re: My faith in Bitcoin just went out the window

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While possible, it will not shut bitcoin down.

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like i said before, they wouldn't need to "shut it down". if bitcoin ever became a threat to the USD, i.e. fulfilled its goal (that you believe it will) of becoming a viable alternative currency, that would be more than enough to elicit action from the US gov't. and all the gov't would need to do would be to make it inconvenient enough for the vast majority of americans to never bother with it. It would not be hard at all for them to do that. And do you honestly believe the gov't wouldn't act quickly and effectively to stop a mechanism that allows people to evade taxation? there are few things the US gov't does effectively, but keeping people from fricking with their revenue stream is definitely one of them.

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How so?

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Are you serious? do you understand politics? do you think there is a huge bitcoin exchange business lobby in...anywhere? Someone at the Dep of commerce could literally just pick up the phone, call their counterpart at the dept. of one of our trading partners, and say, "hey, these frickers are violating our trade negotiations. shut them down." problem solved. once again, it's not about shutting down btc, it's about shutting down the companies that exchange them for money.

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Not only that, but how confident are you of their success?

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very

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shite man, they can't stop drugs or piracy.

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stopping drugs and piracy are massive net revenue losers for the government. stopping alternative currencies and easy methods of tax evasion are massive revenue gainers.