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

[WeThePe0ple]

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.

[1715608355]

1715608355

[coupable]

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.

[Furious 7]

Giving punishment to anyone who adopts bitcoin is actually too much if indeed this is enforced in my opinion because in this case bitcoin is not a crime. As for later, there must be excuses about money laundering, fraud and supplying terrorists, for example, that obviously doesn't really have an impact because of course bitcoin isn't wrong because they are just objects, so in this case I still feel that the action to give punishment, let alone severe punishment, has been definitely can't be done.

On the other hand, I actually still feel that a ban like this won't have a real impact no matter what happens and it won't be very useful.

[n0ne]

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%

[coolcoinz]

- Prison sentences for people getting caught owning BTC, trading it or selling goods in BTC.

Ask yourself why no country is doing it. The answer is, because it can never work in a Western country, where people have some basic freedoms. How would any court justify imprisoning people for owning a digital form of money? Nobody would feel safe if they started busting people's doors and going through their computers because they bought cryptocurrency.

The best way of fighting it is doing what they're doing, trying to make a centralized version of digital currency that they control and that is linked to the current financial system to satisfy people who want fast digital money that can be sent 24/7 with minimum fees. CBDC will cover that for you, be accepted even in places that don't accept bitcoin and allow the government to track your purchases, charge you as you go and such.

It's already being done. The goal is to create a society where you get a ticket and the money is taken from your account. They don't ask you to pay the bill, they just take the money. You get into argument with your wife and leave home, she calls the police, says you hit her, they access your wallet and see that you bought a beer in a bar, they go there and arrest you.

Another situation. The government decides to additionally tax all owners of cars that are over 25 years, or over 2 litre, or whatever. They instantly know you own one and deduct the tax from your wallet.

The best way to fight something is to make people disregard it by showing vulnerabilities in the system and making something that is similar and doesn't have those exact vulnerabilities. It may have different ones, but they'll emphasize the ones they want to "fix"

Example? Bitcoin is vulnerable because of its exchanges. Our digital currency will be exchangeable at any bank, so you'll be able to create a digital currency account and transfer any amount of fiat currency into it through the bank's API, with no fees! We won't tell you that this digital currency is centralized and we have full control over its creation and destruction. We'll concentrate on making you fear crypto exchanges and feel secure exchanging at our bank.

[goldkingcoiner]

I think attacking the endpoints of Bitcoin is the easiest way. Nobody would get far by tracking down each and every Bitcoin user if some dumb government were to make Bitcoin illegal (again³). The endpoints in this case are, for example, the centralized service platforms. Like a centralized crypto exchange. Centralization is too easy to control, freeze or close down, if I were the government.

So I go after the people who sell services for and with Bitcoin. But thats easy to avoid when everyone switches to web3 and since nobody needs centralized platforms to sell/buy goods and services, using decentralized services will compliment the decentralized nature of Bitcoin really well. And not only that, but the disconnection from government-traceable platforms will make fighting against Bitcoin impossible...

In other words, if I were the government I would do nothing because I can do nothing.

[Fundamentals Of]

There is actually no realistic threat against Bitcoin. The reason is simply that Bitcoin is unstoppable. No government can stop it. Many have tried but look at where Bitcoin is now. It is up and running and growing and even adopted by governments themselves.

The very fact that we are now discussing about the possible ways to stop Bitcoin means that Bitcoin can't be stopped. But you can at least make it illegal. That wouldn't stop Bitcoin of course but at least you're instilling fear to the people.

[uneng]

There isn't a perfect method to fight bitcoin. It was created in a way to difficult regulators persecuting bitcoin adopters at its maximum. The techniques used by governments must be extremely intrusive and time plus effort demanded to keep every citizens under control, what it's not practicable for real. There will be always gaps abused by bitcoin adopters to avoid being caught by authorities. Governments are wasting their time thinking about fighting bitcoin. It's a lost fight already.

[rat03gopoh]

You ask in this forum with the majority of bitcoiners about how to fight bitcoin? I personally know how bitcoin works in general, I'm not going against it.

I have no idea that even governments feel threatened (unless they have a highly corrupt system), instead the threat is aimed at the fractional reserve system of bankers. If leaders want a transparent financial system, then they must follow how bitcoin works.

