It may be logical to think that if Bitcoin becomes extremely valuable, the world's governments could take it as a store of value just as it happened with gold.
It must be remembered that on April 5, 1933, an executive order (6102) was issued in the United States, which stipulated "the hoarding of gold coins, gold bars and gold certificates within the United States is prohibited", thus ending the A time when the only store of value was gold since 1900.
The American financial system was based on gold, but after the great depression, the government looked for a way to own all the gold in the country to give stability to the dollar.
With this executive order decreed by President D. Roosevelt, gold holders are obliged to deliver everything to the Federal Reserve, be it in the form of coins, bars and certificates in exchange for $ 20.67 for each troy ounce, who would refuse said Executive order could face charges for up to 10 years in prison.
The idea of Bitcoin as a substitute for gold
Gold has been compared to Bitcoin on several occasions either because of the price or because both are considered to be reserves of value, even because they are scarce, therefore it would be logical to think that Bitcoin would become digital gold in some few years.
Governments issue money without control. This results in a devaluation of the currency, which is why the idea of using gold and Bitcoin as a store of value seems to be a good one. In a case that repeats the same 1933 scenario, governments can confiscate all gold as a strategy in the face of a national emergency. But how does this relate to Bitcoin?
Some companies like Coinbase anticipate that Bitcoin will become much more valuable than gold, surpassing it as a reserve asset and this brings us to the next point.
Using a crypto asset such as Bitcoin as a currency significantly limits the ability of governments to create money and maintain control due to decentralization and the absence of someone to control the network.
Will the history of gold standard removal be repeated with crypto assets?
It is a fact that if an economic power creates its own cryptocurrency, other countries will do the same, currently the adoption rate of crypto assets has been increasing. Bitcoin's liquidity is $ 16.73 billion almost the same as Germany's bonds which are $ 19 billion. At the moment the market value of all crypto assets worldwide is 44.8 billion dollars.
So what would happen if accelerated adoption is added to these volumes of capital? The cryptoactive industry would prevail globally! And when digital money levels rise, governments will issue new resolutions that allow the devaluation or confiscation of crypto assets such as Bitcoin in such a way that they are no longer attractive to be traded in the market. But how can they achieve this? The answer is easy through cryptocurrency exchange houses.
But the most worrying thing is what would happen if Bitcoin becomes the store of value but not of the people but rather of the governments? And just as in the case of gold, Bitcoin is confiscated with the information provided by the exchanges and it is stored in vaults in the same way that happened with gold. It will be the same exchanges that will do the dirty work providing the government with information on users who own Bitcoin
Note: this content was previously published on steemit being my own
It could be hard, but still possible. Bitcoin can be anonymous or pseudonymous. Every transaction in blockchain are public and can be trace. When a government want your Bitcoin, it can point a gun in you, for you to give up your private key. In real life its unlikely to happen but still possible.