India to propose cryptocurrency ban

JMI · Mar 15, 2021

Interesting, this would be a massive blow. I can only see cryptos being brought under control in the future and regulated as they are become more domesticated (can you imagine our nanny state allowing people to get their wallet hacked and actually have to take responsibility for their own actions!!?)

Full story:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...e=emailCampaign&utm_content=&utm_medium=email

ian · Mar 15, 2021

Just another fluff piece for those that didn't invest to bemoan the rise of Bitcoin and crypto in general.

lazarus · Mar 15, 2021

They can try! But they will fail. That's the beauty of decentralisation. No one can stop it

LCHappy · Mar 15, 2021

lazarus said:
They can try! But they will fail. That's the beauty of decentralisation. No one can stop it

Could they not treat server farms like they do Cannabis farms? Bust in and seize all the computers off any premises they suspect of drawing large amounts of power out of the grid?

These days, could Bitcoin survive running solely on miners in their homes?

lazarus · Mar 15, 2021

Not in countries that are developed. That would cross so many lines legally. Dictatorships I suppose could but even then it will only effect a fraction of the proof of work across the globe.

Bitcoin mining in China accounts for 65% of all bitcoin mined. It is illegal to trade crypto in china but legal to mine it.

If China banned mining you would still have underground operations, buy say they knock 50% of it on the head. The mining difficulty would then come down and other areas around the world would step in because it would become for profitable again. I guess electricity costs and labour is far cheaper in China too.

LCHappy · Mar 16, 2021

lazarus said:
If China banned mining you would still have underground operations, buy say they knock 50% of it on the head. The mining difficulty would then come down and other areas around the world would step in because it would become for profitable again. I guess electricity costs and labour is far cheaper in China too

Could this lead to very long transaction times though? If these large scare factory miners went offline for whatever reason, could it take significantly longer for a bitcoin to change hands?

diablo · Mar 16, 2021

lazarus said:
Not in countries that are developed. That would cross so many lines legally. Dictatorships I suppose could but even then it will only effect a fraction of the proof of work across the globe.

Any country could introduce a crypto currency ban. It was illegal for individuals to own gold coins and bars in the USA between 1933 and 1974. Punishable by ten years imprisonment.

lazarus · Mar 16, 2021

LCHappy said:
Could this lead to very long transaction times though? If these large scare factory miners went offline for whatever reason, could it take significantly longer for a bitcoin to change hands?

Normally in dictatorships, bribery is rife and money talks. But I reckon the slack would be taken up elsewhere as the difficulty would come down. True, the Bitcoin transaction speed is horribly slow at the moment. I'm not not sure how far they have got with the lightning network? Bitcoin is more a store of wealth at the moment. I'd use something like ripple for speed.

diablo said:
Any country could introduce a crypto currency ban. It was illegal for individuals to own gold coins and bars in the USA between 1933 and 1974. Punishable by ten years imprisonment.

Yea but no one government can realistically or technically enforce it.

diablo · Mar 16, 2021

[QUOTE="lazarus, post: 644632, member: 13786"
Yea but no one government can realistically or technically enforce it.[/QUOTE]

They don't need to. Jailing one or two exanples is all it takes to concentrate minds. It's why millions religiously pay for a TV licence. And don't grow cannabis.

lazarus · Mar 16, 2021

But it is still un-enforceable in the real world. Which I think is great. It's because of this that it has such a strong following.

JMI · Mar 16, 2021

Governments won't want their currency debased with bitcoin (or any cryptos) and we know that bitcoin bandwidth can only handle about 5 transactions a second and lags way behind credit cards and will never replace currency.

So I think the gov are happy to let it roll for a bit while everyone gets used to transacting and filling their boots with the whole "crypto" thing. But then a time will surely come when Gov's roll out their own crypto.e.g. {pound.coin} and it won't be a shock to the population as hey we we're all using cryptos already! (already happening see thread titile)

You can't ban block-chain I get that, but it will just be a matter of making sites like coinbase illegal, downloading wallets etc the moment this happens I think it will smash the value off bitcoin, and every crypto that enters the market dilutes bitcoin as they all do the same thing and that means at the end of the day they're not rare. In summary a giant ponzi scheme, if not the greatest ponzi scheme ever known to man but I bought some and its interesting being part of the bubble.