[bittraffic]

It can not be done globally.
But if they are up for it, every government I guess will need to crack down, illegalize and confiscate. It will be a fight that will take a very long time and they would have to include banks and institutions owning BTC. People resist everything that government deems illegal,  if China hates BTC, its people will use BTC more for thier revolution.

[xSkylarx]

This is not a good question in this forum, as I am sure that they are really opposed to it. But so we can anticipate what the move from the government is, here are my thoughts on this. The government will levy massive taxes on bitcoin owners in the country that small time holders cannot afford, which will benefit the government because only the wealthiest and most eager to own bitcoin will pay taxes, potentially generating millions of dollars for other projects. That is only my thought, but the main reason they banned bitcoin was because it was used for illegal activities.

[Ayers]

I think there is no way to completely stop bitcoin. Look at what China has done with bitcoin, they have banned all things bitcoin related like mining, trading or holding all over their territory but as far as I know there is still a large part of Chinese people still using bitcoin. There are ways we can deal with those bans today. There is only one way that can stop bitcoin and that is to destroy the entire internet but of course that will never be possible.

[_BlackStar]

For whatever reason I have no intention of banning bitcoin completely if I were the government. I can expect good profits from bitcoin by regulating and taxing every trading transaction on a centralized exchange. In fact, this way both the government and trader alike make a profit rather than total ban on bitcoin.

Here's one I thought about because bitcoin isn't really a threat to fiat. Instead of banning it and preventing people from trading and investing, it would be much more to regulate it. Many world governments regulate it, so things aren't too bad.

[Poker Player]

Fighting it?

If I were in charge, I would apply the saying: "if you can't beat them, join them".

I would suggest the central bank (which is supposedly independent of politics but we all know that in practice it doesn't work that way), that they would go mining like there is no tomorrow for HODL Bitcoin, in the same way that many central banks hold gold reserves.

[BlackBoss_]

The best way to fight against Bitcoin is to shut down all Bitcoin mining farms and ASIC producers. Is it a possible task for government?

I believe they can do it with their power but I really think they don't have enough reasons to do that. It is also very hard to have a consensus amongst many governments at global scale. Bitcoin network is very big and decentralized so that it is more impossible to shut it down completely at global scale.

Bitcoin is a good successful pioneer for blockchain industry which is definitely a big invention in human civilization. Governments can not deny this invention, their citizens like it, the societies actually need blockchain technology and blockchain products to operate better, more efficient, with cheaper cost and more transparency.

To recap, I don't think governments will really fight against Bitcoin in future. They will allow Bitcoin and blockchain industry to grow more.

[Silberman]

I think there is no way to completely stop bitcoin. Look at what China has done with bitcoin, they have banned all things bitcoin related like mining, trading or holding all over their territory but as far as I know there is still a large part of Chinese people still using bitcoin. There are ways we can deal with those bans today. There is only one way that can stop bitcoin and that is to destroy the entire internet but of course that will never be possible.

And even that would not be enough, as eventually the governments will have to get the Internet back online and when they do it then bitcoin will be back as well, this is the power of decentralization, if bitcoin was like a bank and all the power was concentrated in a single centralized entity I have no doubts that bitcoin would be dead already, but since it is decentralized there is no way to kill it unless governments are willing to never use the Internet again.

[cloudfir3e]

Actually, for me, the government will not fight bitcoin but instead use it as a source of state revenue.
legalize bitcoin as a legal investment tool and provide taxes to every holder and adopter or every transaction.
that way bitcoin can become very valuable for a country without having to fight its existence.

[Sebas.tian]

I think, it will be difficult for government to stop Bitcoiners from Bitcoin in this level Bitcoin has gotten to in the global world, which many countries have heard or seen about the wonders Bitcoin is doing to such countries that made it legal. Is too late for any government to fight against Bitcoin, because without the government make it legal in the country bitcoiners can make use of Bitcoin like the way other countries that made it legalize are using it to do good things in the country. Now that many governments know that banning Bitcoin from a country is like working against the citizens progress in the country will not allow such government to carry out such operation in the country.

[mindrust]

See how China did it…

Banning the exchanges from operating and mining would be enough to cripple crypto imo. Also jail anybody who sends money to a foreign exchange or withdraws from them.

Since most people can’t do these without having a legacy bank account, the government would easily catch the law breakers.

[siniminomorocomunisakito]

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.