What If There Is A Ban

[Jason Brendon]

We all agree we're living in a crazy world and what's far worse is that it is managed by a bunch of clowns..
So, let's think wildly, one day US were to further increase the censorship just like some of the other countries in the world, they ban bitcoin, they ban VPN, they pass legislation for those who mine/trade/spend btc will be sent to jail.
(Let's not say it's not going to happen. It can! You never know just like you would never have known that there's a war in 2022.)

Other countries start to follow.

Where will you be and what kind of life will it be and how is it going to impact yours?

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[Hamza2424]

Does it matter dear fellow, Bitcoin is already rejecting all the negative developments. If there's a ban still there's a chance of a small short-term panic, that's it.

My dear fellow, now it's not the time when BTC is going to notice Bans and Regulations for example back 2 years ago 3rd largest country China Banned Bitcoin trading and crypto-related stuff then Bitcoin recovered and not only recovered but also made an ATH. How many times has China banned Bitcoin I can't even count now but as you know BTC is still standing good.

Bitcoin & China time to time waving History
check this out

Now China is going to have some experiments with Bitcoin after June check this out so Ban seems impossible but it is.

[thecodebear]

US would never outright do any bans like that. US citizens are way too concerned about freedom to let the government start banning it, though there are plenty of people uneducated on Bitcoin who think we should ban it just because they don't know what they are talking about, and I'm sure there are some people in Congress who think likewise.

But US doesn't ban stuff like that we regulate it. Like look at the SEC now, they are starting to try to impose their negative will on crypto by regulating in in bad ways. This could get bad, and all it will do is hurt US citizens. It might get a lot tougher to for altcoins to find a following in the US if every altcoin has to go through tons of government red tape to be offered in the US. And it looks like the SEC wants to take drastic action against crypto exchanges and try to steal their business and give it to banks by possibly saying that only banks can custody cryptocurrencies for people. This would be bad for the industry cuz if exchanges aren't allowed to custody cryptocurrencies then exchanges aren't allowed to operate because even just to trade or buy or sell crypto the exchange has to hold it for some amount of time. But it would also likely lead to things moving more to decentralized exchanges and moving away from crappy alts and more to Bitcoin as Bitcoin is considered by regulators to be a commodity and not a security like all other cryptos seem to be.

A ban doesn't look like it would ever be likely, but it does look like the SEC is going to try to attack the industry and try to make it much harder for people to get into cryptocurrencies and use cryptocurrencies and make it much harder for crypto businesses in the US to operate. That's a very bad thing and it will hurt but hopefully congress or someone will step up if things get out of control and make some sensible laws. But if such big attacks through regulation on the industry are allowed to happen it won't be good. But much more of the negative effect will be on altcoins and Ethereum than on Bitcoin.

[mk4]

Then bitcoin will move to the deepweb-ish market. Pretty much like selling digital drugs.

Will I be negatively affected? Sure, but I'll be totally fine in the grand scheme of things. This is why no one should go 100% invested in bitcoin or in any asset at all, because of potential unforeseen circumstances.

[OcTradism]

So, let's think wildly, one day US were to further increase the censorship just like some of the other countries in the world, they ban bitcoin, they ban VPN, they pass legislation for those who mine/trade/spend btc will be sent to jail.

Let's say governments won't ban everything especially in non communism countries and countries that have freedom, democracy and no dictator. Governments will get a lot of debates in their nations, even inside their Congress their will be supporters for Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. Don't worry.

Other countries start to follow.

Not all nations will follow big countries like the USA. Small nations like El Salvador have their own social, politics and economics conditions. They have to choose their best ways to cool down their national debts, economic crisis and they will be first nations that make big changes globally. They don't have big power like big nations but they are countries that will initiate new trends.

[Despairo]

Not all nations will follow big countries like the USA. Small nations like El Salvador have their own social, politics and economics conditions. They have to choose their best ways to cool down their national debts, economic crisis and they will be first nations that make big changes globally. They don't have big power like big nations but they are countries that will initiate new trends.

It's true not all nations will follow USA, but you're wrong if you think El Salvador wouldn't follow USA because they have a good politic relationship [1] El Salvador use USD as their main currency, it's a proof if USA will have strong affect to them.

There are 4 big countries in this world, America and Europa, China, Russia and Middle East countries (e.g. Palestine, Pakistan etc). If USA will ban Bitcoin, China was ban Bitcoin from long time ago, while Middle East countries mostly ban Bitcoin usage, so your last choice is Russia. The volume will be hardly decrease since people will panic selling.

Now China is going to have some experiments with Bitcoin after June check this out so Ban seems impossible but it is.

Don't mix between Hong Kong and China because they're a different country! China aka Republic Of China is still ban Bitcoin and only want to create their own CBDC, while Hong Kong was already legal if you want to sell, trade or hold Bitcoin [2].

