[nullc]

I'm trying to think of some <Foo> that doesn't work in the pattern of "<Foo> will prosper until governments or banks decide to crush it".

Excepting the trivial cases of things that won't prosper regardless, I'm not coming up with anything. :)

Some of the assumptions in the article seem pretty weak to me: E.g. "Anonymity threatens control" uh, cash is a lot more anonymous than Bitcoin. The structure of cash's anonymity limitations are somewhat different than Bitcoin's but it's hard to argue that Bitcoin is too different on that point. ... and it's not just cash, any other valuable commodity is fairly anonymous, and easily argued as more so than Bitcoin— yet, as far as I am aware, there is no great effort afoot to outlaw coal.

[cabalamat]

> I'm trying to think of some <Foo> that doesn't work in the pattern of "<Foo> will prosper until governments or banks decide to crush it".

How about agriculture? Governments can't destroy that, because everyone would starve, then they wouldn't be a government any more.

Or the internet -- a government can't ban that, if they want to be richer than North Korea (which most do).

[Retric]

It's effectively illegal to transport large amounts of cash in the US. As in cops will confiscate it and you have no recourse unless the "preponderance of the evedence" suggests it has no link to any crime.

[noarchy]

Governments have already begun to crack down on the use of cash.

Examples:

Italy http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/italys-cap-on-cash-paym...

Spain http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-11/spain-to-limit-cash...

USA (Louisiana) http://www.klfy.com/story/15717759/second-hand-dealer-law

There are more examples beyond this, but there may indeed be a trend emerging.

You also risk having cash stolen by border agents when crossing international borders. Many countries expect you to declare whether or not you are carrying more than a certain amount.

[malandrew]

Exactly. This is my favorite abuse of this power:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._$124,700_in_U....

[mpyne]

Wow, that looks like a title you'd see on /r/nottheonion

[malandrew]

The dissenting opinion is a worth a read.