What happen if Bitcoin shutdown?

[mv1986]

I don’t think they would have shut it down if they had the power, I’m talking of the government(s) to have done it before now. It is only now that everyone is paying attention to it that some government are also paying attention. I rather think that when Bitcoin was created, it would have been easier to shut it down; maybe the country Satoshi was in could have termed it illegal to put fear in people’s mind. But currently, Bitcoin has become a tree that has its root deep into the soil. It has anchored to different things and people so even if you tried to cut it one root, it still lives.

No, you can sue and punish people for using it if you can prove the case as a law enforcement agency, but the government can't shut it down in the sense that they can literally pull the plug. There are countless of copies of the Bitcoin blockchain and even in the early days the government would have been forced to find every single copy out there, every single download of the blockchain and then delete it. This is what makes Bitcoin so resilient. The most promising way to shut down the network would be to successfully attack the network, hacking private keys and letting the public know that there will be a file dropped in a few minutes where everyone gets access to everyone's keys. That would lead to the price dropping like a rock if it were proven to be true.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

I don’t think they would have shut it down if they had the power, I’m talking of the government(s) to have done it before now. It is only now that everyone is paying attention to it that some government are also paying attention. I rather think that when Bitcoin was created, it would have been easier to shut it down; maybe the country Satoshi was in could have termed it illegal to put fear in people’s mind. But currently, Bitcoin has become a tree that has its root deep into the soil. It has anchored to different things and people so even if you tried to cut it one root, it still lives.

No, you can sue and punish people for using it if you can prove the case as a law enforcement agency, but the government can't shut it down in the sense that they can literally pull the plug. There are countless of copies of the Bitcoin blockchain and even in the early days the government would have been forced to find every single copy out there, every single download of the blockchain and then delete it. This is what makes Bitcoin so resilient. The most promising way to shut down the network would be to successfully attack the network, hacking private keys and letting the public know that there will be a file dropped in a few minutes where everyone gets access to everyone's keys. That would lead to the price dropping like a rock if it were proven to be true.

Folks keep using the phrase, "the government". Um, there are 195 countries on this planet ergo 195 governments.
Does anyone seriously think every single one of them would ever work together to remove every single node and piece of mining HW on the planet? Not in this life bub...

[mv1986]

I don’t think they would have shut it down if they had the power, I’m talking of the government(s) to have done it before now. It is only now that everyone is paying attention to it that some government are also paying attention. I rather think that when Bitcoin was created, it would have been easier to shut it down; maybe the country Satoshi was in could have termed it illegal to put fear in people’s mind. But currently, Bitcoin has become a tree that has its root deep into the soil. It has anchored to different things and people so even if you tried to cut it one root, it still lives.

No, you can sue and punish people for using it if you can prove the case as a law enforcement agency, but the government can't shut it down in the sense that they can literally pull the plug. There are countless of copies of the Bitcoin blockchain and even in the early days the government would have been forced to find every single copy out there, every single download of the blockchain and then delete it. This is what makes Bitcoin so resilient. The most promising way to shut down the network would be to successfully attack the network, hacking private keys and letting the public know that there will be a file dropped in a few minutes where everyone gets access to everyone's keys. That would lead to the price dropping like a rock if it were proven to be true.

Folks keep using the phrase, "the government". Um, there are 195 countries on this planet ergo 195 governments.
Does anyone seriously think every single one of them would ever work together to remove every single node and piece of mining HW on the planet? Not in this life bub...

I 100% agree with you on that one and in fact I have posted about this I think in the past. There has never been harmonization possible on a global scale when it is about politics, law, economics, trade or whatever you can come up with. I was more referring to this idea that "Bitcoin can be shut down" as if it was possible to pull the plug. No, it is not possible, but that is mainly because there will always be a copy of the blockchain, a node that can't be shut down, etc.

I really think that the only effective action to take Bitcoin down would be to successfully attack it on a massive scale. And of course innovation, maybe one day there is a solution that convinces investors to shift their wealth from the Bitcoin network to whatever that newly emerged, trusted thing could be.

[oktana]

I don’t think they would have shut it down if they had the power, I’m talking of the government(s) to have done it before now. It is only now that everyone is paying attention to it that some government are also paying attention. I rather think that when Bitcoin was created, it would have been easier to shut it down; maybe the country Satoshi was in could have termed it illegal to put fear in people’s mind. But currently, Bitcoin has become a tree that has its root deep into the soil. It has anchored to different things and people so even if you tried to cut it one root, it still lives.

