4 ms·

Ehhh... One of the founding principles was that it doesn't have a central issuing authority. The supply of bitcoin can't be controlled, which makes it immune to

by lmkg 13y ago

Ehhh... One of the founding principles was that it doesn't have a central issuing authority. The supply of bitcoin can't be controlled, which makes it immune to politically-convenient devaluation or debasement, unlike government-issued fiat currency. Or in laymen's terms: The fed can't just print more bitcoins. Starting from the above, an extended game of Telephone resulted in some people thinking that Bitcoin can't be regulated at all. This is a silly belief.

cracker_jacks 13y ago
Can you explain how can bitcoin be regulated? Regulation defined as the ability to control transactions.
- Myrth 13y ago
  > Regulation defined as the ability to control transactions. I'm not sure where would you get this definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation > Regulation may refer to the following: > A process of the promulgation, monitoring, and enforcement of rules, established by primary and/or delegated legislation. > A written instrument containing rules having the force of law. In this context they talk about monitoring and enforcing companies' use of bitcoins within legal system.
  - cinquemb 13y ago
    In this context they talk about monitoring and enforcing companies' use of bitcoins within legal system. As `mrb said here, it is not very clear since it explicitly is dealing with bitcoin exchanges: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6238754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6238754
- brazzy 13y ago
  The same way transactions in any other currency are controlled: by making laws that say what you must and cannot do and what penalties apply if you don't comply.
  - cracker_jacks 13y ago
    You can regulate things around bitcoin (ie exchanges), but you have no direct control of whether or not a wallet is able make transactions. You can't freeze a bitcoin address and associating an address to a real-world identity would be easily circumvented.
    - dragonwriter 13y ago
      > You can regulate things around bitcoin (ie exchanges), but you have no direct control of whether or not a wallet is able make transactions. In this respect, this is no different than most things government regulates, including money-in-the-form-of-coins-and-scraps-of-paper.
      - cracker_jacks 13y ago
        The difference is ease, physical currency is much harder to break apart and move around in large sums without eventually going through something the government regulates. If you kept your transactions entirely in bitcoin, I do not see how anyone could control what you do.
    - brazzy 13y ago
      Indirect control of the form "you broke this law and go to jail" is perfectly sufficient. And it is in fact attempts to disassociate addresses and real world identities that are easily circumvented when you have the resources of a government.
vl 13y ago
>The fed can't just print more bitcoins. Mmm, they kinda can: they can deploy a large cluster, let's say 90% of capacity, hoard mined coins, then release them at once - booms, effect is not that different from printing.

by lmkg 13y ago

cracker_jacks 13y ago

Can you explain how can bitcoin be regulated? Regulation defined as the ability to control transactions.

Myrth 13y ago
> Regulation defined as the ability to control transactions. I'm not sure where would you get this definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation > Regulation may refer to the following: > A process of the promulgation, monitoring, and enforcement of rules, established by primary and/or delegated legislation. > A written instrument containing rules having the force of law. In this context they talk about monitoring and enforcing companies' use of bitcoins within legal system.
- cinquemb 13y ago
  In this context they talk about monitoring and enforcing companies' use of bitcoins within legal system. As `mrb said here, it is not very clear since it explicitly is dealing with bitcoin exchanges: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6238754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6238754
brazzy 13y ago
The same way transactions in any other currency are controlled: by making laws that say what you must and cannot do and what penalties apply if you don't comply.
- cracker_jacks 13y ago
  You can regulate things around bitcoin (ie exchanges), but you have no direct control of whether or not a wallet is able make transactions. You can't freeze a bitcoin address and associating an address to a real-world identity would be easily circumvented.
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    > You can regulate things around bitcoin (ie exchanges), but you have no direct control of whether or not a wallet is able make transactions. In this respect, this is no different than most things government regulates, including money-in-the-form-of-coins-and-scraps-of-paper.
    - cracker_jacks 13y ago
      The difference is ease, physical currency is much harder to break apart and move around in large sums without eventually going through something the government regulates. If you kept your transactions entirely in bitcoin, I do not see how anyone could control what you do.
  - brazzy 13y ago
    Indirect control of the form "you broke this law and go to jail" is perfectly sufficient. And it is in fact attempts to disassociate addresses and real world identities that are easily circumvented when you have the resources of a government.

vl 13y ago

>The fed can't just print more bitcoins. Mmm, they kinda can: they can deploy a large cluster, let's say 90% of capacity, hoard mined coins, then release them at once - booms, effect is not that different from printing.