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by vangelis 1411 days ago
You don't have to ban crypto. You could just ban exchanges. You can always exchange Bitcoin for cash and back, but that's a lot harder.
2 comments

That's the same game though: if I know a guy who can get me weed or whatever, I will know a guy who can get me bitcoin.

And since there is no physical product or evidence it's actually much easier, my friend from Amsterdam will have a lot of trouble bringing me weed, he will have zero difficulty sending $100 worth of BTC to an address I give him.

The idea that you can just ban things and they will go away should have died with alcohol prohibitions. I guess at least no one will get killed in a war on crypto...

How does your friend from Amsterdam convert his crypto to Euros? The value of crypto more or less relies on there being an off-ramp to local currency. Also he should use Monero!
I assume somewhere on earth exchange will remain legal (eg Amsterdam). So my friend just uses services legal to him locally.

And even if it doesn't, your friendly local drug dealer, who may already be trading crypto to purchase product, will presumably offer exchange services. No one needs an exchange they can just charge a spread between people wanting to buy and those wanting to sell. That's how money change already works after all...

And you're right about Monero!

> You could just ban exchanges.

US has tried the ban hammer both for alcohol and then for drugs, how has that worked out for them?

That would just create a massive underground black market, this time even more pernicious because it's international, with state-level actors.

Where does the clean money to exchange for crypto come from if there's no legitimate on-ramp and off-ramp? You could at least exchange drugs and alcohol for dirty fiat.