Maybe it’s better if Bitcoin doesn’t become legal tender

[illanz]

Bitcoin's decentralization persists despite regulations and KYC. Governments can control usage, not Bitcoin itself, and stricter regulations will likely follow.

[ultrloa]

Some people keep saying they want Bitcoin to become a legal tender, like it’s the ultimate goal for adoption. But they don’t really think about the negative side of it.

If Bitcoin becomes legal tender, that means government control, taxes, KYC everywhere, and eventually, less freedom.. the very thing Bitcoin was created to avoid. Once it’s “official,” it stops being decentralized money and starts acting like another regulated digital peso or dollar.

So before we wish for it, maybe we should ask, do we really want Bitcoin to become legal tender, if it means losing the privacy and independence that makes it special in the first place?

Maybe the ultimate goal for wanting that situation to happen is to create a consistent demand for Bitcoin especially if it happens that Bitcoin will became a legal tender there would be more accumulations will happen on Bitcoin.

But we cannot really erase out some facts that there are drawbacks especially that price is so volatile and regulation is always uncertain especially that politicians are not permanent on their set and they might sudden shift of regulations that can affect Bitcoin and those people who hold it on those countries which make it a legal tender.

But let see what happen in future although all of us are just speculating about the possible outcome of this legal tender things.

[Out of mind]

We have seen that El Salvador has recognized Bitcoin as a legal entity, but they cannot control Bitcoin in any way, and may not be able to in the future. We know that Bitcoin will never be controlled by any person or any country, it has a limited supply that cannot be increased even if we want to. We can currently transact Bitcoin without any KYC and through our own anonymity, which is very easy. But if in the future a country controls Bitcoin through such technology, then of course the value of Bitcoin will gradually decrease.
So I think that Bitcoin may never be controlled by anyone, but it will be accepted by more people in the future and its demand will increase, people will only complete transactions with Bitcoin in order to protect their own privacy. And yes, we know that Bitcoin is an independent currency and it protects the privacy of each person, so it cannot be controlled by any country in the future.

[Catenaccio]

We have seen that El Salvador has recognized Bitcoin as a legal entity, but they cannot control Bitcoin in any way, and may not be able to in the future. We know that Bitcoin will never be controlled by any person or any country, it has a limited supply that cannot be increased even if we want to. We can currently transact Bitcoin without any KYC and through our own anonymity, which is very easy. But if in the future a country controls Bitcoin through such technology, then of course the value of Bitcoin will gradually decrease.

The Bitcoin Legal Tender progress in El Salvador has not been smoothly and even their local citizens don't feel happy with Bitcoin legal tender in their nation while they are not ready to accept bitcoins from customer payments and can not hold coins a long time for avoiding price volatility. If they quickly convert bitcoins to fiat currency or stable coin, they have to bear some loss from conversion fee while perhaps customers are not ready to be charged that extra fee.

Then IMF forced El Salvador to stop Bitcoin Legal tender policy in that nation.
What's the status of Bitcoin in El Salvador after its IMF deal?

[fuguebtc]

So before we wish for it, maybe we should ask, do we really want Bitcoin to become legal tender, if it means losing the privacy and independence that makes it special in the first place?

If given the choice again, I believe people would still want bitcoin to become legal tender. Because what people are looking for in bitcoin is not privacy or freedom but the profits it brings.


People want bitcoin to become legal tender because they believe that by doing so, the demand for bitcoin will increase and reach its peak in terms of adoption. From there the price will increase sharply and they will make huge profits.

Don't put them in your shoes, do the opposite and put yourself in their shoes, you will see that the needs of the crowd are not what you think. Not many people care about privacy or freedom as much as they claim to.

[Ishicryptic]

Seeing it as a legal tender, it would be an advantage for those who never take take bitcoin as a serious investment. However for us who are really optimistic about bitcoin, it could deprive our privacy and personal interest, and we don't want it to happen. Instead, we want only to gain high privacy for bitcoin that can only be possible if bitcoin does not become a legal tender, if bitcoin won't be a pet for the government and centralized institutions that are only after for their selfish gains and interest.

People who don't have any need for privacy and freedom that comes with holding Bitcoin wouldn't mind it being a legal tender, they will be happy to do any KYC requirements, follow government regulations to the latter and be taxed as the government wishes. For us who value the intention of Bitcoin creation which is decentralization, to be an alternative to fiat globally and to be used for p2p transactions without government interferences. Bitcoin as a legal tender has it's advantages like fast adoption in the country, that is the main advantage that it has. But I will prefer a government to hold Bitcoin as a strategic reserve like gold instead of making it a legal tender, they will want to regulate it like their traditional currency.

[nemesis_incarnate]

It would happen with or without us wanting it that much, imo.

As it was said - depends on the country in question.

