Why are some government scared of Bitcoin?

[WeThePe0ple]

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

Governments love to steal money from citizens. The legal right to steal money from the people is called taxation. Via a currency, of which they can manipulate the purchasing power at any given time. Stored in a bank, where the government has 100% control of everything you own.

However, BTC makes it impossible for governments to tax you and steal from you.
They don't know what you own in the first place. So BTC is a threat to their income and to their power over people.

You could also convert most taxable assets, including real estate, to BTC and store it on a ledger outside of the crooked banking system.
Then banks and governments have no control over it at all. Can you imagine how angry this makes them?
No more power over people. No more control. No more debt slavery. No more wars (every war is a banker's war).

People would be free. What a disaster

[len01]

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.

completely i agree with you.
because I see a country that can be said to be a communist country that prohibits bitcoin as a means of payment but allows it as an investment asset. the reason is because the state wants to control the finances of every citizen. I mean, countries prohibit payments using bitcoins because it's hard to track and control taxes. but the state legalizes bitcoin as an investment asset because the state can control every asset owned by its citizens and collect taxes from every crypto asset owned.

[Smartprofit]

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.

The governments of almost all countries strive to maintain a monopoly on their own army and their own financial and monetary system. 

The UK even left the European Union so as not to lose its monopoly on issuing its own money (the British pound).  Central banks manage monetary policy very effectively, and through it society as a whole.  Therefore, they perceive Bitcoin as a surrogate money and a potential threat to their power and monopoly. 

Bitcoin was created by cypherpunks, that is, people who fought against the dominance of the state over the individual.  Therefore, many states are hostile to the first cryptocurrency.

[Nrcewker]

Government only like the things, on which they can impose tax or they can control it. But bitcoins have the decentralised nature, that is it cannot be controlled by any government. This is the reason for which many governments are scared upon Bitcoin and really frown on it. Bitcoins are meant to remain anonymous and due to the decentralised nature, no single person other than the user can know how many Bitcoins I have in my wallet. This is the basic and most important reason for which Bitcoins are still illegal in many countries.

[justdimin]

The governments of almost all countries strive to maintain a monopoly on their own army and their own financial and monetary system. 

The UK even left the European Union so as not to lose its monopoly on issuing its own money (the British pound).  Central banks manage monetary policy very effectively, and through it society as a whole.  Therefore, they perceive Bitcoin as a surrogate money and a potential threat to their power and monopoly. 

Bitcoin was created by cypherpunks, that is, people who fought against the dominance of the state over the individual.  Therefore, many states are hostile to the first cryptocurrency.

That is not always so much great. UK kept pound/sterling when they joined EU and that was understandable level, they were already strong on that front and they didn't want to join and have their money turn into euro as well, not like Germany or France or Spain were horrible nations, these nations are big too, and Germany could be even bigger than most, or would basically be having more potential, but at the same time they accepted euro, but that's fine.

However, leaving European union was a horrible idea on UK's part, even if they wanted to have control over their own faith, that resulted with them being much poorer as we have seen, lost 20% in a few weeks. So, they might do the same trouble with crypto, any nation who is against crypto odes the same mistake.

[jokers10]

...
Bitcoins are meant to remain anonymous and due to the decentralised nature, no single person other than the user can know how many Bitcoins I have in my wallet. This is the basic and most important reason for which Bitcoins are still illegal in many countries.

Until you start to spend it. Because when you buy something your transactions can be traced. So it is anonymous if we talk about your too curious neighbours, but any big enough structure like goverment can have enough computing power to find you and all main data about assets you have.

Before computer  era there were paper or metallic money only and governments collected taxes anyway. So even with lesser control they can do what they need. Especially as they have lots of other data about citizens.

[Cookdata]

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.

Bitcoin is a digital asset that the world has never seen before, it is built the way it is for the people and people love it that way, despite the ups and downs, the number of people who have an interest in bitcoin keeps growing, if people want it, they should allow it, after all, it is not forced on anyone, making it a legal tender gives the holder hope that it is recognized and the reason to doubt and fear it would be eliminated.

