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    Author Topic: How long until governments outlaw bitcoin usage?  (Read 15929 times)

    • fetokun (OP)
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    March 29, 2011, 08:35:17 AM
     #1
    I'm just starting to enter into this BitCoin world and I have 2 main questions:

    1) How long until goverments start persecuting bitcoin users?
    2) What will happen when they do?

    It's not a matter of if governments have the right to do so. Ofcourse they theoreticaly don't (or shouldn't have).
    But US government also didn't have the right to press other countries to outlaw bittorrent, but look at what happened in Sweden, Canada, Spain in just the last 2 years.
    If the corporations that own copyrights of movies and musics are being able to protect theyr profits by changing laws and bending governments, courts and police force, imagine what the banks can do!

    Of course to reach that point the community should have grown incredibly larger, but to all of us who believe in the future of virtual currencies this is a point to be considered.

    Would then bitcoin be banned to underground usage hence every single coin would become black money?

  • epii
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    March 29, 2011, 08:40:41 AM
     #2
    I think that illegalization is Bitcoin's most likely mode of failure.  Failure, of course, only in the sense that it would crash the price by eliminating the likelihood of "upstanding citizens" ever adopting it; it could continue to be used for black market stuff, and while this would get a few careless people in trouble, would be unstoppable on the whole.

    Considering how quickly services like Silk Road have sprung up, and the fact that the demographic of people who seem most interested in Bitcoin at this point tends to overlap with the demographic of likely tax evaders, I am afraid that this illegalization might just be a matter of time.  Bittorrent was bad enough, after all, and that is only a "threat" to the private sector.

  • caveden
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    March 29, 2011, 08:42:18 AM
     #3
    You'd better ask those questions in an astrology forum.

  • tiberiandusk
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    March 29, 2011, 09:16:39 AM
     #4
    I think as long as it is relatively easy to convert from one currency to another they won't really care unless the world totally collapsed but that is unlikely.
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  • em3rgentOrdr
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    March 29, 2011, 09:21:02 AM
     #5
    My question is:

    3) How long until some government starts accepting bitcoin as payment for taxes?

    I mean, it's inevitable...  Governments always seem to grow and eventually collapse under their own weight after a long enough time, and by then, their currency would probably be worthless (couldn't even pay government employees with their own fiat currency), so states may reluctantly accept bitcoins while on their death beds.
    "We will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

    Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks, but pure P2P networks are holding their own."

  • deadlizard
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    March 29, 2011, 09:25:15 AM
     #6
    (4) How long before the bitcoin network becomes self aware and launches a nuclear attack against Russia?
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  • N12
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    March 29, 2011, 09:27:45 AM
     #7
    5) How long until a Bitcoin Company selling organs, prosthetics and life enhancers forms?

  • em3rgentOrdr
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    March 29, 2011, 09:34:48 AM
     #8
    Quote from: deadlizard on March 29, 2011, 09:25:15 AM
    (4) How long before the bitcoin network becomes self aware and launches a nuclear attack against Russia?

    Quote from: Blitzboom on March 29, 2011, 09:27:45 AM
    5) How long until a Bitcoin Company selling organs, prosthetics and life enhancers forms?

    6) How long before such a Bitcoin Company selling organs gets taken over by a self-aware bitcoin network that farms humans for organs to support bitcoin lifeforms?
    "We will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years.

    Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks, but pure P2P networks are holding their own."

  • Nefario
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    March 29, 2011, 09:35:25 AM
     #9
    Quote from: Blitzboom on March 29, 2011, 09:27:45 AM
    5) How long until a Bitcoin Company selling organs, prosthetics and life enhancers forms?

    What kind of enhancers are we talking about here?
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  • N12
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    March 29, 2011, 09:38:02 AM
     #10
    Quote from: Nefario on March 29, 2011, 09:35:25 AM
    What kind of enhancers are we talking about here?
    I wouldn’t know. The kind SENS is trying to fabricate.

  • fetokun (OP)
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    March 29, 2011, 09:48:54 AM
     #11
    7) How long until bitcoin usage summons the evil lord Kthulu?

    But seriously... Don't you guys wonder what would happen when or if bitcoin gets in the same path bittorrents did?