[Outhue]

First time seeing someone aligning with my view in this matter. I had always said that bitcoin does not need to be a legal tender in any country in other to be adopted or hit massive adoption. If there was to be a referendum in my country voting bitcoin to be legal tender, I will actually go against such a vote. This is why I was happy when the United States of America instead of making Bitcoin legal tender, the used it as a strategic reserve.

Bitcoin has shifted from being a currency to an investment asset and I think that status is okay for it because we are actually seeing bitcoin as a digital gold instead of a digital currency.
In a nutshell, we do not need the government of any country to make bitcoin a legal tender. Just don't illegalize it, allow it it to coexist with the fiat and we are fine with it.

I am just like you but unfortunately we are not legions, and that's sad, there are too many people that believe in legal tender, they are the type that waits for the authority orders before they can make a move on anything, Bitcoin as a digital gold is far more welcome by me than Bitcoin as digital currency as it will just open door to more control by the centralised authority, and we will be miles away watching as decentralisation fades away forever.

Bitcoin can be use as means of settling payment as some merchants are already offering the option and it needs to stay this way only, there is no need to turn Bitcoin into some form of money that must be accepted by force, this will spell more trouble to decentralisation.

[Mahiyammahi]

If Bitcoin becomes legal tender, that means government control, taxes, KYC everywhere, and eventually, less freedom.. the very thing Bitcoin was created to avoid. Once it’s “official,” it stops being decentralized money and starts acting like another regulated digital peso or dollar.

So before we wish for it, maybe we should ask, do we really want Bitcoin to become legal tender, if it means losing the privacy and independence that makes it special in the first place?

This would be foolish steps for a human. We all know that the very idea of creating bitcoin was peer to peer seemless transaction without having the involve of middle man. Which excluded the very idea of banking channle transaction. But if we're gonna accept the monitoring through government it would not be ideal for bitcoin. Satoshi himself didn't created this for this reason.

This will create an artificial problem in Bitcoin technology, and despite getting popularity it could loose it's popularity. But if government officially accept bitcoin without imposing any regulation and let it be as it is now then I think the popularity of bitcoin could sour to sky rocket.

[FortuneFollower]

If Bitcoin becomes legal tender, that means government control, taxes, KYC everywhere, and eventually, less freedom.. the very thing Bitcoin was created to avoid. Once it’s “official,” it stops being decentralized money and starts acting like another regulated digital peso or dollar.

So before we wish for it, maybe we should ask, do we really want Bitcoin to become legal tender, if it means losing the privacy and independence that makes it special in the first place?

This would be foolish steps for a human. We all know that the very idea of creating bitcoin was peer to peer seemless transaction without having the involve of middle man. Which excluded the very idea of banking channle transaction. But if we're gonna accept the monitoring through government it would not be ideal for bitcoin. Satoshi himself didn't created this for this reason.

This will create an artificial problem in Bitcoin technology, and despite getting popularity it could loose it's popularity. But if government officially accept bitcoin without imposing any regulation and let it be as it is now then I think the popularity of bitcoin could sour to sky rocket.

I don't think the structure of BTC would change, rather perception of it and, yeah, control of where your coins go, that's the main thing.

It can already be seen and tracked, but on this gov scale - it's not the way for BTC Adoption cannot go forward without regulations, though.

[UchihaSarada]

I am just like you but unfortunately we are not legions, and that's sad, there are too many people that believe in legal tender, they are the type that waits for the authority orders before they can make a move on anything, Bitcoin as a digital gold is far more welcome by me than Bitcoin as digital currency as it will just open door to more control by the centralised authority, and we will be miles away watching as decentralisation fades away forever.

If Bitcoin legality in their nation is Illegal, it's clear that they should not do anything with Bitcoin especiallly at business level.
If Bitcoin legality is either Allegal or Unknown, they can do something with Bitcoin for their business but surely there are concerns that they should not do anything, and wait for the legal status becomes clearer.
If Bitcoin legality is good as Legal or Legal tender, no more concern about punishment from governments but then there are other uncertainties on effectiveness of Bitcoin acceptance for their business.

If the acceptance is forced by governments and legal tender, not all business and people are happy when accepting Bitcoin.

[Wind_FURY]

Some people keep saying they want Bitcoin to become a legal tender, like it’s the ultimate goal for adoption. But they don’t really think about the negative side of it.

If Bitcoin becomes legal tender, that means government control, taxes, KYC everywhere, and eventually, less freedom.. the very thing Bitcoin was created to avoid. Once it’s “official,” it stops being decentralized money and starts acting like another regulated digital peso or dollar.

Perhaps you don't understand how Bitcoin works, because that still doesn't change the technical nature of Bitcoin and what you can do with it because of that technical nature.

How could the government stop me from purchasing Heroin using Bitcoin, a decentralized/censorship-resistant cryptocurrency, from the Dark Markets whether Bitcoin is legal tender or not legal tender? THEY CAN'T!