Within you and from the actions of the government you have seen, you will agree with me that it is all about power and control. The government hate anything they cannot control within their cycle that is why instead of accepting it as a legal tender, they rather regulate it and eat junk of revenue from it since they know it is a global currency they cannot control and they found ways to swallow revenues they are used to, they regulate it and claim they are friendly with Bitcoin
The government is accustomed to fiat, but there are some additional characteristics that bitcoin has that money does not. For instance, the dollar is a global currency that is widely accepted in most countries due to its stability durability, and advantages over local currencies, bitcoin, on the other hand, is far superior to fiat because it is censorship resistance, peer 2 peer, divisible in bits, limited in supply, decentralized, and no middle man, this is what the government don't want and hence the reason for legal tender rejections.

[Ummarr]

Some government agencies argue that Bitcoin's decentralization and anonymity encourage cyber crimes . That's because criminals can hide behind it to steal money from users. Some people believe that Bitcoin is the future of money due to its increasing adoption...
And the government are in charge of central bank so if they allowed bitcoin to be everywhere they will loose some economy.

[Ummarr]

Some government agencies argue that Bitcoin's decentralization and anonymity encourage cyber crimes . That's because criminals can hide behind it to steal money from users. Some people believe that Bitcoin is the future of money due to its increasing adoption. Government are incharge of the central bank so they think if they legalize BTC they will loose because the users  will not use their banks again

[noormcs5]

Given the nature of the market and Bitcoin's features, they are preferred to have a technology that they can control and urge people to pay taxes which is likely impossible with Bitcoin.

If the government could find a way to control the bitcoin supply, they might be more reluctant to adopt it but since government can't produce bitcoin just like they can print the paper currency, they will never adopt bitcoin.

Bitcoin is inflation-free while the government likes the currency which is inflationary in nature.

Finally, people can hide bitcoin in their wallets and save taxes, this anonymous nature of the currency is also disliked by most governments and nations.

[Inwestour]

completely i agree with you.
because I see a country that can be said to be a communist country that prohibits bitcoin as a means of payment but allows it as an investment asset. the reason is because the state wants to control the finances of every citizen. I mean, countries prohibit payments using bitcoins because it's hard to track and control taxes. but the state legalizes bitcoin as an investment asset because the state can control every asset owned by its citizens and collect taxes from every crypto asset owned.

I can’t catch the logical conclusion in your post, you say that the country does not allow payments in bitcoin, but allows investing in bitcoin, and what is the significant difference in this? If I can make regular payments to my wallet in bitcoin, but position them as an investment, then how will the regulator identify them? There must be a complete ban, otherwise it does not make sense.

[seoincorporation]

The main problem with bitcoin and governments is the taxes and the control on the money.

People can use bitcoin to avoid taxes if they don't report the transactions to the gov, and that's why most countries don't want to make it a legal trend.

And in any country, the gov can size or block bank accounts is the income of those accounts comes from illicit activity, but that would be impossible with bitcoin, that's why they are scared about it.

[Franctoshi]

Various Government of the world are almost run by the old guys with mindset of old fiat currency system, therefore they would like to stick with the system they understand rather than adopting the digital new money system "Bitcoin"  and cryptos, which some of them see as a threat to get them out of power control and their jobs, Pricisly Central Bank, people that are working in the banking sector could see Bitcoin as a threat their jobs without understanding how Bitcoin works.

[DoublerHunter]

Various Government of the world are almost run by the old guys with mindset of old fiat currency system, therefore they would like to stick with the system they understand rather than adopting the digital new money system "Bitcoin"  and cryptos, which some of them see as a threat to get them out of power control and their jobs, Pricisly Central Bank, people that are working in the banking sector could see Bitcoin as a threat their jobs without understanding how Bitcoin works.

