us and find ways to take our money to serve them. And if we don't use the banks, and don't pay taxes, they won't be able to maintain their power. I think they ban bitcoin for their own benefit and not for the sake of the people.

[Lucius]

I don't know why people are so obsessed with the idea of Bitcoin as legal tender, and we saw that in the example of El Salvador it did not result in any mass application in that country. Bitcoin can be a completely legal means of payment without being a legal tender, which is the case in many countries and works quite well.

No democratic government is afraid of Bitcoin to the point of banning it, and those that ban it can mostly be categorized as dictatorial/communist countries where the authorities want to control every little aspect of their citizens.

OP, it's not like El Salvador made that decision recently, it's been more than 1 year.

[Antonas1]

The last few days I've been thinking about that the government isn't afraid with bitcoin, actually, not them, but the banks. So far, the bank rotates your money in their bank to take advantage. If Bitcoin became legal money, they cannot do that. Therefore, banks convinced the government (in various ways) to issue regulations regarding Bitcoin use.

~ would you suggest it wise for countries to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender? ~

Is it needed?

[Frankolala]

Governments are in charge of monitoring  affair of their countries this will not allow them to adopt bitcoin because they will not be able to have enough business transactions in the central bank,this will make the government loss since they are in control of central banks.

Bitcoin will reduce their tax generation in the since that bitcoin transaction is being made via p2p and no KYC is needed and will not be able to track or monitor every money transactions made by citizens. The government will also no longer have control over money regulation policy making them powerless.