But if Bitcoin is relegated to only the black market online - you can use it but don't let anyone find out - that would hamstring it. Bitcoin would never reach its full potential.
The premise in the first sentence above does not lead to the conclusion in the second sentence. Certainly Bitcoin adoption will be hampered in nations wherein the powers that be can threaten users with real violence for doing so, but this will do little to prevent adoption in locales where this is not so.
I am not sure what you are trying to say here. All else being equal, less hampering of Bitcoin adoption means it reaches more of its potential. Even if it can survive laws, matters would be better if there were no laws against it anywhere. Resistance, local or not, limits Bitcoin's potential.
Are you saying Bitcoin has no potential at all in countries "where the powers that be can threaten real violence"? In that case I disagree. I think Bitcoin has great potential even in e.g. the western world.
I'm saying that the adoption rate of Bitcoin in some locales does not limit it's future success in those same locales. If Bitcoin is going to succeed, it will do so eventually regardless of how long particular governments might be able to hold back the tide. The only way that I can forsee such intervention actually preventing Bitcoin from anything, rather than simply delaying it, is if all the world's governments were to agree to use force against Bitcoin users collectively. I don't consider such international cooperation likely.
haha! I was just going to post this.
Unless all governments ban/regulate bitcoin, it will be seen as a success in the nations where it is allowed and it's value will be backed by their economies. Also, such nations will thrive on a sound money standard.
The rest of the world will see this and soon governments will be force to come inline and legitimize bitcoin.
Also, to be honest, I think Bitcoin is just the beginning of a paradigm shift. Technology, ideas and social structures are evolving so fast that governments will not be able to keep pace. The rules of the game are changing.