[Z-tight]

If Bitcoin becomes legal tender, that means government control, taxes, KYC everywhere, and eventually, less freedom.. the very thing Bitcoin was created to avoid. Once it’s “official,” it stops being decentralized money and starts acting like another regulated digital peso or dollar.

Taxes and kyc already exist in the network and the government are also constantly fighting privacy. All of what you think would happen if many countries make BTC a legal tender is already in play right now. Where you get it wrong is that nothing can change the protocol, nothing can make BTC centralized.

However, i do not care if governments make BTC a legal tender in their jurisdiction, that decision is ultimately up to them and the BTC community do not have any say or sway in it. So why worry about things that are out of our control, BTC functions fine without being a legal tender. As long as it is not banned, you can spend it, the other party just has to be willing to accept it.

[Ucy]

Ofcourse they won't, otherwise it becomes like making a foreign currency they don't control a legal tender. And it will be worse for them to make bitcoin a legal tender than say a desirable fiat, due to the fact that Bitcoin operates contrary to fiats while fiats operate in similar ways. So they will most likely be tempted to control it else they won't be able to sustain a possible legal tender statue.

Bitcoin currency is better suited for independent, transparent, moral and free society that operates opposite of world's system. The fiat people are free to use it, especially for international transfers & investments. But it will be specially prioritized for the economy or financial system of an alternate society. In such economy, people will transact mainly with Bitcoin, both online and offline. The society will have knowledge centers, hospitals, shops, markets, institutions, industries, companies, etc that accept bitcoin as legal tender because Bitcoin is in harmony with their culture. This is the direction developers and general Bitcoin community should be moving towards rather than world's system.

[Japinat]

Well, aside from having government control, KYC everywhere and less freedom, once bitcoin becomes a legal tender, hence we will be force also to spend our bitcoin and treat it just like a normal currency like USD, so the essence of having bitcoin as an investment will slowly become undervalued as majority of the people will now be using bitcoin as a legal tender.

When that time comes, though bitcoin supply and demand continue to increase, but not as a profitable asset but as a currency, as a legal tender. In the end, the government will only gain the best advantage of bitcoin as a valuable asset while leaving us having bitcoin as a commodity, as a medium of economic exchange.

[ashmodeus]

Indeed if we look deeper there are pluses and minuses, but that doesn't mean eliminating the decentralized nature, and in my opinion, legalizing bitcoin as a legal means of payment is much more profitable because it will encourage mass adoption which will slowly stabilize bitcoin, of course it doesn't have to eliminate the fiat system because after all, fiat cannot be completely eliminated and bitcoin is only another option, besides that, strong legality doesn't mean killing bitcoin, in fact, with legal recognition it can be a shield for bitcoin, sometimes to protect something from power, we need to make it recognized by that power and nothing in this world is completely free from regulation.

[Mrbluntzy]

Legal tenders currencies like our is controlled by the government, they can decide to print this local currencies as much as they want and enforce any laws that they want but in regards to Bitcoin, they can not produce more Bitcoin above the total supply, which will still make the value of Bitcoin to grow so high bringing more and more main stream adoption but while the growth spikes, the government will intensively scrutinized Bitcoin and its users, that will reduce privacy protection and anonymity of Bitcoin users to nearly nothing.

[Lida93]

i believe it depend on the country if they are a real supporter of bitcoin or just riding the wave of its popularity

for me bitcoin being a legal tender may just entail that we can now use bitcoin for a lot of transactions in the country but it doesn’t mean we have to use kyc platforms ourselves. if the country isn’t that strict, they wouldn’t be checking around

There are standard rules that have to be followed, just like the KYC law and the Anti-Money Laundering law. So regardless of which country it is, once Bitcoin becomes a legal tender, those regulations will be implemented based on international standards. Everything I’ve been saying is bound to happen, you’ll see.

The KYC procedures are already going on even with countries that haven't made bitcoin a legal tender but seem to be crypto friendly with laws that doesn't prohibit their citizens from using bitcoin. It's at the moment you use centralized financial platforms that you would be asked to do KYC, right? So that means even with or without the country making bitcoin a legal tender you would still encounter some regulatory measures and KYC the moment you move your bitcoin from a self custody wallet to a centralized platform.

[Helena Yu]

Now it's not much different than what you said above:

Government control (banks/CEXs block specific UTXOs/addresses).
Taxes.
KYC everywhere (CEXs, digital money etc).
Less freedom (discouraged to use unlicensed exchanges).

Without Bitcoin become legal tender, Bitcoin was already like that since the second halving season and it get worst after ETFs launch.

[Findingnemo]

But we are already in the same era right even without bitcoin being a legal tender?

We are forced to do KYC on regulated platforms, and you need to pay taxes on gains and the only difference is it is not under direct control of anyone which will remain the same even if they made bitcoin as legal tender. The only reason I wish bitcoin to become a legal tender is then we have an option to pay and everyone will have bitcoin is accepted here which I think is the real adoption of bitcoin as currency.