No, you can sue and punish people for using it if you can prove the case as a law enforcement agency, but the government can't shut it down in the sense that they can literally pull the plug. There are countless of copies of the Bitcoin blockchain and even in the early days the government would have been forced to find every single copy out there, every single download of the blockchain and then delete it. This is what makes Bitcoin so resilient. The most promising way to shut down the network would be to successfully attack the network, hacking private keys and letting the public know that there will be a file dropped in a few minutes where everyone gets access to everyone's keys. That would lead to the price dropping like a rock if it were proven to be true.

Well, attacking the network will be attacking the countries that have adopted it. You know very well that the country you’re working with made Bitcoin legal because they see a potential, attacking it means you want to turn enemy to that country because you’re intentionally destroying something they like. So, no country would do that. Also, think of the bad reputation a country will get for even attempting that. The other countries will likely stare in disgust, maybe not all but most of them.

About everyone’s keys, you have to be realistic though; that’s not even possible. If it were, we wouldn’t have this much investors/investment in Bitcoin because why hoard something that isn’t safe. If what you said were possible, price drop is an understatement of what will happen.

[CryptSafe]

Bitcoin has long been in existence till this very moment and if it were to have crashed or be wiped out, that should have been long ago upon its inception but it has come a long way to face that and as such would be very difficult to be scrapped because it is not a one man show but rather community driven  and as such would not bend to any pressure of being scrapped.

On the other hand, it is a known fact that Bitcoin is the head of the Crypto market and there is no doubt about it that what ever happens to Bitcoin, it affects the Crypto market and community as a whole because there would be panic but notwithstanding, the Crypto market is now very much strong as there are players in the system which would not allow it to fade away of anything should happen to Bitcoin. The Crypto market is now a financial giant on its own with lots of other crypto's running as an entity on their own coupled with the fact that there are stakeholders who would not allow it die as a result of the financial gains they derive from it including the government that always wants to control and regulate everything under their nose.
So therefore, the idea of Bitcoin shutting down is near impossible.

I agree, it's unlikely that bitcoin will shut down or collapse, I'm pretty sure of that. But I don't think bitcoin and cryptocurrency is a huge financial market. If you look at the market capitalization, it's just over a trillion dollars. That means it's less than the US military's spending budget in a year and smaller than the capitalization of technology companies. How can it be said that it is a giant financial market that cannot collapse? Bitcoin cannot be shut down because it is decentralized and because no one can take down all the bitcoin nodes in the world. Not because it has become huge, bitcoin is still very small compared to other financial markets.

Of a truth the Crypto market capitalisation is less than the US military budget and some other giant business Capitalisation but I believe that the Crypto market capitalisation is very much bigger than some country's budget and as such it is no to a small ones to say as there is a huge lot of money in the system. Bitcoin I know can never be shutdown as the community controls it. With time, I know it would grow bigger and stronger than it is now when the adoption rate is blown into full scale.

[tjtonmoy]

You stated it here, and they should get it. It is obvious that Bitcoin is not centralized like other currencies that may be readily controlled by any government. In short, no government has the power to truly regulate it.

Perhaps it's simply that other governments still believe they can overthrow or control Bitcoin. If the most powerful country on the planet cannot control it, we can clearly see that Bitcoin is unlike anything we've ever seen.

It's not like they can't control it, they actually can but it will take a lot of work. As I said, the whole network is scattered through all around the world, if they can make a deal with every country in the world to shut down the internet or the server, they can stop it or control it to some extent. Too much work, they won't choose that. That's why they are choosing a different route and targeting Bitcoin.

Hi y'all! Thank you for all of your thoughts. I still have 1 question but this is a new topic, might create a thread tomorrow for that. I don't know if I am the only one who have questions like that. What if Bitcoin disappear in just one snap and so on. I still hope Bitcoin and Altcoin last, all of us here have a very big part in all of the coins around the market. I still have a lot of what if, and thread is still open for more thoughts.

Honestly speaking, you don't need a different thread for that. Bitcoin shutdown or Bitcoin disappearing is the same shit. If you don't have access to it, then it's useless and if it's gone, the same thing. I think the question has already been answered here.

[Tony116]

You stated it here, and they should get it. It is obvious that Bitcoin is not centralized like other currencies that may be readily controlled by any government. In short, no government has the power to truly regulate it.

Perhaps it's simply that other governments still believe they can overthrow or control Bitcoin. If the most powerful country on the planet cannot control it, we can clearly see that Bitcoin is unlike anything we've ever seen.

