Imagine Bin Laden is still around.
We find out his bank account. It contains 5 MUSD and we can see transactions entering it.
We then see outgoings, some of which are traced to weapons used to kill 1000s of Americans, think a major bomb or subway incident.
What do you think is going to happen? Media outrage and congressional outrage. "We must ban this worldwide!". It's exactly what will happen. The US Dollar being so public is a double-edged sword.
The bank account would be/have been confiscated. That's the entire point I was making. The media, the people, the gov will want to know why it wasn't.
In the case of bitcoin, they simply can't do it. In regular banks they can.
End result, massive backlash against bitcoin. Totally inevitable. I remember people not eating french fries because the French dared to make their own decision about the war! Comical. And you couldn't criticise the war because it was anti American and not supporting the soldiers.
So you'll get the same thing, but about bitcoin. And people will stop accepting it or using it on principle. And draconian laws will come in.
That is the real world and it sucks, but people like to run with the pack rather than engage their brain. You can see that all over this thread and reddit, it's not actually any different.