There is no doubt that the government will seek to regulate this space quite strongly in the future. Concerns about money laundering are paramount. Basically governments want to know as much as possible about cash flow ' to keep us safe. They will use this panic tactic to push legislation that pushes BTC underground. It's hard to see how a BTC-type product ever becomes a mainstream, especially given how unattractive it is as a method of transaction (expensive and slow)