[pjc50]

> But no amount of public outcry can ban, shut down or criminalize crypto, same as you can't ban IMAP or AES.

This is a terrible example as the US government really did ban DES for a while - at least for "export", which includes publishing on the internet.

People who say "the government can't ban X" are really badly underestimating how far governments are willing to go if you really do start disrupting the state.

[concinds]

Yes, governments can try, but there will always be ways to fight it; including using sneakernet to exchange hardware wallets, instead of traceable on-blockchain transactions. Crypto is as impossible to ban as the internet at this point.

[pjc50]

You end up in a "war on drugs" scenario. You could argue whether it is "possible" or "impossible" to ban drugs, given their continued availability, but they certainly have been criminalized.

[dataangel]

Yeah and how effective was that ban? Not very, and if it were tried today it would be totally impotent.