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How does a government stop it? And if they could, could they also stop illegal file sharing in a similar way?
by quickthrower2 9y ago
How does a government stop it? And if they could, could they also stop illegal file sharing in a similar way?
- modeless 9y agoThey ban exchanging Bitcoin for fiat currencies, which completely disconnects Bitcoin from the traditional financial system. Underground and in-person exchanges would continue but at much lower volumes with higher friction and fees, and the value of Bitcoin would crash. This is diffrerent from file sharing because file sharing does not need a connection to the traditional financial system to be useful for most people.
- programmarchy 9y agoWhy would the value crash? Typically, artificially restricting supply raises prices, like with drugs and other contraband.
- eli 9y agoDrugs are inherently valuable -- you can ingest them! Bitcoins are not. A bitcoin that is harder to buy or sell is a bitcoin that is necessarily worth less.
- quickthrower2 9y agoThis is restricting demand, not restricting supply.
- programmarchy 9y agoThat doesn't seem right. Usually restricting demand is done by raising prices, with the causality working in the other direction. If people want Bitcoin (say because their government is inflating their fiat currency and they want a safe haven) and purchasing Bitcoin is prohibited, you'd have pent-up demand which would push prices up.
- drewmol 9y agoI agree, and if you look at online poker in the US, they were able to drastically reduce the amount of people playing and money involved by simply restricting payment processors' involvement.
- blhack 9y agoMake it illegal and pursue legal action against anybody who allows you to ACH them money. Hilariously, this is the type of censorship that bitcoin solves.
- quickthrower2 9y agoThat won't shut down Bitcoin, because there are other countries with internet.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]