[1] https://sv.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/policy-history/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cryptocurrency_by_country_or_territory#Hong_Kong

[Blisszi]

We all agree we're living in a crazy world and what's far worse is that it is managed by a bunch of clowns..
So, let's think wildly, one day US were to further increase the censorship just like some of the other countries in the world, they ban bitcoin, they ban VPN, they pass legislation for those who mine/trade/spend btc will be sent to jail.
(Let's not say it's not going to happen. It can! You never know just like you would never have known that there's a war in 2022.)

Other countries start to follow.

Where will you be and what kind of life will it be and how is it going to impact yours?

Government of countries has right to ban anything that they feels is going to be a threat to its citizens. US ban bitcoin actually because they hate bitcoin remember Donald Trump promised to make bitcoin legal and invest $500M to boost the standard of bitcoin in the whole shore of American if he won the second tenure but unfortunately he failed and Joel Biden won and begins to amends regulations and constitutions.

Joel Biden do not see value in crypto currency, and the punch on bitcoin has a deep infects on bitcoin but I believed the citizens has their private lives which some of them are still into cryptosystem on private ground. So is normal thing for any country to ban bitcoin but bitcoin will still survive.

Like the war between Russian and Ukraine probably was not expected to happen but the war came, so the whole of life and death is uncertainty, ban of bitcoin can occur anywhere and even you should take it also that some days that there will be no longer bitcoin existing because everything has its expirations period of time.

[franky1]

all that will happen is:

crypto businesses spend a little bit of money to register their brand in some tax haven country that is not banning crypto (this posts demo: caymen island for instance)
where they use "virtual office(pobox) address for their head quarter of the business. but work remotely elsewhere(around the world)

thus continue to operate but where 99% of businesses are "registered" under free jurisdiction of caymen islands
mining farms will have more of a task of trying to find a area to warehouse their asics with a power company thats not forced to ban asic customers. where by this can centralise mining farms to only jurisdiction free zones. (small islands or countries that dont agree with the world economics of US control)
causing a cut in hashrate due to lack of power capacity for those small jurisdiction free zones

this power hashrate will cause difficulty adjustment changes and competition changes for block rewards that can affect the bottomline cost/value of mining thus profit cost per coin bottomline to change
merchants selling produce can have their website hosted in jurisdiction free zone to take payment in bitcoin still. while having real world goods distribution centres in any country.
(EG facebooks financial arm is in ireland to avoid US and mainland EU taxes(it takes money in via ireland but still offers services to america avoiding paying american taxes or obiding by americal financial laws))

EG selling denim jeans for bitcoin. is where the website is for instance managed in caymen islands. but the jeans themselves are delivered from amazon fulfilment centres in america. where the caymen island bitcoin receiver sends fiat to american fulfilment centre to handle delivery
thus in short people can still buy denim jeans for bitcoin in america
exchanges doing spot trading would HQ in jurisdiction free regions
where by yes they would not get much customer base due to the US jurisdiction on licencing of money service businesses. which if US banned licencing means a exchange cant then service us customers(or majority of countries should majority of countries ban bitcoin exchanging)

however people can just convert US dollar to [this demo] caymen island dollar. and then use the exchange to swap caymen island dollar for crypto

[GreatArkansas]

(....)
Will I be negatively affected? Sure, but I'll be totally fine in the grand scheme of things. This is why no one should go 100% invested in bitcoin or in any asset at all, because of potential unforeseen circumstances.

I am also sure that the price of Bitcoin here will get a negative effect. But nevermind the price. I am imagining how they can track people using Bitcoin if they start imposing a law that using Bitcoin is illegal, lol.

About other countries will follow, I agree with this. United States of America is a country which became roles model for some countries, US is became a big player for the Bitcoin market.

[n0ne]

No one wants to have negative effects over bitcoin. If such a scenario exists surely bitcoin will be affected badly. When the usage is restricted surely it won't have the market as now. As users mentioned it can be used same as the dark web things. Such an usage will restrict majority of the common people who have a negative thought over dark web.

Lets be sure, such scenario won't happen, because with time countries that had banned bitcoin in the past have begun to legalize its usage. Some countries have started to organise teams that study and submit to the government whether it is necessary or not.

[Nrcewker]

Where will you be and what kind of life will it be and how is it going to impact yours?

Bitcoins are famous for it’s decentralised nature. That is, it cannot be controlled by any government or ruling body or entity. If the US or any nation just ban the Bitcoins, then also people can trade it(buy or sell) and no one can ever find out, until and unless some deep investigation is done. If BTCs are banned, then all the trading platforms will be banned, but you can buy sell Bitcoins at P2P Platforms and hence you can continue use the Bitcoins without the second person knowing about it. Though this will be illegal, but it has to be done, in order to enjoy the freedom of the finances.

[pooya87]

Other countries start to follow.

