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I see the situation in the exact opposite way. Passing a Carbon Tax, while sensible, would run in major opposition because it would basically effect every citiz

I see the situation in the exact opposite way. Passing a Carbon Tax, while sensible, would run in major opposition because it would basically effect every citizen. But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms.

tshaddox 6y ago
> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. Sounds unrealistic. Remember the war on drugs?
- BitwiseFool 6y ago
  In my personal experience most people think of cryptocurrencies as a Ponzi scheme, some kind of money laundering operation, a tremendous waste of energy, or some combination of those three. In light of that, I think a cryptocurrency ban would be easy for politicians to sell to the public using those terms. How effective the ban would be is another question, but I am mainly talking about how I think the politicians would justify the ban.
  - tshaddox 6y ago
    Oh, I didn't realize you only meant how easy it would be to pass the ban. Of course it would be easy to pass a federal ban in the United States, where it's easy to pass many things even when they're extremely unpopular. Marijuana is still banned federally despite well over two thirds of the country opposing the ban!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
thebean11 6y ago
Usually across-the-board regulation is seen as upholding the free market more than regulation that targets specific individuals or industries.
webinvest 6y ago
> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. How exactly do you ban or confiscate bitcoin? New bitcoin wallets are created without touching the internet access. Internet access is only needed when sending bitcoin but not when receiving bitcoin. By the time someone sends it, it’s too late, you can’t confiscate it because they don’t have it anymore. If the government bans or starts monitoring the bitcoin network for activity, people can still send slips of paper through the mail with the private and public key to one of their wallet. Combine that with a brain wallet and you can literally store bitcoin in your brain. Try doing that with gold.
webinvest 6y ago
> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. How exactly do you ban or confiscate bitcoin? New bitcoin wallets are created without even touching the internet! It can be done from the middle of the Mojave desert without any proof of it ever happening or existing. Internet access is needed when sending bitcoin but not when receiving bitcoin. By the time someone sends it, it’s too late, you can’t confiscate it because they don’t have it anymore. If the government bans or too heavily monitors the bitcoin network for activity, people can still send slips of paper through the mail with the private and public key to one of their wallets and trade around pieces of paper instead. Combine that with a brain wallet and you can literally store bitcoin in your brain and pass through borders carrying nothing on hand. Try doing any of that with gold, Euros, Dollars, or Chinese Yuan. The only thing stopping bitcoin is exponentially higher transaction costs but paradoxically higher transaction costs make small bitcoin holders effectively illiquid. This reduction in supply further drives up the price infinitely until most bitcoin is rendered illiquid or until people think slow cryptocurrencies with high transaction fees are stupid.

tshaddox 6y ago

> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. Sounds unrealistic. Remember the war on drugs?

BitwiseFool 6y ago
In my personal experience most people think of cryptocurrencies as a Ponzi scheme, some kind of money laundering operation, a tremendous waste of energy, or some combination of those three. In light of that, I think a cryptocurrency ban would be easy for politicians to sell to the public using those terms. How effective the ban would be is another question, but I am mainly talking about how I think the politicians would justify the ban.
- tshaddox 6y ago
  Oh, I didn't realize you only meant how easy it would be to pass the ban. Of course it would be easy to pass a federal ban in the United States, where it's easy to pass many things even when they're extremely unpopular. Marijuana is still banned federally despite well over two thirds of the country opposing the ban!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

thebean11 6y ago

Usually across-the-board regulation is seen as upholding the free market more than regulation that targets specific individuals or industries.

webinvest 6y ago

> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. How exactly do you ban or confiscate bitcoin? New bitcoin wallets are created without touching the internet access. Internet access is only needed when sending bitcoin but not when receiving bitcoin. By the time someone sends it, it’s too late, you can’t confiscate it because they don’t have it anymore. If the government bans or starts monitoring the bitcoin network for activity, people can still send slips of paper through the mail with the private and public key to one of their wallet. Combine that with a brain wallet and you can literally store bitcoin in your brain. Try doing that with gold.

webinvest 6y ago

> But banning cryptocurrency would be much easier since the majority of the population doesn't own any and it can be framed in very positive terms. How exactly do you ban or confiscate bitcoin? New bitcoin wallets are created without even touching the internet! It can be done from the middle of the Mojave desert without any proof of it ever happening or existing. Internet access is needed when sending bitcoin but not when receiving bitcoin. By the time someone sends it, it’s too late, you can’t confiscate it because they don’t have it anymore. If the government bans or too heavily monitors the bitcoin network for activity, people can still send slips of paper through the mail with the private and public key to one of their wallets and trade around pieces of paper instead. Combine that with a brain wallet and you can literally store bitcoin in your brain and pass through borders carrying nothing on hand. Try doing any of that with gold, Euros, Dollars, or Chinese Yuan. The only thing stopping bitcoin is exponentially higher transaction costs but paradoxically higher transaction costs make small bitcoin holders effectively illiquid. This reduction in supply further drives up the price infinitely until most bitcoin is rendered illiquid or until people think slow cryptocurrencies with high transaction fees are stupid.