It's not like they can't control it, they actually can but it will take a lot of work. As I said, the whole network is scattered through all around the world, if they can make a deal with every country in the world to shut down the internet or the server, they can stop it or control it to some extent. Too much work, they won't choose that. That's why they are choosing a different route and targeting Bitcoin.

I can be sure that they cannot control the bitcoin network. Ideas such as turning off the power supply or turning off the global internet, or all governments in the world joining hands to eliminate bitcoin... all of those ideas are just in our imagination and will not happen can ever be done. You just have to look at what's going on in the world and you'll understand why I'm sure that will never happen. For example, America and Russia, do you think Russia will listen to America or vice versa? Each country has its own interests, they will have no reason to obey or listen to anyone. Even the idea of all governments coming together to fight terrorism hasn't even come to fruition, how can they join forces just to fight bitcoin? It sounds easy to say, but honestly, doing it is impossible.

[wallet4bitcoin]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

If Bitcoin shuts down then it will have devastating implication on loads of industries and technoogical solutions. The Bitcoin as a currency, if it shuts down, the impact will be damaging as loads of people have now built their lives and businesses around the technology and leveraging it to offer solutions.

Corss border solutions were much of a challenge before Bitcoin's inception, have you considered the implications of Bitcoin shutting down, it resurfaces again. Note that the government and financial institutions are yet to offer solutions to the cross border challenges associated with finance. Little wonder why Satoshi never came to disclose his identity, he/they knew it will be devastating if he/they did

[Marvell1]

Bitcoin has long been in existence till this very moment and if it were to have crashed or be wiped out, that should have been long ago upon its inception but it has come a long way to face that and as such would be very difficult to be scrapped because it is not a one man show but rather community driven  and as such would not bend to any pressure of being scrapped.

On the other hand, it is a known fact that Bitcoin is the head of the Crypto market and there is no doubt about it that what ever happens to Bitcoin, it affects the Crypto market and community as a whole because there would be panic but notwithstanding, the Crypto market is now very much strong as there are players in the system which would not allow it to fade away of anything should happen to Bitcoin. The Crypto market is now a financial giant on its own with lots of other crypto's running as an entity on their own coupled with the fact that there are stakeholders who would not allow it die as a result of the financial gains they derive from it including the government that always wants to control and regulate everything under their nose.
So therefore, the idea of Bitcoin shutting down is near impossible.

I agree, it's unlikely that bitcoin will shut down or collapse, I'm pretty sure of that. But I don't think bitcoin and cryptocurrency is a huge financial market. If you look at the market capitalization, it's just over a trillion dollars. That means it's less than the US military's spending budget in a year and smaller than the capitalization of technology companies. How can it be said that it is a giant financial market that cannot collapse? Bitcoin cannot be shut down because it is decentralized and because no one can take down all the bitcoin nodes in the world. Not because it has become huge, bitcoin is still very small compared to other financial markets.

Of a truth the Crypto market capitalisation is less than the US military budget and some other giant business Capitalisation but I believe that the Crypto market capitalisation is very much bigger than some country's budget and as such it is no to a small ones to say as there is a huge lot of money in the system. Bitcoin I know can never be shutdown as the community controls it. With time, I know it would grow bigger and stronger than it is now when the adoption rate is blown into full scale.

If you do a small comparison between financial markets like stocks and gold with bitcoin. You will see bitcoin is very small when gold market capitalization is more than 10 trillion USD, stock market capitalization is more than 70 trillion USD. Bitcoin and crypto are just a baby compared to other markets, so I wouldn't consider it mature enough to not crash.

But just because they are small doesn't mean it's a disadvantage, it can be a huge benefit. Have you ever thought about the scenario if bitcoin's capitalization is equal to gold's capitalization, how much will bitcoin be worth? The value of bitcoin will be so great that we cannot imagine. I believe that in the future bitcoin will surpass gold in terms of capitalization.

[fuguebtc]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

If Bitcoin shuts down then it will have devastating implication on loads of industries and technoogical solutions. The Bitcoin as a currency, if it shuts down, the impact will be damaging as loads of people have now built their lives and businesses around the technology and leveraging it to offer solutions.

Corss border solutions were much of a challenge before Bitcoin's inception, have you considered the implications of Bitcoin shutting down, it resurfaces again. Note that the government and financial institutions are yet to offer solutions to the cross border challenges associated with finance. Little wonder why Satoshi never came to disclose his identity, he/they knew it will be devastating if he/they did

Which industries will be affected if bitcoin stops working? Can you name some industries that rely on or use bitcoin? Bitcoin has only existed for 14 years and before there was no bitcoin, people could still live and survive. Who will die if bitcoin stops working? Your life depends entirely on bitcoin and you don't have any other job?

