Bitcoin can And Will Be Shut Down By The Government

Since its early days, governments all over the world have both covertly and overtly expressed their displeasure at the existence of Bitcoin. They usually come with a plethora of reasons, some of which are myths meant to be busted in their own right. Some of the reasons for government skepticism and disapproval have ranged from accusations such as:

1. Cryptocurrencies are used for criminal activities

2. It's a vehicle that aids and encourages money laundering

3. It has no value

4. It is backed by nothing

5. It is too volatile to be a means of exchange or an instrument of investment

6. It is harmful to the environment

and so on.

Some of these reasons given as I said are myths in their own right. Let's get an understanding of what bitcoin really is before we assess this claim.

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According to bitcoin.org, Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Every bitcoin transaction is recorded by cryptography on the blockchain.

A blockchain is a decentralized ledger of all transactions across a peer-to-peer network. The participating computers which are widely distributed in terms of geography are called nodes. a blockchain is a foundation for immutable ledgers, or records of transactions that cannot be altered, deleted, or destroyed.

Basically, all members of the network are duplicating records and ensuring records are stacked on top of each other such that any attempt to edit any record will lead to an edit in all the records after it, and this is a theoretically impossible task.

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Now, to the argument at hand. The government has jurisdiction to determine what happens within their jurisdiction and sometimes beyond their jurisdiction as a result of international agreements and treaties. As such, a government could decide to prohibit the setup of nodes as well as the mining of bitcoin in their jurisdiction.

This could be extended to the dissolution of exchanges and wallet providers that offer a platform for the usage of BTC. They could even go further and seek a global crackdown under the auspices of regional or world organizations like the AU, ECOWAS, EU, G7, G20, UN, etc. It could even see a crackdown on bank accounts that trade in anything crypto-related as was done by the Nigeria government a few months back.

Why It won't work?

First off, we have seen multiple governments place a ban on crypto-related activities, and in that time, we have also seen a surging increase in crypto-related activities in these same countries. It's almost like any institutional and government effort at discrediting bitcoin and other crypto ends up serving as an endorsement. Basically, crypto users will always find a way to work a go-around past these kinds of government policies.

As for miners and nodes, they would simply just go underground and continue their activities in secret. I know you can argue that there's no way to use that much electricity in secret, but there is. You can do so if your entire mining operation is inside some very huge manufacturing industries like the steel industry.

Even if 95% of the countries of the world were to follow this plan and prohibit mining and all crypto activities, as long as there's one country in the world that allows it, the bitcoin blockchain will still be up and running, because like I said before, the principle of the bitcoin blockchain is not a division of labor or record but it's duplication instead. So, for as long as there's one running node anywhere in the world, the blockchain survives and hence bitcoin remains actively been used.

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I hate to use this argument, but it's true. We have seen that it's literally impossible for even up to 50% of the world's countries to be together on any matter in practice. Of course, there are cases where almost all have agreed to a certain thing on paper, but in practice, yes you get it.

Also, as of today, we have seen the rise of progressive politicians, cities, states, countries who have accepted the reality of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as the money of the future and it will only get better. El Salvador has already made it a legal tender and many other countries are palming to follow suit. Definitely, such countries will always be a safe haven for bitcoin miners and hence the network.

So, while it's possible for the government to make efforts towards shutting bitcoin down, it's literally impossible, for you can't shut what you can't regulate. Here's a kicker, even if by some miracle, the entire network was to shut down, anytime someone somewhere puts on their mining equipment back on, the network comes back alive. Such a pain in the a*s for governments who want it dead, eh?😂😂

This is my entry into the Myth Busting Challenge by @SofiaCBCH

BCH address:

bitcoincash:qqdwzsk2ym5774ffyj82k5qy2sfelgaea5wlt2qsw3

SLP address:

simpleledger:qqdwzsk2ym5774ffyj82k5qy2sfelgaea5zyq34ss0

SBCH address:

0x8De56B796b644E8492654C02eD71A61Ea7A77e73

Special thanks to @bmjc98 for her sponsorship renewal, I am very grateful for it ma'am 😊

Thanks for reading 💖💖💖

Friday December 31, 2021