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Comment by Sealy | Hacker News Reader

Oh yes they will. And no, they won't like it at all.

The more they try to stop bitcoin, the more it will succeed. Why? Because of the network effect it is built upon. The more people hear about it, the stronger it gets.

If the US tries to block bitcoin. Opponents such as Russia and China will do the opposite. Why? Because the US will shoot itself in the foot. They will automatically lock themselves out of a rapidly growing economy currently worth $1.5BN.

US Government, take note of a simple fact: Tax evasion existed before bitcoin, and it will continue to exist regardless of if you accept bitcoin.

To the people. The more the government takes note of bitcoin, the more you should. They are worried because at last, they cannot control YOUR hard earned money or dilute it. Let me remind you about how much the fed has devalued the US dollar since the financial crisis... trillions.

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The more they try to stop bitcoin, the more it will succeed.

This depends on a lot of things.

* Bitcoin, as a floating currency, depends on other currencies (or they on it, depending on your perspective) for relative purchasing power

* In order to arrive at that relative value, exchanges need to function--either explicitly, like MtGox, or implicitly through barter or private sale.

* There's not much the governments can do about private barter, but there's hella lot they can do about controlling organised exchanges. And, well, they've already started doing it.

In short, Bitcoin could well end up like flax or bags of flour or pigs or whatever else currency people want to use to get things from each other. But if you want to sell your pigs at market, you gotta pay the market fees or get out. And if they really want to stop Bitcoin, you simply won't sell them at market.

Put another way, the government regulates their currency, and while you want your currency to have some value in their currency, you have to find a way to move it between you and them. Either you do it their way, or you find an unofficial alternative. In the criminal world, they call this money laundering, and that's not going to succeed in the mainstream, network effect or not.

they cannot control YOUR hard earned money or dilute it

If that's your worry, how are bitcoins different or better than investing gold, oil, Euros, Swiss Francs or any of the other myriad of options available to you that cannot be diluted by the US fed?

Try using those as currency, i.e. in the USA.

Get a Visa card tied to your Euro or Swiss Franc bank account and then just use it like any other Visa card.

I think we should have a commenting practice here on HN to disclose financial interest in a given story. Any time I read a comment like this I cannot help but wonder if the author is truly convinced of what he is writing or just holds some stock/bitcoin/whatever and is operating on the greater fool theory. Another example that comes to mind is Tesla.

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