[RuggeroAltair]

If someone proposes this kind of law in the US, would it be compatible with the US Constitution?

It seems to me hard to enforce in some western countries.

How can you enforce people not to buy or sell something, unless you decide it's a scam.

Regulations could be enforced, I suppose, the same way short-selling can be 'paused' in situation in which the market is going crazy or volatility is too high. But unless you use these loopholes I am not sure it would be possible.

Does anyone know of ways to enforce such a thing in the states? Or in any of the western european countries?

[Nursie]

>> How can you enforce people not to buy or sell something, unless you decide it's a scam.

Drugs, weapons, precursors/ingredients for those things.... Certainly some of the worst and most controversial parts of modern legal codes in the west, but governments ban stuff they don't like all the time.

Where you're dealing with financial instruments, there is just so much law in place already that it seems to me it would be almost impossible to make a business using Bitcoin and not fall foul of some law somewhere.

[RuggeroAltair]

No, I agree, and I mean exactly what you meant.

Either you say that something is dangerous (as in your example, drugs, weapons... etc), or it has to be considered a scam.

I may be wrong and I would like to understand this better, but I don't see how they can declare it illegal to buy unless they find a loophole (money laundry, etc).

But just saying you're not allow to buy it, without associating with it a motivation (which could eventually be challenged via various Courts), doesn't see easy to me in the US.

They can't even manage to ban weapons really.

[peter303]

Sure, Section 8 of the US Constitution:

"To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures"