“Bitcoin is impossible to shut down”

Re:“Bitcoin is impossible to shut down” – Cathie Wood by mytailorisrich on Friday May 28, 2021 @10:38AM (#27315845)

> I think what she meant is the very nature of BTC or crypto that even if Govt bans, its just unstoppable. You can still hold it in your wallet and do transactions.

If it's illegal then no legitimate financial institution or business will touch it, which will make it an underground niche for criminals only, and will allow police to arrest people just on that basis (a bit like bringing criminals down on tax evasion when proving their other crimes is tricky)

Then in places like China if they decide to really kill it then they absolutely can do it very quickly (don't confuse official bans and actual will to ban in a country like China, the former is lip service, the latter is brutal).

Sounds very stoppable to me if governments decide to.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:“Bitcoin is impossible to shut down” – Cathie Wood by anandaverma18 on Friday May 28, 2021 @12:12PM (#27317192)

I still don't think it can be stopped even if Govt wants to. Not denying your points but If it can be stopped it would have stopped by now. I will save this thread, we will came back a decade later to check :)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:“Bitcoin is impossible to shut down” – Cathie Wood by mytailorisrich on Friday May 28, 2021 @12:28PM (#27317389)

Governments do not stop or ban something just because they can. They need a good reason to prompt them to act.

So far crypto is mostly irrelevant so there is no reason to bother. A country that actually has a practical reason to perhaps put a stop to it is China because they have currency and capital controls and crypto allows to bypass that.

[ Parent | on HN ]