Questions tagged [government]
the body exercising authority over a political units and questions about how they may affect, and be affected by, crypto-currencies.
41 questions
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Could the US government print crypto of its own?
I get very tired of having to walk cash and checks over to my credit union. Why shouldn’t I be able to spend money online without a debit card or an intermediary like PayPal?
An anonymous sort of ...
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Could centralisation of miners lead to censorship?
Censorship meaning: Only government approved addresses are allowed to have their transactions added to the blockchain.
Scenario: Miners are centralised within a geographic boundary with significantly ...
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Considering the potential upcoming legislation in the U.S., what moves can someone make before it goes into effect to protect themselves?
The upcoming infrastructure bill includes some crypto provisions, and it's getting a lot of attention. There are varying opinions on just how bad these provisions are, but regardless of severity they ...
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How can government "seize" bitcoins?
Last year the U.S. Department of Justice posted this press release claiming U.S. "law enforcement seized several thousand Bitcoins on November 3, 2020."
How is it possible for anyone to &...
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Why do people claim that governments cannot confiscate Bitcoins?
Let's say that I practice impeccable data security processes using dedicated devices, encryption, and no clear-text backups. Even if they cannot find all of my backups, this doesn't protect me from ...
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How bitcoin gets monetary value [duplicate]
This looks like a complex thing but I am trying hard to understand it. Why would any one in the world honor a crypto currency till it is backed by a government with monetary value? How does a crypto ...
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How would a governmental Bitcoin ban work in practice?
How does a potantial Bitcoin ban work in practice in a regime that a.) at least partially allows access to the Internet, and b.) has at least one payment system that is not closely monitored by the ...
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Can government agencies trace if I mine bitcoin?
I live in a country where the government has strict rules against using bitcoin. in fact, they are trying to find out the citizens who are related to bitcoin. I was just wondering if they can catch me ...
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Can Bitcoin be "shutdown" if energy consumption for mining is heavily regulated?
Can Bitcoin be "shutdown" or heavily hampered if energy consumption for mining is heavily regulated? Can transactions still be processed if mining for new coins is hampered? I am thinking it would be ...
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How hard it is to destroy BitCoin system if the government leaders decide to do this?
Just wondering, since the government controls the physical internet. The Bitcoin system could be somehow destroyed by the governments.
I'm just wondering if they want to do this, is it technically ...
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Are decentralized currencies absolutely critical [closed]
If Ripple is not really decentralized and yet obviously effective, quickly adapted to use and successful, should it matter? Does it not give more certainty and security in use especially with new ...
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Is it possible for a country to control Bitcoin usage? [closed]
Imagine that I run a country named "MyAwesomeCountry". I accept Bitcoin as a currency that can be legally used to buy things and also pay taxes.
Then I say that there are some bad guys (let's name ...
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The role of governments when comparing Bitcoin and gold [closed]
I was reading the bitcoin wiki on myths and I completely agree that Bitcoin has the advantage of limited in supply like gold but it's a lot convenient and secure to use then gold. However, if you read ...
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Pump & Dump communities. Are they legal?
There are several communities that allow anybody take part in their "movements".
They say, for example, that at 7pm GMT they will announce an altcoin name and people would rapidly buy this coin on a ...
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Legal issue of bitcoin investment in the US as a foreigner [closed]
So after China banned CNY <=> bitcoin trading, I plan to invest in bitcoin with my USD. My plan is:
exchange USD with CNY (by wire probably)
Buy bitcoins with USD
Sell bitcoins for USD.
...
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What would happend if a country were backed by its own cryptocurrency? [closed]
What would happen if instead of depending on dollars or gold, a country were backed by its own cryptocurrency, would this benefit its citizens and the country itself? How?
I've read this answer but ...
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Exchange-based vs over-the-counter (OTC)
I read an article about China ban on exchange, which mentions that
... the ban on exchange-based cryptocurrency trades will not extend to over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
I am confused over ...
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How is the human end of the Bitcoin network secured?
Being devil's advocate right now.
If you have a very strong cryptography, however, secure system's Point of Failure is always the human end. We spend hours trying to make Bitcoin secure at core level,...
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If Bitcoin is not controlled by the state, how come in some countries it is illegal?
From my understanding, Bitcoin is decentralized and not controlled by any company or organization (so, for example, no bank is behind Bitcoin).
However, this seems to not be powerful enough to resist ...
