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The US government took down egold when it reached ~2 billion in annual transactions. I suspect they will take action against bitcoin before it reaches a trillio
by Element_ 13y ago
The US government took down egold when it reached ~2 billion in annual transactions. I suspect they will take action against bitcoin before it reaches a trillion dollar monetary base, but only time will tell ;)
- oleganza 13y agoLike I said above, Egold was a single entity. In U.S. feds must shut down multiple very different service providers related to Bitcoin and even then there are other countries with their own companies and legislation. Also, it's one thing to say that some company helped Osama bin Laden to launder his money - there will be evidence and no one would make a big story out of it. Another thing is to say that "we cannot do anything about this protocol, so we will shut down every single company just because they might use it". To shut down tens of companies you'd need to show evidence that they all somehow launder tons of money. That would be an epic event and it will be well-advertised, so prosecutors would have to be even more careful in what they say, or they will look like simple bullies on every newspaper. It's just entirely different scale of action to take on everyone connected with Bitcoin. If they do things slowly and try to kill companies one by one, then each time they would create more clarity on how to be compliant with the law which will make every next case even more difficult. I have no doubt there will be war (there's one already with all this regulatory crap, seizure of funds etc.), but it sure won't be one single decision and little attention, like in case of Egold.