If Bitcoin was to become illegal in your jurisdiction...

[Edward]

Hypothetically, if Bitcoin was to become 100% illegal to own & transact in your country - Would you keep using it?

A large debate regarding the success of Bitcoin is government intervention, and people constantly bring up the fact that this is impossible due to Bitcoins decentralized nature.

But lets be real here for a second, if such laws were implied, would you continue to use it?

[AlexTee]

I think if it were to become illegal to "own and transact" it would be hard to use because there would be nowhere to spend it.

In places like Australia if the government made it illegal people would (imo) just hoard it and hope its useable one day.

[Windowly]

I would still use it!

[DOGed]

I think your question is somewhat flawed. I think it would be better praised "If bitcoin was to become illegal in your jurisdiction, would you stay in that jurisdiction?"

I like many/most people who are involved with bitcoin, who use bitcoin and who are interested in bitcoin, believe in free markets, and wish for little government and government regulations. I also believe in freedom of speech, and similarly freedom of expression. I would like to note that using bitcoin is not unlike using speech/saying something, especially when I am spending bitcoin/broadcasting a transaction.

With the above paragraph being said, if I were to have never used Bitcoin, and personally believed that Bitcoin is going to be successful, and had zero interest in ever using Bitcoin (none of these actually apply to me), then I would most likely leave my jurisdiction if my jurisdiction were to 100% outlaw the use of BItcoin, if it is safe to do so. Any government that attempts to regulate commerce and their people that heavily is not a government that I would want to be governed by. That is the definition of an oppressive government and such a government would likely have other restrictions that do harm to the people they govern, or if not then would probably do things that would overall harm the people they govern in the future.

To answer your question exactly as written, no I would not continue to use Bitcoin if doing so is illegal in my jurisdiction. I believe in the rule of law, and I believe that breaking the law simply because I believe it is a bad law is most likely not going to end well for me.

[LiteCoinGuy]

using would be difficult because of the penalties. but i would hold it for sure and i would try to spread the word.

[arnoudk]

I think your question is somewhat flawed. I think it would be better praised "If bitcoin was to become illegal in your jurisdiction, would you stay in that jurisdiction?"

Agreed that the act of banning bitcoin is an indication of a much bigger problem within the government. It is an indication of a totalitarian regime. It is unlikely they would only ban bitcoin, and stay (or become) a free country at the same time. But I don't believe there are any truly free countries on earth right now, because there is not a single one without a government. So it is always a choice between 'what is available to me' and 'which of those is the best choice'. What is 'best' is very subjective.

To answer your question exactly as written, no I would not continue to use Bitcoin if doing so is illegal in my jurisdiction. I believe in the rule of law, and I believe that breaking the law simply because I believe it is a bad law is most likely not going to end well for me.

I agree again. The government, with its legal monopoly on force and legal monopoly on the initiation of violence, is too powerful to disobey. Disobeying arbitrary rules, no matter how silly those rules are, will result in imprisonment. So I will follow the rules to the best of my ability. Not out of respect for these rules but for a single very practical reason: I don't want to be locked up. But without rules, I would not turn into a Mad Max character... morality should be the gauge of whether or not to do something. And morality is not subjective (see Stefan Molyneux's free book 'Universally Preferable Behaviour (UPB) A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics' at www.freedomainradio.com/free).

It is interesting to note that countries with hash anti-drug laws have higher drug usage than countries with very lenient laws. So the act of making something illegal does not seem to prevent usage - it sometimes encourages it. The same may be true for bitcoin, as the underground use case for a black market free market currency could be extremely strong in a totalitarian situation.

[Acidyo]

It depends on how heavy the laws would be in my opinion. New york seems to be pushing it lately and Finland was the first country to tax btc (obviously with their millions of laws nowadays). But if people stopped using it because of those reasons, I'm sure they would just jump ship to another coin that would be less transparent than btc is.

[LiteCoinGuy]

I think your question is somewhat flawed. I think it would be better praised "If bitcoin was to become illegal in your jurisdiction, would you stay in that jurisdiction?"

Agreed that the act of banning bitcoin is an indication of a much bigger problem within the government. It is an indication of a totalitarian regime. It is unlikely they would only ban bitcoin, and stay (or become) a free country at the same time. But I don't believe there are any truly free countries on earth right now, because there is not a single one without a government. So it is always a choice between 'what is available to me' and 'which of those is the best choice'. What is 'best' is very subjective.

To answer your question exactly as written, no I would not continue to use Bitcoin if doing so is illegal in my jurisdiction. I believe in the rule of law, and I believe that breaking the law simply because I believe it is a bad law is most likely not going to end well for me.

I agree again. The government, with its legal monopoly on force and legal monopoly on the initiation of violence, is too powerful to disobey. Disobeying arbitrary rules, no matter how silly those rules are, will result in imprisonment. So I will follow the rules to the best of my ability. Not out of respect for these rules but for a single very practical reason: I don't want to be locked up. But without rules, I would not turn into a Mad Max character... morality should be the gauge of whether or not to do something. And morality is not subjective (see Stefan Molyneux's free book 'Universally Preferable Behaviour (UPB) A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics' at www.freedomainradio.com/free).

It is interesting to note that countries with hash anti-drug laws have higher drug usage than countries with very lenient laws. So the act of making something illegal does not seem to prevent usage - it sometimes encourages it. The same may be true for bitcoin, as the underground use case for a black market free market currency could be extremely strong in a totalitarian situation.

i guess Roger would be your best friend with your opinions

[TsonicTsunami]

The best demonstration of this would be China and Russia. Bitcoin is viewed hostilely and at points was outlawed. I think it is still illegal in Russia. I think when central governments say it's bad, people intuitivly know that it is awesome and want it.

[CryptAxe]

It would be migration time