  • Anonymous
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    March 29, 2011, 09:58:27 AM
     #12
    Quote from: deadlizard on March 29, 2011, 09:25:15 AM
    (4) How long before the bitcoin network becomes self aware and launches a nuclear attack against Russia?

    How long till someone buys a nuke with bitcoin from russia ?

  • db
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    March 29, 2011, 10:14:43 AM
     #13
    Quote from: fetokun on March 29, 2011, 09:48:54 AM
    But seriously... Don't you guys wonder what would happen when or if bitcoin gets in the same path bittorrents did?

    Becomes widely adopted and loved? I think it would be nice.

  • sortedmush
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    March 29, 2011, 10:15:57 AM
     #14
    “Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism.  While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.  We are determined to meet these threats through infiltration, disruption, and dismantling of organizations which seek to challenge the legitimacy of our democratic form of government.” Anne Tompkins, US Attorney

    There you go. Infiltration, disruption & dismantling.

    We should be worrying about psychological attacks as well as technological ones. Check out this.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

    I think we would be fools to ignore this threat.

  • deadlizard
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    March 29, 2011, 10:22:12 AM
     #15
    Quote from: sortedmush on March 29, 2011, 10:15:57 AM
    There you go. Infiltration, disruption & dismantling.
    That explains all the interventionist keynesians that seem to hang around here
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  • Anonymous
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    March 29, 2011, 10:37:38 AM
     #16
    Quote
    He said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

    so what they do is sell the tech to mi6 who can then spy on americans. Then its all hunky dory.

  • Anonymous
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    March 29, 2011, 10:38:26 AM
     #17
    Quote from: deadlizard on March 29, 2011, 10:22:12 AM
    Quote from: sortedmush on March 29, 2011, 10:15:57 AM
    There you go. Infiltration, disruption & dismantling.
    That explains all the interventionist keynesians that seem to hang around here

    It makes sense.

  • abstraction
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    March 29, 2011, 11:00:19 AM
     #18
    Quote from: em3rgentOrdr on March 29, 2011, 09:21:02 AM
    My question is:

    3) How long until some government starts accepting bitcoin as payment for taxes?

    I mean, it's inevitable...  Governments always seem to grow and eventually collapse under their own weight after a long enough time, and by then, their currency would probably be worthless (couldn't even pay government employees with their own fiat currency), so states may reluctantly accept bitcoins while on their death beds.

    The smart people in those governments will. They will let go of their power in the fiat currency to trade to bitcoin and for that they will prove that they are good governors. People in power are not very self confidant. They are extremely self conscious of their image and they just want to be liked. They don't know how to relate to people (probably due to an embarrassing incident regarding their feelings in their youth) so they use their gift (science) to engineer a way for people to like them. Bigger the science -> bigger the insecurity -> bigger the induced feeling of a need for power -> bigger the power grab. They just need more love than the rest of us do and they set themselves up to fail when they exercise the wrong science.

  • Mike Hearn
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    March 29, 2011, 11:07:55 AM
     #19
    Bear in mind the US Govt invented both the internet (more anonymous/decentralized than AOL/Compuserve), and Tor. Governments are big and are full of people with differing priorities.

    If most BitCoin usage is legal I think it'll be OK in the long run. This is why I wish we'd kick the people selling serial keys and the Silk Road guys out of the forum. Of course they can still do what they're doing, but there's no need to advertise them in the main forum.

  • Nefario
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    March 29, 2011, 11:15:35 AM
     #20
    Quote from: [mike] on March 29, 2011, 11:07:55 AM
    Bear in mind the US Govt invented both the internet (more anonymous/decentralized than AOL/Compuserve), and Tor. Governments are big and are full of people with differing priorities.

    If most BitCoin usage is legal I think it'll be OK in the long run. This is why I wish we'd kick the people selling serial keys and the Silk Road guys out of the forum. Of course they can still do what they're doing, but there's no need to advertise them in the main forum.

    Bear in mind that the government only does things for it's own benefit. The internet was created AFAIK to allow a more efficient, less centralised, and robust command and control system that could withstand a nuclear attack.

    Tor was created specifically so that U.S. spies could safely communicate, and send messages while being in hostile territory without being compromised.
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