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by rahulkapil 3133 days ago
Actually it is not that easy to ban.

The Bitcoin code is open source. Anyone from anywhere can download the code and run a local copy. Your coins are securely stored across computers all over the world. Your balance cannot be frozen by any authority. Maybe central exchanges that convert fiat to Bitcoin could be regulated, but mining cannot be stopped, transactions cannot be stopped. Unless governments all over the world shut down electricity and internet.

At that point question mark is on the government that does this rather than Bitcoin.
2 comments
samsonradu 3133 days ago
> Your coins are securely stored across computers all over the world.

Please lets not start this debate. Times and times again it has been proven that software is not secure. OpenSSL was also thought to be secure for quite some time too..

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XR0CSWV3h3kZWg 3133 days ago
Agreed. In this case there is an implicit, very large, bug bounty that anyone can cash in. So far there has been one creation of new bitcoin bug and zero spending other people's bitcoin bugs.

That does not mean it's secure, but at this point it's looking more secure every day.

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samsonradu 3132 days ago
The more centralized bitcoin becomes, and it will, the more vulnerable it will be. As time goes by a few exchanges will become huge BTC storage centers. What if it’s an inside attack and someone steals the data from the servers? Is there any insurance/rollback mechanism in place?
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lukevdp 3132 days ago
Unless you can pay taxes in Bitcoin, people will always need to be able to convert Bitcoin to fiat.

Bitcoin itself cannot be stopped, but it's utility as a currency (or, as it is now, a speculative investment) can be.

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