With the US announcing its desire to 'regulate' bitcoin, can anyone comment if this is even possible with the open-source/decentralized structure of the bitcoin set up?
They are going after the fiat exchange market, which is about all they can do without an outright ban or attack via
extreme censorship.
Something I see as more likely than not eventually. Probably taking the form of blocking all encrypted traffic for which no usable back-door can be readily verified. Several 'cyber 911's and it's a done deal as I see it. And of course some taxpayer money to subsidize DPI infrastructure...much of which would slosh out of the bucket into the waiting hands of the well connected.
Or they will just build internet2...