Topic: The future of Bitcoin is illegal - page 7. (Read 20070 times)

It would be awesome if these threads had a garbage disposal button. If garbage disposal is upvoted enough times, then everyone who posted in the thread would be banned from the forum.

I'm using "supply" in the economic sense.  It's an upward sloping curve that tells you how many sellers you'll find at a particular price.  Again, if bitcoins are declared illegal, they're still going to be somewhere after that law passes. And I don't think those holders are going to be particularly anxious to sell them.  (After all, doing so will be illegal.) You don't have to "walk around with" bitcoins. If you use a brain-wallet, you don't have to worry about being discovered in possession of illegal bitcoins.  We're basically talking about thought-crime at that point.  But the holders might be somewhat hesitant to sell or transact with them.  So again, I think that shifts the supply curve to the right. Of course, as you point out, the announcement of the law might have first shifted the supply curve to the left if people scramble to unload their coins while it's still legal to do so. And sure, being declared illegal might also shift the demand curve to the left. But as someone else pointed out, the crackdown would be local (it's very unlikely that ALL jurisdictions pass laws at the same time) while the legitimacy boost of "this is something that worries us" would be global.  So I don't think it would destroy Bitcoin as a store of value any more than Executive Order 6102 destroyed gold as as store of value. 


Bitcoin is the opposite of fiat cash.  Cash depends on an artificial scarcity protected by government violence.  Cash is just not very good money.  Its primary competitive advantage comes from state authority.  Take that advantage away and of course it becomes worthless.  But that wouldn't happen with good money, e.g. gold or Bitcoin.

No. Bitcoin is a tool. You can outlaw a certain usage of this tool not the tool itself! You can not outlaw knifes just because they can be used by criminals!

Money in the form of cash is money not based on debt! If you remove cash you setup a monetary system that is entirely based on debt. That means every member of such a society must be indebted first if they want to be part of this society and use such money. And then, who would be the master creditor? How debtors would control their creditors? They can't. This is where capitalism transforms to neofeudalism and this is exactly what you'll do if you outlaw cash!

The supply of Bitcoin is fixed.  Illegal coins are going to be harder to get and to sell, because you won't find any traders, but also less interesting to most people, and not used due to legal alternatives.  People don't walk around with illegal substances to pay for illegal substances.  They pay with something legal.  Supply is not only fixed, bitcoins will also not be used.  Because bitcoins will be hard to buy, and you don't want to get caught with something illegal if you can avoid it.  The value of the coins will go down, because you don't want to sit on a fortune in illegal money.  You will want to exchange the coins for legal tender as soon as possible.  The coins will no longer be useful as a store of value.

For illegal activity today, I think Bitcoin is comparable to cash.  A substantial amount of cash transactions involve illegal activity of some sort.  Most do not.  If cash is outlawed, cash will become worthless.

Totally Agree !!!

That's why I want Bitcoins !!!!

there is too many endoctrined, not enought awaken !

WAKE UP !  Stop taking what's told a truth, think and challenge, then you'll see the real truth !

So I hear people can predict the future now.. sweeeet mang.

I can accept that. But remember, some are already paying rent with it -directly.

Thanks. It's currently tied up as part of a rental property of mine. I'll enjoy it even more when I cash out the 5000 or so coins I still hold, hopefully for a fair bit more than $100k.

Gentlemen, whatever the particular destiny of bitcoin is we don't know. But I predict for each destiny there will be a cryptocurrency to fullfill the need. The cat is out of the bag, let's embrace it.

A strong regulation of bitcoin doesn't mean it's growth potential goes down - actually it's likely to be the opposite. In any event, the two key properties of bitcoin will always persist as long the majority of the hashing power is not in the hands of a large entity: 1) fixed money supply 2) fungibility

However, what we may lose on the way is anonymity, which is a problem for illegal businesses. I suspect that we will see other cryptocurrencies or services allowing the conversion of non-anonymous to anonymous money. If the OP feels that should be something worth pursuing I propose he should invest a fraction of that $100,000 accordingly.

As far as the cash-out strategy of the OP goes, I am pleased to hear that his early risk taking got rewarded and he can enjoy his lucky position (chance to be a super-early adopter). I hope we'll all be in the same position a few years from now.

This is utter bullshit. I bought into Bitcoin with a very small amount of money, by the time I finished buying I was up to $1000, still a small amount of money. I dunno if you live in your parent's basement or what, but for grown ups $1000 isn't usually that much.

The investment became worth a comparatively large amount of money, not because I appreciated the concept that its best use is for illegal activity, but because I got really lucky.

I'm not preaching anything, I'm not talking about the "best destiny" of Bitcoin.

You've just pulled all that out of your ass.

I think that you might be a little dense. You haven't debated me at all, you've just called me a liar about a fact I mentioned in the OP which has no consequence to the debate, and accused me of being a troll. Here's a newsflash for you: sometimes people have contrary opinions to the ones that you have. Sometimes they even say them out loud. I am sorry you can't deal with that and you take it as a personal affront, and an insult to everything that you hold dear. Just because you are a baby doesn't make me a troll.

I'm also sorry you can't accept the fact that I made some cash with Bitcoins. I didn't mention it to boast, I just mentioned it to say that I have had some good results with Bitcoins, I am on the side of Bitcoins, and I still have some skin in the game. Ironically it was to stop people from thinking that I was trying to attack Bitcoin. To be honest I thought it would be a miniscule amount compared to what most people here have probably made, but from your jealous attacks I guess not.

You made a lot of bullshit claims, told me to do my research about them when I questioned them, I did my research and came back to tell you that I couldn't find a scrap of truth in the bullshit you are spewing, and yet again I get a personal attack. I think I can reasonably walk away thinking you are probably an idiot.

That's what we have now. That list has been steadily growing for the past year.

Accept it or not.

typically one couples data with claims of fact...
(a link to a wiki site is not my idea of high quality data, just sayin...)

When opinion goes against fact, that's an acceptance issue. 

They are multiplying ‼

I don't think it's an issue of acceptance...it's an issue of fact vs. opinion...

Goldbugs obviously, and a growing number are taking a position in Bitcoin.

Why is this hard for some to accept?

I fell for it too!

Holy shit, I was trying to kill that damn bug. good job.

Yeah, that's certainly possible.  But for every sale, there's a buyer.  And those new buyers will become the potential sellers who will determine the supply of bitcoins going forward.


Well, I suppose it deters some people.  *cough, cough*  But my larger point was that the deterrent effect of prohibition is much MORE pronounced on the supply side.  

No, I think the future of Bitcoin is to become the world's dominant currency.  Why not use legal fiat instead? Because it's being rapidly debased, because it's a terrible store of value, because it makes it difficult for you to preserve your financial privacy, because online payments require excessive fees, because your accounts can be frozen at the whim of a tyrannical government, because you're helping to prop up a corrupt and unsustainable system, etc.  

I have your answer: yes.