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Good. Honestly, in the eyes of the USFG, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are like a ticking time bomb. The longer it takes them to act, the value of BTC in

Good. Honestly, in the eyes of the USFG, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are like a ticking time bomb. The longer it takes them to act, the value of BTC increases, and it becomes increasingly hard to do anything about it from a federal level since more and more people have real assets invested in these currencies. The interesting bit is that the most cited complaint against BTC in the popular media is its use as a facilitator of illicit goods, which, due to bitcoin's design, is actually impossible to enforce. If you're already buying drugs and what else online, another law saying you can't use bitcoins aren't going to stop you (other than making it harder by shutting down popular services like Coinbase). The superficial reason for banning bitcoin (reducing illicit transactions) will likely fail completely. Furthermore, even if all governments ban bitcoins, as long as people have access to encrypted storage / networking, it's unlikely that the value of BTC would drop to zero. It's still a pretty efficient way to handle illegal transactions.

superuser2 13y ago
You can't stop existing Bitcoin users from trading amongst themselves, but it can be made very impractical to acquire Bitcoin with money. The government can easily isolate Bitcoin exchanges (and any other entity it chooses) from the USD banking infrastructure. Put them on the OFAC list (or similar) and they won't be able to get bank accounts, accept wire/ACH transfers, work with credit cards, or use any other money transmitting service. Transfers of paper cash in person would be the only option, and a campaign of well-publicized Bitcoin-for-cash sting operations could easily make this too risky for most people. ASICs are, well, application-specific. It's not exactly easy to fabricate hardware in secret, and there are no excuses to hide behind when you've got a warehouse full of Bitcoin mining rigs.

superuser2 13y ago

You can't stop existing Bitcoin users from trading amongst themselves, but it can be made very impractical to acquire Bitcoin with money. The government can easily isolate Bitcoin exchanges (and any other entity it chooses) from the USD banking infrastructure. Put them on the OFAC list (or similar) and they won't be able to get bank accounts, accept wire/ACH transfers, work with credit cards, or use any other money transmitting service. Transfers of paper cash in person would be the only option, and a campaign of well-publicized Bitcoin-for-cash sting operations could easily make this too risky for most people. ASICs are, well, application-specific. It's not exactly easy to fabricate hardware in secret, and there are no excuses to hide behind when you've got a warehouse full of Bitcoin mining rigs.