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What Would You do if Your Government Banned Bitcoin?
836 sats \ 18 comments \ @tomlaies 20 Aug 2022 bitcoin
Hypothetically, if your country banned Bitcoin and forced everybody to sell their Bitcoin, what would you do?
Besides moving country - because I know everyone of you is very courageous and move country and definitely wouldn't cry like a lil b*tch instead in reality.
Do you have your KYC-stacking and your KYC-free Identity separated from each other? Because I have. I know many people that just buy all their Bitcoin on an exchange and wash it via Wasabi wallet and Lightning. This might be a personal choice and that's fine if you know the risks involved with that. Personally, I would not want to be the person that has Bitcoin to their name that disappeared into the void. There might be general suspicion against everybody that can't return nothing. Seeming like the well-behaved citizen who returned his sats to the outside but secretly supports the community and the local Bitcoin infrastructure from the shadows might be the safe bet and much more hassle free than moving or landing in jail.
I also wouldn't move country. Being in the rebellious but peaceful underground seems much more appealing to me.
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212 sats \ 2 replies \ @F 20 Aug 2022
I wouldn't do anything different. It won't happen, and even if it does, it would not matter - it's like banning water. Banning it would just make it more valuable and useful.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @linesgone 20 Aug 2022
This. Yes.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies OP 20 Aug 2022
100%
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101 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jorj_X_McKie 20 Aug 2022
Another reason to go to local Bitcoin Meetups is to get plugged into a local network of future wealthy people with which you have cultivated a shared relationship of trust with. You should have been doing this for years already!!! Or are you going to tell your fiat family / friends about your stack? That will end in tears.
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112 sats \ 1 reply \ @Majjin 20 Aug 2022
  1. Cry
  2. Mix any KYC sats I have left (very few)
  3. I would be extremely careful about who I talk about Bitcoin with. It seems like people are all too eager to work for the state for free.
  4. Keep buying sats in p2p marketplaces
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @allark 21 Aug 2022
Most people are plugged into the Matrix (state) and will defend it. SHeeple is a term for a reason :)
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67 sats \ 2 replies \ @k00b 20 Aug 2022
After I get done crying, I guess I'd probably begin taking my privacy and bitcoin-related identity more seriously. I'd probably also begin working on helping subvert the implications of such bans.
It's hard to imagine what I'd do without having a good grip on how a ban would be implemented. Would they knock on my door and demand bitcoin? Would they believe me when I show them photos of my routine boating accidents?
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111 sats \ 0 replies \ @cameri 21 Aug 2022
We would start having boating meetups
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies OP 20 Aug 2022
After I get done crying, I guess I'd
:p
Would they knock on my door and demand bitcoin?
That's what I expect.
Would they believe me when I show them photos of my routine boating accidents?
Worst case scenario is like when Iranian regime accuses journalists of running a Twitter account. The journalists could easily proof that they do run an account but it's very hard to disprove that they run an account.
I do not hide my legal coins and never mix with my second Bitcoin identity. I advice everyone I tell about Bitcoin to do the same from the very beginning. That's not an additional step for enthusiasts, it's the whole point of Bitcoin.
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43 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jorj_X_McKie 20 Aug 2022
If the morons in Congress were to ban Bitcoin we’d have a thriving underground circular economy faster than you can say “Streisand Effect”.
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @P2P_bitcoin 21 Aug 2022
A country cannot ban Bitcoin. All they can do is ban themselves from Bitcoin.
https://nitter.it/TheGuySwann/status/1342468469166583809
There really are few places today where an outright ban on bitcoin exists (i.e., illegal to accept it as a payment method). And even in these places, the ban is not working much better than the "the war on drugs" has worked in the U.S.
The wildcard is the CBDCs. Will governments fear failure of their CBDCs so much that they will go hard against bitcoin? We will find out, it appears.
At some level, bitcoin is speech. They can suppress that speech where it is easily detected, but they can't know everywhere that speech is occurring. And by banning it they are simply pushing it "underground" where it can actually become more emboldened.
But we can become (and should become) more resilient against future state oppression against bitcoin by embracing KYC-Free methods today, so that the state simply does not have visibility as to the amount of traction bitcoin has attained and little ability to gain knowledge of who the participants are. This means when buying, buy using KYC-Free P2P trading platforms ... RoboSats, Bisq, HodlHodl, LocalCoinSwap, LocalCryptos, AgoraDesk, etc. This means figuring out how to earn at least a part of your income in bitcoin. This means patronizing merchants who will accept your bitcoin as payment (and going out of your way to find them, or even persuade / orange pill them, if necessary).
Doing this now builds a community that is more resilient against a ban, should one ever come. This resilience results in the ban being ineffective, then unenforced and then eventually revoked, and that all will occur sooner if this community already exists prior to the ban.
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4 sats \ 0 replies \ @theKOMOTION 21 Aug 2022
For a while there has been restrictions placed on bitcoin in my country (🇳🇬) by the government… it hasn’t reduced adoption. Bitcoin is still operating as usual with newer ways in acquiring and transacting with bitcoin even at grassroot level.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Natalia 21 Aug 2022
Keep stacking ⚡️
I like the idea of "Being in the rebellious but peaceful underground, "but the alternative way I have found is diversifying yourself in different countries.
The art lies in the definition of "your country" like what the " ban" is based on: Passport? The country where you are living in? Tax residency? Then the solution is having multiple of these things. Problem solved.
（ Also I do not think any country can really ban BItcoin ）
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1 sat \ 2 replies \ @DarthCoin 21 Aug 2022
Nothing. I don't give a shit what any gov say or do.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @pony 21 Aug 2022
yeah sure. until they raid your home, shoot your dog and torture your relatives.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 21 Aug 2022
Why are you so afraid? Why do you live in total fear? Only slaves live in fear. Who is the gov? How a gov can have authority over a living man? Even if they will do that, they will get shit. Your argument is pointless.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @02174b3c39_lntxbot 7 Sep 2022
Break the law
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 21 Aug 2022
Send my stack to an Eth address to “burn” them lowering the cap making the zealots stash increase in value.
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