I'm not even sure that's a problem. When faced with increased cost on their side governments generally just shift that cost back onto the individuals complicati

I'm not even sure that's a problem. When faced with increased cost on their side governments generally just shift that cost back onto the individuals complicating matters for them. Look at drugs, the government isn't losing much sleep over that, they just add more trials, requisites and regulations that drug companies have to jump in order to bring their products to market. At any rate, like patio11 said it's no different than trying to trace cash only transactions. The bigger problem with Bitcoin is that since these are electronic transactions they're a bit easier to trace/log and store than those occurring in meat space, as evidenced by the NSA programs and others.