Bitcoin has potential but we don't need to exaggerate it like that. Bitcoin is just a digital currency, an investment, and many people don't know about it but are still living a very good life. I never expect bitcoin to crash because it has made my life so much better, but if it does, I will find another way to improve my economy, I will not tie up my life mine with bitcoin.

[MFahad]

Previously people were talk about bitcoin that government will shutdown bitcoin because in most of the countries bitcoin is not allowed for transaction and investment but now everyone gets familiar with the fact that bitcoin is one of the best investment tool that can never be shutdown by government.

As we are taking about altcoins so they will totally vanish if bitcoin unfortunately loss its value. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency coin that increases in worth all the time therefore we cannot that it will ever vanish. But if we think about reality then cryptocurrency is not guaranteed and we can see each and everything ranging from boosting price to vanishing nature therefore fully conditional on crypto is not suggested.

[Bushdark]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

If Bitcoin shuts down then it will have devastating implication on loads of industries and technoogical solutions. The Bitcoin as a currency, if it shuts down, the impact will be damaging as loads of people have now built their lives and businesses around the technology and leveraging it to offer solutions.

Corss border solutions were much of a challenge before Bitcoin's inception, have you considered the implications of Bitcoin shutting down, it resurfaces again. Note that the government and financial institutions are yet to offer solutions to the cross border challenges associated with finance. Little wonder why Satoshi never came to disclose his identity, he/they knew it will be devastating if he/they did

It is possible for Bitcoin to shutdown? This will be a big delema and it could lead to big problems. We should never thought of it of Bitcoin shutting down. Even though we hear the news that Bitcoin was shutdown, it would never take longer because the network is very big and it would affect all crypto market. Since Bitcoin had been in existence for a longer time and nothing had happened to it, that does not mean that the network is safe, all we needed to do is to invest what we know we can afford to lose in the market.

[mv1986]

I don’t think they would have shut it down if they had the power, I’m talking of the government(s) to have done it before now. It is only now that everyone is paying attention to it that some government are also paying attention. I rather think that when Bitcoin was created, it would have been easier to shut it down; maybe the country Satoshi was in could have termed it illegal to put fear in people’s mind. But currently, Bitcoin has become a tree that has its root deep into the soil. It has anchored to different things and people so even if you tried to cut it one root, it still lives.

No, you can sue and punish people for using it if you can prove the case as a law enforcement agency, but the government can't shut it down in the sense that they can literally pull the plug. There are countless of copies of the Bitcoin blockchain and even in the early days the government would have been forced to find every single copy out there, every single download of the blockchain and then delete it. This is what makes Bitcoin so resilient. The most promising way to shut down the network would be to successfully attack the network, hacking private keys and letting the public know that there will be a file dropped in a few minutes where everyone gets access to everyone's keys. That would lead to the price dropping like a rock if it were proven to be true.

Well, attacking the network will be attacking the countries that have adopted it. You know very well that the country you’re working with made Bitcoin legal because they see a potential, attacking it means you want to turn enemy to that country because you’re intentionally destroying something they like. So, no country would do that. Also, think of the bad reputation a country will get for even attempting that. The other countries will likely stare in disgust, maybe not all but most of them.

About everyone’s keys, you have to be realistic though; that’s not even possible. If it were, we wouldn’t have this much investors/investment in Bitcoin because why hoard something that isn’t safe. If what you said were possible, price drop is an understatement of what will happen.

Do you have an idea how much cyberwar is going on? Do you have an idea what North Korea would do if it wasn't for other countries to protect their IT infrastructure? There is one incentive to not do it and that is when a country holds a lot of Bitcoin themselves. Or when a country is an interest in not getting Bitcoin destroyed because it helps them circumventing sanctions. This is what makes Bitcoin more resilient over time because whether different parties or even enemies like it or not, they might have an aligned interest in Bitcoin to not die, or to even increase in value. But if an attack was possible for someone, sure there is potential it would be executed. As if every country wants to be friends with everyone.

[Franctoshi]

If the father of all crypto, which most people know other currency through, is to shutdown today, can't you just predict what will be of those Altcoins? Definitely, if not all, at least mehr als 80 % of them are going to be valueless and worth nothing in the market. 