This is the key part that needs to be discussed. How many other countries would follow such a move.

You should keep in mind that the world is divided into many different fractions that don't follow each other. For example a country like El Salvador that has adopted bitcoin as a legal tender is never going to follow that or Japan that has adopted bitcoin as a legal currency.

We see that regularly too. For example US sanctioned Russia and is currently at war with Russia but a large part of the rest of the world is not following US sanctions, even some European countries are not fully complying with US.
Even in US itself which is more like a Frankenstein Monster than a country, different states don't agree on all the laws and regulations since they are more like their own individual countries!

The thing about bitcoin is that it is decentralized and the nodes and mining power is already well distributed across the globe. One country banning bitcoin is not going to damage that. Remember when the FUD campaign claimed "China owns 90% of hashrate"? When they banned bitcoin mining the hashrate barely moved (it moved more after the price crashed and it became extremely less profitable to mine bitcoin).
It will be the same if US banned bitcoin. In fact other countries like China may go back on their previous decision so that they can gain a bigger share of the market as billions of dollars would be wanting to exit United States and China would love to absorb all that.

[mindrust]

There isn't much you can do in a scenario like that.* Bitcoin will survive but its adoption will take a huge hit. The network will become so small, It will probably go back to its CPU-mining days. It is because everybody will be afraid to use it.

I told this before. Bitcoin itself is bulletproof and there is nothing that can stop it. However, they can stop its devs, its users, companies etc and the desired effect will be the same as killing bitcoin.

*Actually there is one thing you can do. Arm up and kill whoever is in the way of your freedom. The question is, are you tough enough to fight for your freedom or are you going to be sheep and suck it up?

[NotATether]

For one thing, USA will probably be the last country to introduce censorship, because of the liberal and freedom-seeking nature of its population. Even The Pirate Bay is allowed to run there when all other western ISPs from Europe have blocked it.

I don't see them banning VPNs. Bitcoin mining is a different story - jealous people always rush to be the first to criticize it.

[Kakmakr]

Then people will start using Bitcoin as it was supposed to be...

You will do Person to Person trading and you will make 100% anonymous transactions that cannot be tracked by any government. You will also still be paid for online work in bitcoins and then you take a tax free holiday to a country that accepted Bitcoin as legal tender.

Who do you think will benefit the most, if Bitcoin are banned... the government or the people that are living tax free?

[pooya87]

Even The Pirate Bay is allowed to run there when all other western ISPs from Europe have blocked it.

That is called inability not allowing!
They know very well that they can not prevent access to a website like piratebay with the existence of VPNs, Tor and even mirror sites. So instead they let it run and target the users who download pirated stuff through their ISPs while heavily censoring the site and all related links on the internet like the hundreds of thousands of URL takedowns by Google.

It's the same with bitcoin. They know very well that they cannot prevent bitcoin adoption and if some day they decide to ban it, they will start targeting the users. For example if your ISP realizes you are running a full node or connect to an Electrum server they will send you a letter of warning first and then shut you down if you insist on continuing it. BTW that is similar to what they do to battle piracy which is another P2P thing they cannot shut down.

[Outhue]

China is currently adopting Bitcoin at a high rapid rate, ask why? Because no one can control this asset, it's definitely something that will interest China, I don't know why the USA will want to lack behind by watching China taking this lead, this doesn't and wouldn't stop the work of CBDC in any way, so yeah, VPN banning is impossible, and the worst that could happen to Bitcoin is the U.S slowing down the adoption rate, Bitcoin is unstoppable.

[passwordnow]

Where will you be and what kind of life will it be and how is it going to impact yours?

I just have to bear and deal with it. There's nothing much I can do with it if there's a ban on everything related to bitcoin. But you know what's good with this matter is that they don't have complete control over it. Even if they ban it, it's only going to be available with things that they can see and it's hard for them to monitor transactions and know who are the people behind it. I have my investment in bitcoin and that will have a big impact on me but I'll just have to adjust whatever is going to be the policy where I am living.

[xSkylarx]

There are only two options. Either you follow the law, as most people will do, as no one wants to go to jail, or let's take that it's illegal and continue using it. It is like we treat bitcoin as a drug, and when transacting on it, we are doing transactions that no one can see. Also, I think it will still continue to circulate since some are still using it, and others may also continue to hold it and declare they sold it, but that isn't true as long as no one knows. As well, I will still continue using and earning bitcoin, but I am not now telling others about it.

[BALIK]

There is only one case where bitcoin can be banned, and that is all governments join forces to ban bitcoin, there is no other way. But unfortunately, the world won't work that way, this world is multipolar. The US is the largest and most influential country in the world, but not everyone follows and follows them. If they had enough power, they could have stopped the war between Russia and Ukraine. Even if the US bans bitcoin, there will always be other countries accepting bitcoin, as long as they see the benefits of bitcoin. National interest always comes first.