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What will the government do with Bitcoin the day a report comes out that American citizens have been killed in a terrorist operation financed by bitcoin?

• VMG 12y ago
  What did the government do the day evil things happened over the internet using encrypted communication?
  • scott_karana 12y ago
    It banned the export of cryptography.
    • VMG 12y ago
      And yet a little "https" logo smiles at me in the address bar as we speak. Point being that the government can't and doesn't ban everything that can be used for evil, be it from incompetence or rationality. Bitcoin will probably be heavily monitored though, as it is very suitable for that purpose.
      • alexeisadeski3 12y ago
        Give it time.
      • scott_karana 12y ago
        I was referring to a mainly historic, very strict export ban that categorizes cryptographic software as munitions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_U... HTTPS was crippled, since Netscape shipped only 40-bit RC4 internationally.[1] PGP's source code was printed so it would fall under First Amendment protections, since binaries weren't legal for export.[2] (See also DJB's Bernstein v. United States)[3] OpenBSD/OpenSSH is still based in Canada to avoid being subject to the laws. -------------- 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_United_States#PC_era http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_U... 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#Criminal_investigation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#Criminal_in... and http://www.pgpi.org/pgpi/project/scanning/ http://www.pgpi.org/pgpi/project/scanning/ 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States 4 http://www.openbsd.org/crypto.html http://www.openbsd.org/crypto.html
        • VMG 12y ago
          I know, but in the end they couldn't keep it that way forever.
          • scott_karana 12y ago
            Yes, of course. Isn't it conceivable that the government would implement a similarly short-sighted (and ineffectual) policy if Bitcoins were seriously used to harm the US? :-P