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

[WeThePe0ple]

Why you try to ban a something beneficial to your people? If you see that bitcoin is helping people to change their lives and they get good money without boundaries or discrimination then I guess there's nothing wrong with it and this must be adopted.

Not me. Governments worldwide. The intention of governments is not to help people. It is to control people.
Real power is not in the hands of politicians. It is in the hands of central banks who control the supply of currency, who devalue currency so they can destroy purchasing power of the people. Who indebt nations so they control nations and gain geopolitical power (look what China is doing in Africa)

Bitcoin is a threat to the hegemony of central banks. It makes them lose all control.
Which is a great thing, but which is also the reason why governments fight back against crypto.

For crypto to thrive, its holders must understand how governments will fight against it (media campaign, mining ban, collapsing exchanges, prison sentences for holders..).
Just like any football team needs to understand how the opponent will attack.

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[Viscore]

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.

Even if you make bitcoin illegal, it does not guarantee that people will stop from buying or using it. Although some may develop fear, but I think that’s only for those who are beginners in bitcoin, those who have been hodling or using bitcoin for long term will not be threaten anymore. Unless if you have control on the internet connection and shut it down like months, bitcoin will never exist anymore. But it will also affect the traditional money as well.

[barto123]

if the globalists carry out their great reset & KYC the internet so you need a government ID to login - that could work for a while

it will only go for as long as people comply with it though & there will probably be black market routes to get online

they can regulate & surveillance it to no end but again that comes down to compliance, & enforcing it will be very costly & time consuming. also privacy tools are only getting better.

they could ban self custody & try to confiscate from citizens - however extorting 12/24 words from people will prove difficult

they could try attack the network/make some change in code. would be very expensive & probably achieve nothing. 2017 block wars is a testament to this. the people (nodes) defended the network against corporations.

at the end of the day, there's nothing criminal about Bitcoin. the right thing to do is stop complying with criminals. fiat has enslaved humanity for too long.

[Gallar]

things like that won't really have an impact on bitcoin users, because if the government can make rules like that, on what basis? Where's wrong with bitcoin?

maybe because bitcoin is not legal in countries that make regulations like that.
bitcoin users must still be able to defend themselves, because adopting bitcoin is not a crime, in fact many people have become millionaires and billionaires through bitcoin.

the government should even be grateful to bitcoin, because it can reduce unemployment, and create jobs for many people.

the point is the government has not been able to think in that direction.

[Mate2237]

It possible to control bitcoin if the government kill all the citizens in the country and if not it is impossible for the government to control bitcoin because bitcoin is out of government control and if banks are not allowed to receive bitcoin, bitcoin can still be traded by peer to peer which the government will not even know when the transaction would take place. The only way bitcoin can be controlled is when the authorities have an access to the individual wallet like Fiat banks if not it is not possible.

[ilovealtcoins]

If governments really want to ban bitcoin, they just need to band together, ban all miners, trade and be ready to jail life in prison if someone tries to violate it, bitcoin will die instantly at at that moment. There are ways for the government to ban bitcoin but the problem is that banning bitcoin is not in their favor either. Instead of ban, they will impose regulation and they will be able to tax us, which gives them more benefits than a ban.

[Mauser]

- 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.

That sounds pretty harsh and I wonder if this could be accepted in a fully democratic country. In western nations cannabis is getting legalised, so people getting caught with larger amounts are not facing any prison time anymore. Which would be crazy if then people who own BTC are getting arrested instead. Owning BTC alone should not be a punishable offence, only if the BTC are being used for illegal activities. In my opinion banning crypto currencies outright is never a good solution and will only move BTC transaction out of the government reach. A ban one something never works 100%, there will be loopholes. If I were in charge than I would use taxation as my main tool to control the use of crypto currencies in my country. If the government really wants to reduce the use of cryptos, than increasing taxation would be one option. Like this the government will actually profit of the use of cryptos and still gives it's citizens the option to choose which type of currency they want to use. 

[_BlackStar]

That sounds pretty harsh and I wonder if this could be accepted in a fully democratic country. In western nations cannabis is getting legalised, so people getting caught with larger amounts are not facing any prison time anymore. Which would be crazy if then people who own BTC are getting arrested instead. Owning BTC alone should not be a punishable offence, only if the BTC are being used for illegal activities. In my opinion banning crypto currencies outright is never a good solution and will only move BTC transaction out of the government reach. A ban one something never works 100%, there will be loopholes. If I were in charge than I would use taxation as my main tool to control the use of crypto currencies in my country. If the government really wants to reduce the use of cryptos, than increasing taxation would be one option. Like this the government will actually profit of the use of cryptos and still gives it's citizens the option to choose which type of currency they want to use.

So far there has been no case where someone possessing bitcoin was arrested for violating government regulations against it. I'm not sure there's a country that 100% prohibits its citizens from owning bitcoin other than China, but I don't think China can even ban fully decentralized P2P commerce.

As far as I know, there are not very strict regulations regarding bitcoin users yet, but if there are then surely they are committing other violations such as money laundering or other illegal acts. In the end it is true, regulating and centralizing bitcoin users is still better than banning bitcoin 100%. However, the government has its own will to regulate and make rules.

[Ahli38]

It possible to control bitcoin if the government kill all the citizens in the country and if not it is impossible for the government to control bitcoin because bitcoin is out of government control and if banks are not allowed to receive bitcoin, bitcoin can still be traded by peer to peer which the government will not even know when the transaction would take place. The only way bitcoin can be controlled is when the authorities have an access to the individual wallet like Fiat banks if not it is not possible.

yeah like that.
And actually if there is any government Efforts that are hostile to Bitcoin and make things difficult for all bitcoin users. I think the government is just a waste of time. Because they have to realize that they cannot control Bitcoin. Because everyone naturally has the instinct of a sense of freedom. Everyone doesn't want to be restrained. and included in the problem of the financial system. that's what makes bitcoin and crypto users always strong.
because the presence of Bitcoin has in fact become an option for those of us who like freedom and don't want to always be controlled by a centralized system.

Maybe for developed countries that are currently controlling world finances that are centralized, they must be disturbed by the presence of Bitcoin. So it's not surprising that they are trying to make FUD about bitcoin. But for developing countries and countries that are experiencing a financial crisis that continues to decline due to inflation, in fact Bitcoin has become a solution. Like the Central African Republic. And for countries that don't have their own currency like El Salvador, bitcoin has become a good choice to serve as a payment option in that country.

So instead of strictly prohibiting it, I think the government is better off making policies to supervise and provide security for its citizens, such as making tax policies. so that governments and their citizens who use bitcoin can both benefit from it.
and that's what I would do if I became a government.

And now more and more Governments in a country are doing this.

as the latest is the passage of the crypto bill in Brazil. and it looks like this bill will be submitted to President Jair Bolsonaro for approval before his term ends on December 31.

And if the bill is passed. then the impact I think will be bigger than El salvador. because Brazil is a country that is pretty much eyed by many countries. so it is possible that more countries will follow Brazil in terms of the policy on the crypto bill.
namely the bill, which aims to provide oversight of the cryptocurrency sector in the country.
see more at Sourch : Brazil’s Congress Passes Bill Legalizing Bitcoin, Ether Payments

[DanWalker]

- 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.

That sounds pretty harsh and I wonder if this could be accepted in a fully democratic country. In western nations cannabis is getting legalised, so people getting caught with larger amounts are not facing any prison time anymore. Which would be crazy if then people who own BTC are getting arrested instead. Owning BTC alone should not be a punishable offence, only if the BTC are being used for illegal activities. In my opinion banning crypto currencies outright is never a good solution and will only move BTC transaction out of the government reach. A ban one something never works 100%, there will be loopholes. If I were in charge than I would use taxation as my main tool to control the use of crypto currencies in my country. If the government really wants to reduce the use of cryptos, than increasing taxation would be one option. Like this the government will actually profit of the use of cryptos and still gives it's citizens the option to choose which type of currency they want to use. 

No country can be called a full democracy, if it is called a full democracy, there will be no laws and regulations. Cannabis is banned because it's addictive and creates social ills, but if it were legal, the government wouldn't be affected too much. But if this is the case with bitcoin, bitcoin is not addictive but will seriously affect the power of the government, so they can still take drastic measures to crack down on bitcoin.

I still believe the government can ban bitcoin altogether, but if they do, it won't be in their favor either. Instead of banning, they can regulate and control us through regulations and taxes, precisely what they want more than ever.

[KaliLinux]

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.

Even if you make bitcoin illegal, it does not guarantee that people will stop from buying or using it. Although some may develop fear, but I think that’s only for those who are beginners in bitcoin, those who have been hodling or using bitcoin for long term will not be threaten anymore. Unless if you have control on the internet connection and shut it down like months, bitcoin will never exist anymore. But it will also affect the traditional money as well.

