Current Events > The US govt should take the lead, and ban Bitcoins and other virtual currencies.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Virtual currencies are unconstitutional: Congress has the power to regulate and print money (or delegate that to a central bank) and designate what is and is not legal tender. Bitcoins are definitely NOT legal tender and are primarily used by libertarians and anarcho-capitalists who openly want to upend the existing financial system. Somehow that still doesn't raise alarm bells with Congresscritters.

Almost 9 years after their invention, Bitcoins have very little use in the real world other than speculation, illicit online gambling, money laundering, drugs, fraud, ransomware, and other illegal activities. FBI investigations into drug marketplaces, exchange hacks, unauthorized ICOs etc. etc. have cost American taxpayers millions of dollars.

(Side note: There is value in blockchain-like technology, however it is entirely separate from using bitcoins as a currency. Most Fortune 500 companies exploring blockchain proof-of-concepts are not storing sensitive data on "the" bitcoin blockchain, but rather their own currencies/virtual tokens e.g. a consortium of banks running their own blockchain for trade settlements. It is entirely possible for legislation to allow this while outlawing currency transactions involving unauthorized virtual coins.)

While it's seemingly impossible to ban something that appears to be "decentralized" and peer-to-peer, virtual currencies have a weak point: the exchanges. Just shut them down like the Chinese government, de-legitimize the activity, and it gets forced underground and eventually stamped out.

Are Congressmen & regulators really so captured by a few dozen crypto-currency startups, a minuscule industry compared to Fortune 500, that they can't ban unauthorized virtual currencies, let alone write regulations that aren't completely toothless?

I agree, but only because I wanna see people lose money.
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Big government shill.

Whose alt is this?
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"ban Bitcoins and other virtual currencies"

ah.. ha... hahahAHAHAHAHAH

You can't ban Bitcoin. The only way to do that would be to shut down the entire internet.
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Rob Cesternino posted...

You can't ban Bitcoin. The only way to do that would be to shut down the entire internet.

Boo_Mario posted...

While it's seemingly impossible to ban something that appears to be "decentralized" and peer-to-peer, virtual currencies have a weak point: the exchanges. Just shut them down like the Chinese government, de-legitimize the activity, and it gets forced underground and eventually stamped out.

The other disturbing thing is the early adopters are actively trying to lure retail investors, mutual funds, banks, etc. into investing in virtual currencies as an "asset class." Mom and pop investors are often the ones who can least afford to lose their savings. If enough people and institutions get sucked in and the price crashes, it may require another government bailout.

Maybe we should just ban TC instead.

How much time and how many brain cells have been lost reading this? That is the real crime here.
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Boo_Mario posted...

The other disturbing thing is the early adopters are actively trying to lure retail investors, mutual funds, banks, etc. into investing in virtual currencies as an "asset class." Mom and pop investors are often the ones who can least afford to lose their savings. If enough people and institutions get sucked in and the price crashes, it may require another government bailout.

Cryptos don't have a 5% fee like credit cards do, which is why they're attractive to merchants.

America knows it can't ban crypto because Russia, China, and Japan are throwing their full weight behind it. A lot of money would leave this country if the government fought it.

clearaflagrantj posted...

Cryptos don't have a 5% fee like credit cards do, which is why they're attractive to merchants.

why would they? they're currency; paying with btc is akin to paying from your checking account which also has no fee

Russia, China, and Japan are throwing their full weight behind it.

source this claim plz

china specifically has a ton to lose by supporting an alternative currency after the decades they've spent keeping their currency artificially weak to maintain a trade deficit
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