To me no crypto will even exist when Bitcoin gets shut down, there is no other cryptocurrency that has stand the test of time aside Bitcoin, Bitcoin is the head in the industry and the coin that  most people belived and trust in the space because it transparency and when the head is cut off from the body, the body dies ,So that is gonna be a catastrophic event in the crypto space if at all such a scenario occurs, but I doubt with the level of adoption and advancement of Bitcoin the chances for it to happen is very tiny.

[James C. Jackson]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

I think the government can never shut down Bitcoin. Because the government has no control over Bitcoin.

[2Pizza410000BTC]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

No one can say with certainty that Bitcoin will last a lifetime or even that it will last a lifetime. However, if for some reason Bitcoin shuts down, it will have a major impact on the global economy. All the major corporations in the world that rely on Bitcoin will be on the brink of bankruptcy. And for those who depend on Bitcoin for their livelihood, the post-shutdown situation will be dire.

[TimeTeller]

Previously people were talk about bitcoin that government will shutdown bitcoin because in most of the countries bitcoin is not allowed for transaction and investment but now everyone gets familiar with the fact that bitcoin is one of the best investment tool that can never be shutdown by government.

As we are taking about altcoins so they will totally vanish if bitcoin unfortunately loss its value. Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency coin that increases in worth all the time therefore we cannot that it will ever vanish. But if we think about reality then cryptocurrency is not guaranteed and we can see each and everything ranging from boosting price to vanishing nature therefore fully conditional on crypto is not suggested.

No government can shutdown its operations because it is decentralized, meaning no entity has full control about its existence.
This is why most governments don't like its market because they can't get a hold of its actual transactions happening.
And if in the future, the btc market becomes obsolete, and so most of the alts. We don't know if there will be another currency that will replace this technology.
But for now, it seems the life of btc is still long as the adoption is continuously increasing especially these days that we are seeing it to hit the $40k level.

[Luzin]

But for now, it seems the life of btc is still long as the adoption is continuously increasing especially these days that we are seeing it to hit the $40k level.

I'm just excited to hear a lot of adoption from big companies. So I don't think for the near term. Right now all I know is that China is banning and many citizens are going abroad to keep access. Overall, Bitcoin cannot be controlled, so no one can shut down, only ban. Globally it may be very difficult to ban. Because some countries have legalized crypto as a commodity asset. They have also collected taxes from traders and investors.

[Abiky]

I am just wondering, what will happen if Bitcoin shutdown? Will the market crash? How about the effect of this to altcoins? Can government shutdown Bitcoin? I have a lot of question about this matter, because who knows, right? Also, how about hackers shutdown Bitcoin? What are your thought here? Let's discuss this.

You have stated the obvious. Without Bitcoin, altcoins will die. After all, BTC is the one cryptocurrency that started it all. While a shutdown is unlikely to happen anytime soon, we cannot let our guard down. For Bitcoin to survive, it needs to remain as decentralized and censorship-resistant as possible. It's the collective effort of the community (miners, users, node operators, etc) that helped Bitcoin become the cryptocurrency it is right now.

If governments really wanted to shut it down, they would've done so within the early days of the project. Now it's too late to do anything about it. A good thing because this allows people to achieve true financial freedom and self-sovereignity. Who knows if BTC is still alive by the time CBDCs take over the world by storm?

[CryptSafe]

If you do a small comparison between financial markets like stocks and gold with bitcoin. You will see bitcoin is very small when gold market capitalization is more than 10 trillion USD, stock market capitalization is more than 70 trillion USD. Bitcoin and crypto are just a baby compared to other markets, so I wouldn't consider it mature enough to not crash.

But just because they are small doesn't mean it's a disadvantage, it can be a huge benefit. Have you ever thought about the scenario if bitcoin's capitalization is equal to gold's capitalization, how much will bitcoin be worth? The value of bitcoin will be so great that we cannot imagine. I believe that in the future bitcoin will surpass gold in terms of capitalization.

Comparing Bitcoin and Crypto capitalisation to gold and stock market is just like comparing an adult and a child together. An adult is matured enough to withstand whatever pressure because it has built its capacity over the years while growing up and a child is still growing up and in the course of growth, there are possible storms to encounter and conquer before becoming an adult. This is the situation of the Crypto market capitalisation.
The gold and stock market has been there for years and running while the Crypto market is just a decade plus old and as such have made a significant contribution to the world market capitalisation just at its young age.

Although the Crypto and Bitcoin market is still young but it has tasted the test of time and should be able to wax stronger than it was when it first emerged looking at the potentials it has to benefit the populace who believes in the evolution.