^Definitely right, they think it is a threat to them and get out of power control since they are combating fraud or money laundering as their job.
They are probably afraid because of the transparency that BTC has, they cannot hide when they use it, and also the taxes that give their life will probably decrease because people can escape from taxation. The banking sector and the government always have a tandem, they always regulated the cash flow of each of their citizen to monitor the monetary tax, they did not know that BTC has an advantage to them and how useful it is.

[wxa7115]

And what bitcoin does when it comes to their power? It reduces it, bitcoin takes away part of their economic power and gives it back to people, programmable money could even replace some parts of the government and the legal system, bitcoin can also make way more easy to hide your wealth which reduces the taxes they can get and the money they can confiscate out of you, all in all while bitcoin does not threaten them directly it has the potential to reduce their power in a significant way and they hate this.

The fact is that bitcoin was not created for anything that is anti-government regulation, but you as a user can have the option of minimizing the centralization of your finances compared to the fiat system you have been using. My first thought about bitcoin was that it is a currency that is useful as an alternative payment option, but probably won't replace centralized fiat.

I don't hate fiat for helping us financially and facilitating transaction before everyone had bitcoin, but here bitcoin has a better solution as a payment system with increased innovation that fiat could not have before. Bitcoin doesn't exist to replace the previous financial system, but it offers a better solution.

I also don't think Satoshi created bitcoin against fiat or government, it is suitable as an alternative beside fiat. But because it's decentralized and people start using it and they propagate that bitcoin will replace fiat, they already have bitcoin then they don't need the government, the government won't be able to do anything to them...it was these things that inadvertently made the government take a hostile view of bitcoin and caused the ban it is today.

And the fact bitcoin is an alternative to fiat is enough for governments to not like it and to be against it.

Governments have a monopoly over the creation of fiat money, it is probably the most important monopoly all over the world and it gives them immense power, and then out of nowhere a person or a group of persons came up with a revolutionary idea which destroys their monopoly just by existing, bitcoin does not need to replace fiat, as long as it is an option for people that is bad enough for the governments, so the reactions of the people towards bitcoin had nothing to do with the hostile stance some governments have against it.

[Nuraiuii]

Various Government of the world are almost run by the old guys with mindset of old fiat currency system, therefore they would like to stick with the system they understand rather than adopting the digital new money system "Bitcoin"  and cryptos, which some of them see as a threat to get them out of power control and their jobs, Pricisly Central Bank, people that are working in the banking sector could see Bitcoin as a threat their jobs without understanding how Bitcoin works.

The only problem with the government is the transparency of the financial markets, they want to protect interests by controlling.
However, Bitcoin is a decentralized asset that was created to provide a solution to the problems of the existing financial system. The open and transparent nature of Bitcoin will not be controlled by the government. Governments don't want something they can't control, so they don't like Bitcoin.

[binbaro11]

If Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies are widely adopted, the entire banking system may become irrelevant.
Some governments are concerned that bitcoin could be used to circumvent capital controls, be used for money laundering or be purchased illegally, and could pose a risk to investors.

[zfhrt80]

Because Bitcoin is not within his jurisdiction, he cannot collect taxes, improve his own interests, and the government will not do things that are not beneficial to him. This is also the reason why some governments crack down on Bitcoin, so that everything in the country can be controlled under the jurisdiction of the government.

[lenexn]

Governments and banks generally have some relationship or interest involved. Bitcoin is characterized by openness and transparency, and is not subject to supervision. If you're allergic to using Bitcoin to avoid taxes, the government won't be willing to do so. This is one of the reasons why governments are against Bitcoin.

[jokers10]

...
People can use bitcoin to avoid taxes if they don't report the transactions to the gov, and that's why most countries don't want to make it a legal trend.
...

People can use cash (national currency) to avoid taxes as well, but governments usually don't stop minting it. Many countries treat citizens like honest people and ask them to pay taxes from cryptocurrencies operating and I haven't heard they are dissatisfied with that. So I guess it is the problem with the government if it bases on idea that citizens don't believe it will spend money wise and that they don't trust it.