"Governments will ban Bitcoin" and other bedtime stories

[Dogedegen]

A seed phrase crosses every border on earth inside a skull.

No scanner sees it. No sanction freezes it. No missile hits it. No government confiscates it.

The only thing that can destroy is amnesia.

The chance that you would get hit by a case of amnesia during a time where you are transporting a seed phrase to another location is so low that it can be completely ignored. The numbers on stuff like that is clear, we need to be careful when we bring these things up even if you are correct because some people start creating threads how we should worry about solar flares and similar. 

If one government in one country bans it, the rest of the world won't so that ban will affect absolutely nothing.

Not "absolutely nothing" imo. Bitcoin isn't going to be banned worldwide, of course, but peoples in a banned country can still have serious problems. Fiat ramps get worsen, banks refuse payments, exchanges shut, and regular users face issues when buying and selling.

So yes, while Bitcoin itself continues to function, users access and liquidity may be extremely restricted there. Users can still use VPNs and P2P, but it's not the same as before. The ban is a very real one for users in that country. Not to mention the possibility of being arrested, gossiped by neighbours, and what not...

You are correct that the citizens of such countries would be affected if Bitcoin is banned. But I guess "absolutely nothing" in this context means that it wouldn't have so much effect on the global use of Bitcoin. China's negative stance on Bitcoin has not stopped the adoption and growth of the industry. People in affected countries also have the option of relocating to a friendly country if they have the means.

A sitting president made $635m in royalties from a business that impoverished most of those who invested. If Trump were a member of this forum, many investors of his coin would have opened threads on the scam accusation board.

Just because you lost money on something that does not make that something a scam, so those would be false scam accusations. If you buy a memecoin you accept all the risk that comes with that, nobody can force you to buy it and nobody made false promises that it wasn't a memecoin so there was no scam.

Not "absolutely nothing" imo. Bitcoin isn't going to be banned worldwide, of course, but peoples in a banned country can still have serious problems. Fiat ramps get worsen, banks refuse payments, exchanges shut, and regular users face issues when buying and selling.

So yes, while Bitcoin itself continues to function, users access and liquidity may be extremely restricted there. Users can still use VPNs and P2P, but it's not the same as before. The ban is a very real one for users in that country. Not to mention the possibility of being arrested, gossiped by neighbours, and what not...

People forget that they are actually in a constant struggle and war against their own governments, and to think that some believe the all governments protect their own people! In the extreme cases of attempts at controlling its citizens, many countries have implemented different worldwide taxation laws or even exit taxes for citizenship and changes like that so even if you do not like the rules that are presented to you, they want to punish you for choosing to go somewhere else! We live in quiet crazy times and most people are distracted by things that are not so important.

[CryptoYar]

[...]

Chinese situation is interesting because it is not fully ban. Bitcoin is labeled as property, but its use is extremely limited. If there is person with large investment total, then that grey area can be a cause of serious worry for future. There is thought in there about bad advisors, not bad presidents. Policy on new technology is frequently influenced by those who have basic lack of understanding of technology and as a result take unnecessarily limiting measures. It is more important than most people realize, to vote in someone who understands technology and economics. Whoever is in power will have big impact on bitcoin policy in coming decade.

[bitgolden]

Yeah, this has been said a million times and yet it doesn't happen. Because if one government does it and benefits, others fear that it is going to end up with something less and they do it anyways.

We should not be considering this as something that will matter that badly, and we should focus on how if USA takes it, Russia has to, and if Russia does then China has to and if China does then .. .you get my point. That is how it works and has worked on a long time and that's why it will be fine everywhere for now.

[Alpha Marine]

India threatened a ban for five straight years. Then taxed it at 30%.
You don't tax what you're about to kill.
You tax what you've decided to keep.

This tax part is something I don't understand. They don't support it, they restrict it, yet they tax it. They claim the taxing is to discourage it, but they also tax other things they encourage, so how is this different? If they are against something, then they shouldn't want the revenue that comes from it.

I have a theory that some governments try to ban Bitcoin to affect how some people view its legitimacy.

Aside from the fact that they want control and all, a theory I have is that governments don't want Bitcoin to be a widely used currency because it will make things difficult for them. When the majority of people start using Bitcoin, the bank deposits reduce, and this can affect how the bank gives out loans.
The government doesn't want self-custody.

Bitcoin has made people realize that the governments can only control what is within their control.

The government doesn't control Bitcoin; they will never be able to, but they can control how people use it, and they are doing that. I feel like, within the next decade, it would be extremely difficult to use Bitcoin without a central entity involved.

