Interesting, this would be a massive blow. I can only see cryptos being brought under control in the future and regulated as they are become more domesticated (can you imagine our nanny state allowing people to get their wallet hacked and actually have to take responsibility for their own actions!!?) Full story: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e=emailCampaign&utm_content=&utm_medium=email
Just another fluff piece for those that didn't invest to bemoan the rise of Bitcoin and crypto in general.
Could they not treat server farms like they do Cannabis farms? Bust in and seize all the computers off any premises they suspect of drawing large amounts of power out of the grid? These days, could Bitcoin survive running solely on miners in their homes?
Not in countries that are developed. That would cross so many lines legally. Dictatorships I suppose could but even then it will only effect a fraction of the proof of work across the globe. Bitcoin mining in China accounts for 65% of all bitcoin mined. It is illegal to trade crypto in china but legal to mine it. If China banned mining you would still have underground operations, buy say they knock 50% of it on the head. The mining difficulty would then come down and other areas around the world would step in because it would become for profitable again. I guess electricity costs and labour is far cheaper in China too.
Could this lead to very long transaction times though? If these large scare factory miners went offline for whatever reason, could it take significantly longer for a bitcoin to change hands?
Any country could introduce a crypto currency ban. It was illegal for individuals to own gold coins and bars in the USA between 1933 and 1974. Punishable by ten years imprisonment.
Normally in dictatorships, bribery is rife and money talks. But I reckon the slack would be taken up elsewhere as the difficulty would come down. True, the Bitcoin transaction speed is horribly slow at the moment. I'm not not sure how far they have got with the lightning network? Bitcoin is more a store of wealth at the moment. I'd use something like ripple for speed. Yea but no one government can realistically or technically enforce it.
[QUOTE="lazarus, post: 644632, member: 13786" Yea but no one government can realistically or technically enforce it.[/QUOTE] They don't need to. Jailing one or two exanples is all it takes to concentrate minds. It's why millions religiously pay for a TV licence. And don't grow cannabis.
But it is still un-enforceable in the real world. Which I think is great. It's because of this that it has such a strong following.
Governments won't want their currency debased with bitcoin (or any cryptos) and we know that bitcoin bandwidth can only handle about 5 transactions a second and lags way behind credit cards and will never replace currency. So I think the gov are happy to let it roll for a bit while everyone gets used to transacting and filling their boots with the whole "crypto" thing. But then a time will surely come when Gov's roll out their own crypto.e.g. {pound.coin} and it won't be a shock to the population as hey we we're all using cryptos already! (already happening see thread titile) You can't ban block-chain I get that, but it will just be a matter of making sites like coinbase illegal, downloading wallets etc the moment this happens I think it will smash the value off bitcoin, and every crypto that enters the market dilutes bitcoin as they all do the same thing and that means at the end of the day they're not rare. In summary a giant ponzi scheme, if not the greatest ponzi scheme ever known to man but I bought some and its interesting being part of the bubble.
One issue is poor regulation. If government can work with the industry to find compromise, instead of outright ban, it would be different
