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Holy crap, there is a top. To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. US dollars have a built in floor as government

by b1daly 9y ago

Holy crap, there is a top. To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. US dollars have a built in floor as government issued fiat, which is that they are required to pay taxes. The money supply of a country is a precious resource, and the government has a responsibility, and incentive, to maintain some level of control. Look how serious the Secret Service is about counterfeiting. There are many tools the government has to control the use of bitcoin, the simplest being to just outlaw it. They already treat individuals who sell bitcoin as a business activity with a heavy hand. Libertarian geeks who haven’t thought things through seem to think that because it will be hard to impossible to completely shut down a distributed system, that means the government can’t control it. Wake up! Look at Ross Ulbricht! The fact that he conducted his illegal business with bitcoin was used against him. It protected him zero amount.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. If BTC wins, we'll be converting our dollars to BTC, not the other way around. There are many tools the government has to control the use of bitcoin, the simplest being to just outlaw it. This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them. Libertarian geeks who haven’t thought things through seem to think that because it will be hard to impossible to completely shut down a distributed system, that means the government can’t control it. They can't. The point of this post was that they can't, and that we need to think of ways to escalate the situation until people start taking this seriously. Wake up! Look at Ross Ulbricht! The fact that he conducted his illegal business with bitcoin was used against him. It protected him zero amount. Because he failed at even the most basic opsec. If he had kept most of his coins in cold storage that he never touched, he would still have a fortune, even in prison.
- tome 9y ago
  > This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them. Productive capacity is not so easy to migrate.
sjg007 9y ago
There will always be black market crypto exchanges. Bitcoin will drive the underground economy for sure. It may also act as a global hedge for people in unstable countries.

by b1daly 9y ago

sillysaurus3 9y ago

To realize these gains, owners of bitcoins are going to have to convert back to fiat. If BTC wins, we'll be converting our dollars to BTC, not the other way around. There are many tools the government has to control the use of bitcoin, the simplest being to just outlaw it. This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them. Libertarian geeks who haven’t thought things through seem to think that because it will be hard to impossible to completely shut down a distributed system, that means the government can’t control it. They can't. The point of this post was that they can't, and that we need to think of ways to escalate the situation until people start taking this seriously. Wake up! Look at Ross Ulbricht! The fact that he conducted his illegal business with bitcoin was used against him. It protected him zero amount. Because he failed at even the most basic opsec. If he had kept most of his coins in cold storage that he never touched, he would still have a fortune, even in prison.

tome 9y ago
> This won't work. BTC will just migrate to countries where it isn't illegal, taking millionaires with them. Productive capacity is not so easy to migrate.

sjg007 9y ago

There will always be black market crypto exchanges. Bitcoin will drive the underground economy for sure. It may also act as a global hedge for people in unstable countries.