[Oasisman]

India threatened a ban for five straight years. Then taxed it at 30%.
You don't tax what you're about to kill.
You tax what you've decided to keep.

This tax part is something I don't understand. They don't support it, they restrict it, yet they tax it. They claim the taxing is to discourage it, but they also tax other things they encourage, so how is this different? If they are against something, then they shouldn't want the revenue that comes from it.

Well, it's pretty simple. The government tax everything that generates income. Whether it is within their control or not. There are those they can't control, and they can shut it down before even thinking about taxing it. However, Bitcoin is way different than those, as they can't control it nor completely shut it down. Yes, they can ban it, but there are a lot of ways to bypass it. So, they were thinking, it's better to just tax , than ban it and get nothing.
Most of the government are very intelligent in terms of money, lol.

Bitcoin has made people realize that the governments can only control what is within their control.

The government doesn't control Bitcoin; they will never be able to, but they can control how people use it, and they are doing that. I feel like, within the next decade, it would be extremely difficult to use Bitcoin without a central entity involved.
[/quote]

It's not really hard, but it will become expensive for both transaction and taxation. That's something to expect.

[Asuspawer09]

For sure this is mostly what is happening behind the scenes, It sounded like governments really wanted a monopoly over cryptocurrencies, I mean for sure they see the potential of it a mile away and probably they just wanted to manipulate the market prices with this kind of restrictions, I mean the China banning was surely some kind of plan, manipulating the market and giving them a huge opportunity in order to get a whole lot of profit, and it just ridiculous how obvious it was and most of the investors are not able to see it.

With all of this happening what we can do is just straight up invest in Bitcoin, accumulate do dollar cost averaging so that you could have a piece of it in the future, most of the ban is not really that serious, there are only a few countries that is doing an actual ban where it's difficult to risk it buying, but for some countries they don't have a huge restrictions and most of the time like in my country you could invest and buy easily as long as you know what you are doing.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

They can not ban what they don't control, all their efforts is just to take full control that's the reason they have implemented KYC, the fact that all countries in the world is not ruled by one government is still an edge that proves Bitcoin can not be banned, however even in countries where Bitcoin is banned, there is never a possibility that everyone there can be stopped from transacting with Bitcoin in their room. Government will ban Bitcoin in the space of centralized transactions but they can not in the space of decentralized transactions (p2p).

[SilverCryptoBullet]

They can not ban what they don't control, all their efforts is just to take full control that's the reason they have implemented KYC, the fact that all countries in the world is not ruled by one government is still an edge that proves Bitcoin can not be banned, however even in countries where Bitcoin is banned, there is never a possibility that everyone there can be stopped from transacting with Bitcoin in their room. Government will ban Bitcoin in the space of centralized transactions but they can not in the space of decentralized transactions (p2p).

Implementing KYC does not help governments to control Bitcoin from blockchain to ownership. Because Bitcoin blockchain is decentralized and centralized exchanges don't control Bitcoin blockchain. In bitcoin ownerships, centralized exchanges can scam their users, confiscate user bitcoins or they can freeze user accounts but it can not help too much. Because Bitcoin holders can store bitcoins in non custodial wallets that means KYC is useless and again does not help to take over Bitcoin ownerships.

KYC is bad for privacy, and centralized platforms are bad to store your bitcoins there, that's it.
Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts.

[Ziskinberg]

It's funny how bitcoin is making the government of some countries look stupid. They make a bold statement and still return to their vomit. They make laws against bitcoin and they break it to re-make another. They keep going bac and forth. But the good news is that bitcoin cannot be banned. According to you, they ban you from using it.

If the government of my country turns to be bitcoin toxic antagonist in the future, I'll just consider to relocate, just like China miners did in 2021.

Bitcoin remains a threat to their fiat and banks, and anything they will consider a threat will be subject for future banning, so I'm not really surprised why a lot of countries are racing to ban bitcoin before.

But with the rising number of institutional investors taking risk and putting their trust into bitcoin, slowly those anti-bitcoin countries are now seeing the potentials of bitcoin and start lifting those bans.

Governments will ban bitcoin, that's already highly expected. But changing their position towards bitcoin is also their new normal.

[Vaculin]

Governments ban Bitcoin, crack down Bitcoin mining, prohibit Bitcoin trading, ... many news like this appeared in Bitcoin history and the fact is Bitcoin has kept rolling and becoming stronger with time.

Only some of Government-related FUDs in history.
https://endthefud.org/governments
Critique: Government will shut Bitcoin down.