I don't think that Government around the world can simultaneously agree to ban or make Bitcoin illegal worldwide because people have different mentalities towards everything however if for any wired reason they could come together to agree on this and makes Bitcoin illegal then, the use and of Bitcoin might greatly be affected. How many people do you really think will continue to hodl BTC and how many miners will continue?
We all saw what happened with miners in China after the ban and the BTCitcoin network, imagine that replicated around the world. 

[thecodebear]

I would say the most effective way would be:

- to make it cumbersome to use due to every transaction being taxed no matter how small it is so that people dont want to transact with it

- promote the idea that bitcoin is bad, risky, scammy, and that mining us bad and wasteful

- keep crypto space fairly unregulated but with some rules applied but not clearly explained to users/companies and with no clear way to find out what the rules are, but make companies comply and sue them after the fact even though no rules were publicly given

- promote PoS altcoins over Bitcoin to hurt Bitcoin, knowing no altcoins will ever be able to compete with it so there is no alternative

- keep KYC rules heavy for centralized exchanges so some of the benefit of Bitcoin is lost and lots of tracking is done on people's money movements


The US, for example, already does all this and I think it works pretty well to try to keep usage low, participation low, and negative sentiment around Bitcoin.

The other option is to try to forcefully get rid of Bitcoin but that is much harder to do in free democratic nations and it would never totally work anyway as we see in China.

[yazher]

This will only happen for sure in a dictatorial country where everything should be followed whatever the Leader of the country wishes without getting any second opinions from its people. It won't gonna happened because once they implement such kind of thing in a Democracy country, then it will become no less than a Dictatorial leadership. The government has its own limitations and people always come up with their own innovations when they want to own bitcoins. They cannot just add a law that is harsh to their people's freedom.

[Alpha Marine]

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.

In a democratic country I don't think people can be sent to jail just because the use bitcoin. World leaders always try to shut down what they cant control but that doesn't mean the can just lock people us for not committing a crime.
Even at that, the only way a country can stop its citizens from using bitcoin is by shutting down the internet entirely because as long as the internet exists people will always make use of bitcoin. There are countries where owning bitcoin is not allowed but I'm sure there are citizens of the country, living in that country that own bitcoin.

[Rigon]

It is basically impossible for the government of any country to control it alone, if the government bans Bitcoin and at the same time if the central bank fuses all types of transactions, then the use of Bitcoin can be controlled to some extent.  But you can't control the handset percentage from the population.  For example, in India, Parliament banning Bitcoin could not completely ban the use of Bitcoin among the people.  Trading and use of Bitcoin is strictly prohibited in Bangladesh, but people are constantly using Bitcoin to evade the eyes of the government.  So in the end I want to say one thing if the parliament has strict laws and if the central bank bans it completely and if the legal system in the country is strict then only some control is possible.

[inthelongrun]

Seriously, if I were the president of my country, I will never turn against bitcoin, especially at this moment when it is already becoming widely accepted and is worth hundreds of billions in market capitalization. Why will I deny an invention that can enhance my country and citizens? The best thing I can do is to regulate it to avoid fraudsters exploiting people that have zero to limited knowledge about bitcoin. I will make sure that bitcoin and blockchain be studied thoroughly and let it be known by becoming a part of the subjects and courses in schools.

In my country, bank accounts are insured to around $10k in maximum. I will also implement this as one of the requirements for exchanges wanting to cater to the local market.

[bakasabo]

I think the only way to fight against Bitcoin is simply to turn off the internet in the whole country. Nowadays, this is close to impossible. North Korea is probably close to achieving it with their strict rules and laws, but even they fail.

I dont know if it is technically possible, but with internet ban, I would fly abroad, download core, and at my own country make hdd/sdd drives exchanges, as a way of transaction/trade/exchange. Which makes it impossible to fight or ban Bitcoin.

[Valeriary]

Bitcoin was banned because people called it a "Ponzi scheme". The reason why they choose Bitcoin is because the address is difficult to check, which can help them escape well. But scams are not limited to cryptocurrencies, there are many scams in other industries as well.
If governments want to fight Bitcoin they first have to regulate people's cell phones and not allow fiat currencies to be exchanged for cryptocurrencies. But this approach will certainly cause dissatisfaction among the masses.

[hZti]

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.

Nice try Mr Government 

Jokes aside, you can just ban every trading from fiat to crypto and will make 90% of people loose interest in short term.

[TalkativeCoin]

Hm, this is interesting, actually, reverse engineering and predicting the potential problems in wide adoption.

I think we pretty much saw everything, more drastic measures are probably behind us, but one thing that comes to mind is spreading misinformation and "uneducating" people.