If you were the government, how would you fight against bitcoin?

[Despairo]

If I'm the government, I wouldn't fight against Bitcoin since I'm the one who support Bitcoin to become legal tender! of course I will try to increase Bitcoin adoption followed with increasing of seminars, teaching about Bitcoin, force all marketplace to accept Bitcoin etc. It doesn't make any sense to fight against Bitcoin, if you want to combat against money launderers, it's impossible since they can also launder with fiat.

[1715570284]

1715570284

[1715570284]

1715570284

[1715570284]

1715570284

[TheGreatPython]

When we weren't able to control something we'll try to regulate. This is how things used to get into regulation. In such a way I'll try to keep it regulated with certain limitations. We know there are possible ways to make use of it amidst the regulation. For now having control over the centralised cryptocurrency related service providers is the best choice. This could help in keeping things on track atleast to some 50%

How can they regulate it if they can't control it? They can't control btc, that is why they demand regulations on centralized crypto exchanges instead. Before we deal with cryptos or using a centralized exchange, it's important to check the status of cryptos first in our country if it's legal or not so that we can get ourselves out of trouble but there are still people who have a hard head and will continue to use a crypto. For them to not get caught out, they will just use a decentralized exchange.

If let say I am a government I won't do any actions to fight against bitcoin but I will gladly legalized and make btc as a legal tender because I love btc.

[Yatsan]

What's the need for a fight if government has the power whether to allow the usage of this technology or not? Bitcoin is  being used as an option for mode of payment to some countries while in ither countries, I guess it is not prohibited but rather not supported. A manner of "use it if you want to but we're not in accountable for the risk". Regulation on the other hand remains the same. They could do it if they would want to as long as they would be able to track every transaction which I think would be only possible through third party wallets.

It seems that the government is still shy about cooperating with Cryptocurrency and adopting it as a mode of payment that can be legalized. I don't think Investors are fools if they feel cryptocurrencies are unreliable, even with the recent price drop although many people have left the market.

They are only into taxes. Also, there's no cooperation needed. They just need to find a way how will they control in and outs of cryptocurrencies from wallet to another. They've already tried third party apps but users in this industry are just not making use of it because of high fees. And they just cannot do anything about it at the present.

[noorman0]

I've often heard that nothing can stop bitcoin.

Wrong assumption, bitcoin allows to be stopped.

-snip-
- Prison sentences for people getting caught owning BTC

All crimes have the consequence of imprisonment, and that doesn't stop even the criminals.

-snip-
- Regulation for exchanges getting so tough that they can never comply

Instead of thinking about strict regulation, it would be better to ban it altogether. But DEX and p2p are still solutions.

-snip-
- Liquidity crises of the exchanges.

Isn't thiss is not a form of rejection?

So far I haven't thought of a plan to ban it even if I am the government, there is potential to increase the state's revenue, lol.

[Woodie]

Honestly having used bitcoin myself and knowing how to keep my foot prints under the radar it would be difficult to catch crypto users, but the best approach would be to get undercover agents to infiltrate crypto markets and let the law take its course or have a some kind of whistle blower policy with handsome rewards upon conviction  But the good part about this is that bitcoin is legal tender and non of this can be implemented 

[Queentoshi]

- Prison sentences for people getting caught owning BTC, trading it or selling goods in BTC. Penalties so severe that most people will back off. I often hear local media associate BTC holders with criminals and money launderers and expect governments to treat them as such. Local banks in my country can face penalties if crypto profits are transferred to a local bank account.

Prison sentence can discourage people from using bitcoins, but it will not stop bitcoin, because some people do not mind doing illegal things so it means it will still be an unsuccessful fight. In countries where their economy is bad and poverty level high, the fight will be more unsuccessful because people already see investing in bitcoins as a way to improve their living conditions, so they will not pay attention to the government. In countries where the economy is good and people living already fine, fighting against bitcoin can be successful because people will want to avoid prison sentence since they are already doing well.

[S A KHAIR]

If I'm the government, I wouldn't fight against Bitcoin since I'm the one who support Bitcoin to become legal tender! of course I will try to increase Bitcoin adoption followed with increasing of seminars, teaching about Bitcoin, force all marketplace to accept Bitcoin etc. It doesn't make any sense to fight against Bitcoin, if you want to combat against money launderers, it's impossible since they can also launder with fiat.