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Could bitcoins destroy a government [duplicate]
In theory if bitcoins were to be used by the majority of a population then could the issue arise of a drop in government funds as bitcoins are technically tax free as they is no way of tracking were ...
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How can the government tax you using bitcoin
Bitcoin is decentralised and anonymous so how can governments issue /enforce taxes on any transactions made with bitcoin?
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Who Really Controls Bitcoin?
Source: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@dantheman/who-really-controls-bitcoin
This article suggests that governments and electricity companies have the power to control bitcoin. Any truth in this ...
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How does the U.S. government view Bitcoin? Is it money?
How does the U.S. government view Bitcoin? Is it a currency, a commodity, or something else?
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Are there any publications about deanonymizing Bitcoin?
At the Model United Conference I attend, there is a resolution proposed to de-anonymize BTC in order to cull Darknet transactions.
I know it is impossible but how do i prove it to the other delegates?...
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Is it possible to use the Bitcoin technology as a reputation system for sales?
Imagine a marketplace where all nominal money prices are the same for products (for tax purposes), but you gain and lose "reputation" in the form of a Bitcoin style transaction.
Case 1: Those who ...
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Is it possible to "unmine" particular coins?
Imagine that a government seizes a large amount of bitcoins in a raid such as with "Silk Road". Is it possible to invalidate those particular coins and send them back to the "pool" to be re-mined so ...
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Can the Government step in, to ban bitcoins? [duplicate]
The price of bitcoins increase with demand. Demand increases because people can spend the bitcoins. I think the price of bitcoins started as a drug money. The main advantage of bitcoins is that the ...
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How many BTC were seized in relation to the shutdown of Silk Road?
I'm interested in the total amount of BTC that was seized in the Silk Road confiscation by the FBI. The reason I'm interested is so I can figure out what Bitcoin Addresses were used and how I can ...
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What does the US government do with seized coins?
It was reported today that the US government shut down the web site Silk Road, where people bought and sold things (allegedly including illegal drugs) using Bitcoins. The operator was arrested, and ...
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Government disrupting reception of bitcoins. Is it possible?
I was thinking of a very specific scenario: Suppose we have a new organization, let's call it "WikiLeaks2", which receives donnations mostly in the form of Bitcoins. Suppose a national government ...
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Are we anonymous against governments? [duplicate]
If all transactions are public knowledge and coins are identifiable and thus traceable. With the power of subpoena can't a government uncover who bought the coin(s) from an exchange. It might be ...
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What happens if the US govt. bans Bitcoin?
They can do that because they are the US govt.
What would be the likely consequences of the ban?
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What prevents Bitcoins for being used to avoid taxation?
Today, states can follow money trails and transaction histories, usually involving checking bank accounts. As as I understand, It's impossible for anyone else to read your Bitcoin transactions and ...
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Can someone with an unlimited amount of money compromize the network?
I was reading this interesting discussion in the comments section on ZH where this guy was talking about how a single entity (think corrupt government and banksters) can throw money and processing ...
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Is there a website that tracks Bitcoin taxes paid to local government?
One thing that would further legitimize Bitcoin with government oversight is the payment of relevant taxes to Federal and State government (in local equivalent currency) for e-commerce and mining ...
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Will an approved Bitcoin-like system replace Bitcoin?
What is the chance of another Bitcoin-like currency system to replace Bitcoin? Will Bitcoin still coexist with such systems? Will it affect then-current Bitcoin exchange rate?
By Bitcoin-like, I ...
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What is a brief summary of the ECB's report on virtual currency?
On 29th Oct 2012, the European Central Bank released this report on virtual currency.
What is a summary of its comments on Bitcoin?
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How much would it cost for a government to undermine Bitcoins?
Articles by for example the Economist stating that Bitcoins are being used for drug trading (Silk Road), I believe that the biggest risk to Bitcoins is that a government will pull a stunt similar to ...
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Defense from Government Intervention
What's to stop a government, say the U.S. government, from saying "Hey, it's okay if you want to use Bitcoins, but you have to use at least version 0.6.3".
And then a year later changing the law to "...
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What methods could a government use to shutdown Bitcoin?
Let's say that a government decided to shut down the Bitcoin network. What options would they have to achieve this? Would they need to convince other governments? All governments?
Let's set as a ...
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What would a country adopting Bitcoins as official currency have to reinvent?
Let's say that a country decided to ditch their currency and go for Bitcoins. What would this country have to reinvent. The reason why I ask, is because I believe that if a tiny country was to adopt ...
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