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Topic: Is it possible for a country to block bitcoins (or even the whole cryptos) - page 5. (Read 2761 times)

sr. member
Activity: 378
Merit: 250
BuyAnyLight - Blockchain LED Marketplace
Yes it is, and very easily in fact.

All they need to do is block websites related to Bitcoin, such as online wallets (i.e. blockchain.info) and also block exchanges.

This alone would kill any hope of Bitcoin becoming popular in a country as the only people who would go out of their way or risk buying would be hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, or criminals looking to use it for illegal purposes. This is one big problem Bitcoin has compared to gold, which cannot be easily controlled by the government.

What about proxy and vpns? Even if the goverment will block such sites, who need to buy and trade bitcoins or altcoins wil find a way easily. It would be the same situation as with piratebay Grin Nobody cares about goverment website block Smiley
full member
Activity: 195
Merit: 100
THE GAME OF CHANCE. CHANGED.
No its not possible.we can use VPN proxy for change IP and can easily use those site.its never possible to stop using bitcoin by only stooping block website.In my country Porno video is not allowed so government block all website (porn site)but here people using VPN,proxy for watching porn videos. so its very easy to use block chain and using bitcoin.

Yes, you can get around blocks, but the thing is that if the government was to force ISP's block addresses of major exchanges and required protocols it would hinder the whole system in that country enough for it all to just remain within the grasp of those technologically savvy. And let's face it, even without any extra hurdles BTC is still somewhat hard concept for the layman to understand and use, so even a small distortion could have great negative impact.
full member
Activity: 252
Merit: 100
Yes it can! A government has a full control of the regulatory and legality of Bitcoin. And if it chooses not to allow Bitcoin in their country, they can easily block the sites that is associated with the usage and transaction of Bitcoins. This is just like blocking social medias in countries like North Korea and some parts of China.

The reason why the government of that country wants to block Bitcoin is because of the possible threat that it may cause when it will fall. The Economy of country can be affected when something goes wrong which will affect all the businesses of that country.
sr. member
Activity: 490
Merit: 389
Do not trust the government
Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?


Everything is possible. If a country want to block bitcoin and any other type of cryptocurrencies, They can make laws to ban their citizens using cryptocurrency. That's easy!

The question is, can they block it, not can they outlaw it. They can't stop it. It is a bit ironic that your signature ad actually boosts about the use of Tor (they did write TOR instead of Tor tho).
sr. member
Activity: 1022
Merit: 252
Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?


Everything is possible. If a country want to block bitcoin and any other type of cryptocurrencies, They can make laws to ban their citizens using cryptocurrency. That's easy!
sr. member
Activity: 250
Merit: 250
Yes it is, and very easily in fact.

All they need to do is block websites related to Bitcoin, such as online wallets (i.e. blockchain.info) and also block exchanges.

This alone would kill any hope of Bitcoin becoming popular in a country as the only people who would go out of their way or risk buying would be hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, or criminals looking to use it for illegal purposes. This is one big problem Bitcoin has compared to gold, which cannot be easily controlled by the government.
No its not possible.we can use VPN proxy for change IP and can easily use those site.its never possible to stop using bitcoin by only stooping block website.In my country Porno video is not allowed so government block all website (porn site)but here people using VPN,proxy for watching porn videos. so its very easy to use block chain and using bitcoin.
full member
Activity: 714
Merit: 104
I think that in every government of any state there will always be sensible people to understand that it is necessary not to prohibit the crypto currency, but to use it for profit. Why destroy the chicken that carries the golden eggs. In some states, they will certainly try to impose all kinds of restrictions on the circulation of the crypto currency, but they will not bring much success since the crypto currency is difficult to control
sr. member
Activity: 336
Merit: 253
In my opinion it is not possible in every country to block bitcoin (or even all crypto) but depending on the state within the government that does not want bitcoin to break in their official currency ( bank )
True what you say, there may be a country that blocks bitcoin, but whether it can be when in this country there are many who use bitcoin and crypto for human survival. Grin
sr. member
Activity: 490
Merit: 389
Do not trust the government
It honestly surprises me a bit that so many people here don't really know this now Cheesy
No, it is absolutely impossible, in theory or in practice, to block any type of knowledge.

Bitcoin is a protocol, based on mathematics. it is a concept, it can exist on paper or using a calculator for help. It exists on Internet and Internet has a long history of attempted censorship. None of it worked for too long. People learn how to bypass it, you can't follow everyone at all the times. You remember the terror attacks on France not that long ago? EU started banning all kinds of encryption to prevent terrorist from talking to each other, but police reported that they played some first person shooter like CS or CoD and were shooting messages on the walls with bullets. Try stopping that... Cheesy

Projects like Tor exist for years now and they have been doing an amazing job so far. Many countries banned Tor, some use to ban Bitcoin as well.
China still tries to block Tor, but Tor bridges still work. I believe Bitcoin Core runs by default on Tor if you have it installed, if not, it is one check box to set it up.
Not only did Bitcoin exist before centralized exchanges existed, by it grew as well. People used to get together in a town square and exchange bitcoins, the so called Satoshi squares. By now, even decentralized exchanges exist, like Bisq (former Bitsquare). You had hidden services on Tor for a vary long time, many have fallen, but they always came back even more advanced.