And that's also why all of us here will never be government officials or work in government. If accepting bitcoin, it's like the government is destroying itself because they can't control their own people. Government exists by centralization if you bring decentralization into it the government will disintegrate.

[qwertyup23]

Well, if I were in charged of the head of economics of my country, I would gladly accept and integrate cryptocurrencies to our financials due to its immense potential of growth. Some countries have already started to accept BTC as a means of payment to some services/products in the country.

But if I were tasked to remove cryptocurrencies and prohibit its usage in the country, then implementing laws against its use will do the trick. Imposing a penal sentence would also strengthen the policy against it, thereby removing it entirely from its usage in the country.

[Bitstar_coin]

Am not sure how my reaction would be assuming am the government and have zero or little knowledge about btc and how it is changing lives, because now am btc user and I know and understand the importance. Most decisions taken by the government regarding btc are based on what they read or are told but not from experience as a user. Reason why some governments can make such strict rules as jail sentences for anyone caught dealing in btc.
If I were the government I would impose regulations on btc and crypto in other to ensure anyone who is interested in the currency will be protected, as a government, it is your duty to protect the citizens from any illegal or criminal activities. This is fairer than jail sentence. 

[maydna]

If I were the government, I would research bitcoin first rather than decide to fight bitcoin. And if I can find out what are the benefits of bitcoin, especially for myself, I will not fight bitcoin instead I will try to spread bitcoin to my friends. Everyone will want to receive something that will benefit them, especially if they can make more money. After all, money can attract curious people, and that is what will be used to get people to accept bitcoins.

[Flexystar]

It will take two computer and an internet connection to still run the node successfully and well we will be left out of no internet or computers when nuclear war happens and almost everything is exploded out of the world. I highly doubt that anything like that could really happen. Considering your factors well we are already living that sort of life alongside governments so I don’t think there is anything much that can be done to destroy the bitcoin. Technically speaking bitcoin is going to stay for very long period of time. It’s modern and it’s spreading like light.

[The Cryptovator]

If I were a government member, I would not prevent Bitcoin, and it is also not possible to prevent. Rather, I would make it legal so that the government could collect taxes like the US. We can't control a decentralized ecosystem, so I'm not going to waste my time trying to stop Bitcoin. I'm not sure why my government doesn't understand it, and that's why people trade Bitcoin on the black market. Legalizing Bitcoin would assist the government in generating revenue. But the government is only concerned with maintaining control over everything.

[minime0105]

It seems that the government is still shy about cooperating with Cryptocurrency and adopting it as a mode of payment that can be legalized. I don't think Investors are fools if they feel cryptocurrencies are unreliable, even with the recent price drop although many people have left the market.

Since the origin of the cryptocurrency government have never supported bitcoin as a legal tender worldwide, instead they stand to be against Bitcoin development, and i believe that the era has passed when government is being causing why Bitcoin is having a downfall in price, the price of Bitcoin currently is not being caused by the government but by the investors who buy and sell of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is reliable it's depends on the investors mindset in Bitcoin price.

[yhiaali3]

In my opinion, the worst thing that happened to Bitcoin was imposing KYC on users through exchanges and third-party services. Governments succeeded in putting pressure on these services to impose KYC, thus losing all privacy to users.
By forcing users to verify KYC, Bitcoin loses its most important feature, privacy, and thus governments are able to track users, freeze their accounts, and prosecute them.
The best way to avoid this is to stay away from centralized exchanges and use decentralized exchanges and P2P services.

[Sanitough]

Technically speaking, it is impossible to prevent anyone from using Bitcoin unless you succeed in cutting off the Internet completely from their devices for a long time. There is practically no effective way to stop the use of Bitcoin.
On the other hand, some governments are restricting users who can identify them, but this does not stop the wave of adoption. We have seen governments discredit Bitcoin and others warn about it.
The best way to deal with this is for governments to legalize its use and benefit from it, which seems far away due to the stubbornness of the banking sector, which is considered the most affected.

Even if the government goes tight in bitcoin restrictions and sanctions for bitcoin owners, that will not stop people from wanting bitcoin. Just like how they threat illegal gamblers, but still there are a lot of illegal gamblers around betting here and there. Same with bitcoin, they won't be able to control and fight against it, unless if there are sudden internet shutdown, definitely that will stop all bitcoin transactions.

[KingsDen]

If I were to be government I would not even try to fight against bitcoin, why should I do so? bitcoin is the least of the problems any country can face if it is actually a problem.
I have seen many points you listed that will be used to fight against bitcoin if you were to be government. Remember that no government owns the internet and as long as anyone has an access to internet they can do anything they wish to do. Another point of consideration is there is no central government for the whole world, while the government of United States of America is fighting bitcoin, the government of China will embrace bitcoin,vice versa because the two countries are always going against each other.

Finally, I saw a topic were someone suggested that government will buy the whole available Bitcoin to make bitcoin die off. There was a counter opinion that as government keeps buying, the price of Bitcoin keeps going high to the extent that government will be unable to buy the whole bitcoin. Even if they do, how about the Bitcoin owned by satoshi and other die hard bitcoiners.?

[BitDane]

I've often heard that nothing can stop bitcoin.
While this may be true, I would like to make a list of all possible ways in which banks and governments will try to fight against BTC. So we could find ways to anticipate against it.

Some ideas:

- Prison sentences for people getting caught owning BTC, trading it or selling goods in BTC. Penalties so severe that most people will back off. I often hear local media associate BTC holders with criminals and money launderers, and expect governments to treat them as such. Local banks in my country can face penalties if crypto profits are transfered to a local bank account.

- Regulation for exchanges getting so tough that they can never comply, which will cause them to be shut down, which would generate a run on crypto with a similar effect to FTX bankruptcy.
- Liquidity crises of the exchanges. In case of a bank run, banks can pay about 3% of their account holders. I wonder which amount of liquidity an exchange should have to be solvent. FTX behaved like a bank, but the difference is that FTX' bankruptcy can cause a crash of BTC price while a bank run just leads to the bank being bailed out by the IMF, without the currency getting destroyed.

If you think that none of these things is a realistic threat to the system, let me know.
If there are other threats, likewise.

@OP people are stubborn, the more you suppress them, the more they rebel.  I don't think putting Bitcoin supporters to prison will solve the problem of people flocking in to Bitcoin.  True many will have fear but most will feel being suppressed and might rebel against the government by giving more support to Bitcoin.

With regulation on exchanges, Bitcoin doesn't need centralized exchanges to be transferred or traded. There is also decentralized exchanges that can take the place of centralized exchange if need be.

If people starts trading via p2p and decentralized exchanges, there is no need for the exchange liquidity since transaction is directly done by the party involved and no third party is needed for it.

[albertorma]

If I was the government, I would regulate every CEX as much as I could. I would forbid bank transfers happening when the receiver is a cex unless It's strictly regulated (this is already happening, but I would endure It). I would regulate stablecoins, those owning these assets on omni or EVM chains would have to provide KYC or else would get their assets burnt. And lastly, I would encourage banks to offer bitcoin products to clients as long as they follow my regulations, this way not only I stop bitcoin, but also profit from It.

But of course, 10 minutes later after I impose my regulations, a bitcoin block would be found. There is no way to fully regulate bitcoin.

[sheenshane]

I'm lucky that my country and my government didn't against Bitcoin. 
If I were the government, I wouldn't but instead, implement regulations and becomes Bitcoin a legal tender.  We know that there's no intermediary who can control Bitcoin, but you can use this as an advantage of the revolutionary blockchain as we know our technology evolves.

There are too many ways how to use blockchain networks which makes an advantage to our government.  Something like online crypto payments for real estate auctions, taxes, and fees.  So how could anyone be against the utility of blockchain aside from storing the value?

[D ltr]

I don't think there is a government that can stop bitcoin 100%, isn't it better for the country to take care of things that are more important than bitcoin itself if one country has economic and security problems,
I think it's a waste of time if one government only focuses on fighting the existence of bitcoin

because Bitcoin cannot be fought and stopped, more and more people are adopting it every day