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Ask HN: Can governments across the world shutdown Bitcoin nodes?
I couldn't the answer to this anywhere on the nets. Can goverments across the world shutdown Bitcoin nodes in a concerted effort at the protocol or traffic level ?
One possibility is they can outlaw the nodes, making it illegal to run a node with severe consequences.
Other possibility is block at protocol ISP level on massive scale.
Is this possible ?
- znpy 5y agoAre you speaking practically or legally? Practically: yeah sure no problem. Governments already collaborate on stuff like missing people and/or terrorist tracking and civilian espionage. On a legal basis though... where's the law that prevents me from doing the kind of math to run a bitcoin node? And even if there was such a law, it might be unconstitutional and thus not enforceable (at least in the long run).
- chaganated 5y agoTechnically: yes Politically: politicians are whores. how much of their clientele is invested in BTC at any given time? if we knew that, we'd know when to get out...
- salawat 5y agoYes, and yes. Never underestimate the capability of other people to ruin your day.
- thesuperbigfrog 5y agoYes: https://www.axios.com/cryptocurrency-china-india-legislation-f2334aad-b923-4e45-83de-f5c7e741da8f.html https://www.axios.com/cryptocurrency-china-india-legislation...
- reginold 5y agoAny reports back on how effective this ban is? i.e. how much did this successfully ban nodes vs just move all their traffic to Tor?
- asdfsd234234444 5y agoTheoretically? Yes. Realistically? No. We still have bit torrent don't we?
- throwaway248329 5y agoGovernments have literally genocided, sent to concentration camps, tortured, experimented on millions of people more than a few times just in the past 100 years. Of course they can ban Bitcoin lol. The only question is the extent to which they're willing to go to stop it.