So no. Don't worry. You can't stop a revolution, you can only give more incentive for people to join it by trying to stop it.
Bitcoin will have help from the goverment in the end, because people always run the goverment in the end. It is process that has been going around the world for thousands of years, the democratization. Bitcoin is just a part of it.
sr. member
Activity: 588
Merit: 250
Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?


Nope. It is certainly impossible for government to block cryptocurrency use in the country. Although it can be controlled and censored effectively by putting ban on major exchanges. Now suppose if a government decides to ban porn, does it delete files from your computer or server? Exactly not, it simply ban popular sites. But people easily access them via vpn, proxy, etc.
Similarly in case of cryptocurrencies, these can still easily be send/receive using vpn, proxies, etc but buying/selling would become nearly impossible except face-to-face trade.

This is obvious. The point is, if a country were to ban exchanges and the most popular Bitcoin-related sites, there is no question it would lead to the demise of cryptocurrency.

There is no way this goes mainstream without the government being involved. With that said, with the recent BTC-e fiasco it seems the government is trying to build up their crypto portfolio, so the chances of this happening anyway are slim.
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1252
Yes it is, and very easily in fact.

All they need to do is block websites related to Bitcoin, such as online wallets (i.e. blockchain.info) and also block exchanges.

This alone would kill any hope of Bitcoin becoming popular in a country as the only people who would go out of their way or risk buying would be hardcore Bitcoin enthusiasts, or criminals looking to use it for illegal purposes. This is one big problem Bitcoin has compared to gold, which cannot be easily controlled by the government.

It depends at what level block is. If somehow they can block it at ISP level then it would be hard to surpass. Im not sure if they block it at ISP level, an VPN would work. In theory it would, because the VPN would come after the ISP.

Real IP -> VPN IP -> exchanger

This would allow you to bypass the tyrannical governments blocking stuff in theory.

But they can block VPNs, TOR or anything else by passing laws... in that case I don't see any way out.
legendary
Activity: 3472
Merit: 10611
"block" no.
"make illegal" yes.

they can never prevent people from using bitcoin or any other system that is peer to peer. there will always be a workaround. there is no server to raid, there is no IP to block, there is no "1 or a couple of master nodes" to raid and shut down.
and this last one is actually one of the many concerns about bitcoin cash! with the 8 MB blocks soon the number of nodes will fall and in a year or two it will become centralized. of course this won't happen if the blocks are never full and area always about 200 to 500 bytes!!! but then again that would mean they forked for nothing!
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
it will be possible if really the government are serious of not accepting bitcoin anymore in a certain territory or country and it will be chaotic for some bitcoiners to accept it. I hope it will not, I am hoping they should provide some good opportunities about bitcoins..
legendary
Activity: 2870
Merit: 7490
Crypto Swap Exchange
It's possible if they decide to ban bitcoin and they easily can block all cryptocurrency websites. Even bitcoin/altcoin full nodes IP and Tor network which usually used to do illegal bitcoin/altcoin transaction can be blocked if they want to do it Roll Eyes
But, don't forget that people still can use VPN, proxy, ssh or other method to access cryptocurrency websites or any blocked website/content.
member
Activity: 93
Merit: 10
Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

The network is quite large so I do not think they can block all online transactions. They can block some cases but not all.
sr. member
Activity: 560
Merit: 286
Accoeding to me, its not possible for the government to baan crypto currency. Its not actually that easy. millions of people use cryptocurrency including bitcoin. its not possible to shut them down. Goverent cant check each and every cell phone, laptop, pc, etc fpr cryptocurrency. And also there should be a valid reason to baan bitcoin along with cryptocurrency.
newbie
Activity: 29
Merit: 0
impossible
Because each country has its own authority in determining whether or not its citizens may use bitcoin.tapi it all back to each country if my country is still given the freedom to use digital media but still there batainya provided that not out of course we will safe
sr. member
Activity: 630
Merit: 251
thats posible but the question is their success. You see, people can get around anything as long as they really want it by any means possible,
but with the current trend in bitcoin, i dont think government would do that since bitcoin are gaining more and more popularity and support so its possible but they wont. (my oppinion Wink)
Legally any government can ban bitcoins since they have control over the internet in their state. But I don’t think so any government will take such idiotic step when they can earn a lot from bitcoins. Governments are going to put taxes on the bitcoin transactions because people are not going to leave bitcoins soon.
member
Activity: 119
Merit: 100
for future
thats posible but the question is their success. You see, people can get around anything as long as they really want it by any means possible,
but with the current trend in bitcoin, i dont think government would do that since bitcoin are gaining more and more popularity and support so its possible but they wont. (my oppinion Wink)
sr. member
Activity: 699
Merit: 274
Crypto Currency Exchange, IPTV, AWS
Just like the title says, is it possible to block crypto currencies if the government decides to?

They could enforce the ISP to block online payments made or something like that, is it possible?

No I don't think it is possible what they can do is block few bitcoin web wallets in their country but they can't block whole bitcoin network because it is distributed all over the world and it is hard to get all IP of those bitcoin nodes used by wallets. Also anyone can run their own node/wallet in their PC this will make this process even more tedious.

Even US government haven't thought about this till now because they know how complex this is.

Oh well, that's better then. Even though they can block online wallets and blockchain viewers, they can't block the entire bitcoin network itself.

Even if they blocked those services, they can be easily accessed through several means like using VPN or proxies.
 
Thanks for the elaboration!
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