Block News | Can a country really ban Bitcoin?

Fears that a country could impose a blanket ban on bitcoin have persisted for more than a decade, but that possibility has become less and less likely over time.

Since the inception of Bitcoin, there have been fears that it was only a matter of time before the cryptocurrency was banned by governments around the world. First, bitcoin is often seen as a threat to the traditional monetary system, with the potential to undermine central bank control over the money supply. There are also concerns that due to Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymous nature, it facilitates drug trafficking, money laundering and ransomware.

However, whether it is really possible for a government to ban Bitcoin will vary from region to region. The question of whether Bitcoin can be banned has been answered to some extent, as the cryptocurrency has been officially banned in several countries.

Currently, only a handful of countries have an outright blanket ban on Bitcoin, which prohibits interacting with, owning, or using Bitcoin in any form. These countries include Algeria, Ecuador, Egypt, Nepal and Pakistan. Several other countries, including Saudi Arabia and Taiwan, have also introduced partial bans on cryptocurrencies, often preventing financial institutions from conducting cryptocurrency transactions or facilitating bitcoin transactions.

China's Bitcoin Ban

在所有对比特币采取负面立场的国家中，中国在 2021 年对加密货币采取了一些最激进的行动。在其碳中和承诺的推动下（专家指出，这一过程主要是由于即将推出数字人民币），中国打击了加密货币挖矿和加密货币相关公司。中国长期以来一直禁止加密货币交易，但在 2021 年，它迫使加密货币矿工关闭其业务并迁出该国，而中国人民银行则向支付平台和银行发布法令，命令它们停止加密货币活动。

Before the crackdown on mining, China controlled roughly two-thirds of the global bitcoin mining industry’s computing power. A massive exodus of miners followed, while cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi and OKEx restricted services to mainland customers. Even personal accounts related to cryptocurrencies were blocked by the popular social media site Weibo.

Bitcoin’s network-wide hashrate has now steadily recovered from its initial downturn after China banned mining. While Bitcoin’s price has yet to recover to the pre-ban heights of April and May 2021, it has started to rise steadily since late July.

Will the US Ban Bitcoin?

目前，比特币在美国是合法的。美国证券交易委员会 (SEC) 表示它不是证券，而商品期货和交易委员会 (CFTC) 在 2015 年宣布它是一种商品，就像黄金一样中国可以使用比特币吗，因此受到其监管。此外，在 2013 年，美国财政部金融犯罪执法网络 (FinCEN) 发布了指导方针中国可以使用比特币吗，指出只要商品或服务的卖方愿意接受，投资比特币并使用比特币作为支付方式是合法的.

Due to the intricacies of state and federal laws in the U.S., specific regulations for bitcoin vary from state to state; for example, in Hawaii, bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related businesses require a money transmitter license, while Wyoming grants digital currency The same legal status as currency.

Familiarity with Bitcoin is at an all-time high in 2021, but trust remains an issue and many uncertainties still surround the legal status of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is considered the most popular currency in many jurisdictions.

However, some risks remain, and Bitcoin has been criticized by regulators and some lawmakers. Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has made it clear that Bitcoin is a speculative asset and that cryptocurrencies facilitate crime and do not qualify as a currency. Senator Elizabeth Warren expressed concern that cryptocurrencies leave the financial system "at the mercy of some nebulous, faceless group of super-coders and miners."

While there is no evidence that the U.S. is considering an outright ban on the flagship cryptocurrency, it is theoretically possible to impose tough regulatory requirements on the entry and exit of the Bitcoin ecosystem, making it difficult to acquire and use the cryptocurrency without formally ban it. However, doing so could have serious economic costs.

“比特币在美国金融体系中根深蒂固，无法被禁止。” - 马歇尔·海纳

“比特币在美国金融体系中根深蒂固，无论在文化上还是技术上都不能被禁止，”MetalPay 首席执行官 Marshall Hayner 在接受 Decrypt 采访时表示。机构，减少数以万计的工作岗位，向海外发送创新，并助长比特币的黑市。”

禁止比特币是一项不可能完成的任务

虽然很明显，政府可能会颁布禁止比特币的法令，但在许多国家，如果不是不可能的话，要真正执行这样的禁令是很困难的。除非政府对互联网实施严格控制，否则个人几乎可以肯定能够下载比特币钱包软件、运行节点并完成交易。

In most countries that have banned bitcoin, there are still a large number of bitcoin users, and this is proof. According to a 2019 report by We Are Social, about 4% of Internet users in Egypt currently own cryptocurrencies, while cryptocurrency market tracking platform CoinMarketCap ranked Pakistan as one of its fastest-growing user bases in the first quarter of 2020.

Likewise, even in countries with strict internet controls, the various tools used to get around these restrictions render the effort pointless. After all, enforcing a Bitcoin ban becomes an impossible task when almost anyone can access the Bitcoin blockchain via Blockstream satellites using relatively inexpensive software-defined radio (SDR) dongles and antennas.

海纳还提到，“美国可以对买卖 BTC 施加更严格的限制，但完全禁止是不可能的。”

还有一个问题是，对比特币的禁令是否会刺激人们购买更多的比特币，这是比特币标准的作者、经济学家赛义德·阿莫斯（Saifedean Ammous）提出的一个论点。他的理由是，政府对比特币的打击将表明有关政府正在寻求限制人们的财务自由，并将有助于加强加密货币的影响力。“如果你的银行告诉你，‘你不能用你的银行账户购买比特币’。那真的只是比特币的广告。”

相反，他认为，政府可以通过减少使用比特币的经济动机并创造更好的替代品来试图破坏对比特币的需求。

不过，随着比特币在萨尔瓦多成为法定货币，乌克兰也派出了一个研究小组前往萨尔瓦多，似乎是想研究萨尔瓦多的先例，为本国未来的比特币政策铺平道路。比特币似乎正在被越来越多的政府接受，随着每个新国家采用它，其他国家禁止它的可能性继续呈指数级下降。