It only means bitcoin may be threatened but they can never drag bitcoin into its death. Its network security and mainstream integration are at its utmost, so no third party can easily break down bitcoin, not today or in the future as it will only get stronger and firmer in the next possible years.

The headlines that talk about governments banning bitcoin is never new at all. Bitcoin can survive without the government, but it can also lead to increasing rate of bitcoin fraudulence and continue to target the innocent people if the government will not create strict regulations for bitcoin.

[X-ray]

[...]

Chinese situation is interesting because it is not fully ban. Bitcoin is labeled as property, but its use is extremely limited. If there is person with large investment total, then that grey area can be a cause of serious worry for future. There is thought in there about bad advisors, not bad presidents. Policy on new technology is frequently influenced by those who have basic lack of understanding of technology and as a result take unnecessarily limiting measures. It is more important than most people realize, to vote in someone who understands technology and economics. Whoever is in power will have big impact on bitcoin policy in coming decade.

If only recognized as property but use is extremely limited it might as well be considered banned.

The bare minimum should be to allow bitcoin to be transactioned, for buying and selling which can also be utilized for investment.

I hope they change their mind and allow bitcoin again because the world has been growing on the direction of crypto and it's undeniable.

[OsaiEmma]

Here's the part nobody says out loud.

A Bitcoin ban doesn't ban Bitcoin. It bans YOU from Bitcoin.

I really love this part. And it is so true when you look at it critically. They can't really ban Bitcoin, they tried and saw it wasn't feasible so they turned too regulations and control.

They can do all they want, Bitcoin is here to stay. Just as you've said, while one bans, the other buys. Nice one OP.

[aoluain]

A Bitcoin ban doesn't ban Bitcoin. It bans YOU from Bitcoin.

The compliant you. The KYC-ed you. The guy who bought $500 on an app with his passport stapled to it.

The oligarch keeps his keys. The minister keeps his. The cartel keeps theirs.

A ban is a tax on the honest.

Great piece.

Governments might ban Bitcoin but thats for the masses, the top echelons of society
will still get to have Bitcoin and all the advantages which go along with that.

Turns out you can ban an exchange. You can't ban a number. Who would have thought?

Humans will always find a way around laws and when it comes to something which
cannot be stopped and which is already global and decentralised the governments are
fighting a losing battle.

As long as P-2-P trades can happen we can sidestep the laws and bans.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

They can not ban what they don't control, all their efforts is just to take full control that's the reason they have implemented KYC, the fact that all countries in the world is not ruled by one government is still an edge that proves Bitcoin can not be banned, however even in countries where Bitcoin is banned, there is never a possibility that everyone there can be stopped from transacting with Bitcoin in their room. Government will ban Bitcoin in the space of centralized transactions but they can not in the space of decentralized transactions (p2p).

Implementing KYC does not help governments to control Bitcoin from blockchain to ownership. Because Bitcoin blockchain is decentralized and centralized exchanges don't control Bitcoin blockchain. In bitcoin ownerships, centralized exchanges can scam their users, confiscate user bitcoins or they can freeze user accounts but it can not help too much. Because Bitcoin holders can store bitcoins in non custodial wallets that means KYC is useless and again does not help to take over Bitcoin ownerships.

You don't quit understand what I mean, implementing KYC helps the exchange to know your personal details and to also have your IP, so peradventure the government asked the exchange to give them the details of those users that has withdrawn more than 1 Bitcoin in the last 7 days, remember that the exchange will give them enough information about you (name, picture, government ID and IP address) and when the government finally finds you, you will have to show where you sent the Bitcoin to, mind you, when you withdraw from an exchange, the exchange already saves the address you sent to, so they can still track how you move those Bitcoin from one wallet to another. You will be save only when you don't use the CEX at all to conduct such transaction.

[Finestream]

Amazingly, every time governments increase the pressure and try to ban or even eliminate Bitcoin, it rises from the ashes like a phoenix, so to speak. Indeed, Bitcoin has proven that it cannot be banned or defeated.

Governments have come to know this and know that they cannot ban or kill Bitcoin, so they have resorted to a malicious trick, trying to circumvent and contain it through third-party services and KYC and AML regulations.

That's the least they can do knowing they can't beat or shut down bitcoin no matter how far they have gone just to put an end to bitcoin. Instead, bitcoin even becomes stronger and more irresistible every time there are news attacks to it, this only means that bitcoin is highly capable and will continue to persist just to overcome all those threats and challenges that are thrown from those anti-bitcoin groups or entities.

The reason why we are no longer threatened if we hear news about governments going to ban bitcoin. They should have done it in the first place, that is if they can really break down bitcoin.