Quote from: RachelManning1991 on November 18, 2013, 06:13:01 PM

I understand that, and we can't really know for sure what the government feels about this.. But you could also argue that the government don't like the BTC protocol because of their lack of power regarding controlling. When they caught that guy behind silkroad, they found out that he had many millions in btc, but couldn't get a hold of it because they didn't have his password. So because it not a physical object, they might be afraid that money could circle around without them being able to control it.

Governments with limited control? What is this world coming to?!?! Grin

Take for example the cuts of funding for wikileaks, that was possible because they could put pressure on paypal and the banks, but you can't do the same with bitcoins. Unless you shutdown the internet or physically force the users of btc in any way.

~~In just under 30 minutes~~, we'll get a little glimpse of what is cooking in the Senate in regard to BTC. In any case, you are absolutely right. There is a tremendous amount at stake with the rapid acceptance of BTC. As you allude: Money, thus power. They could have a lot to lose but for all of our sake, let's hope they realize they have much more to lose by taking a position adverse to BTC.

What I'm imagining to likely happen are very rigid controls on exchanges between BTC and USD, the requirement to claim capital gains on taxes - in accordance with current law, but leaving the BTC market (P2P & Consumer2Merchant transactions) largely unfettered with the exception that merchants include a new federally defined sales tax.

edit: was off by an hour - 3pm EST