‘Governments will ban and have the power to shut down Bitcoin’

Countries such as Iran, Kyrgyzstan and Algeria have prohibited the use of bitcoin, and many others have limited its legality in some way or another. China has banned bitcoin multiple times over the years. While these countries can restrict use, a complete ban is never fully enforceable. In this sense bitcoin can be compared to other popular, but sometimes illicit, goods that are self-custodial, such as recreational drugs, alcohol, firearms or gold. As a digital good, restrictions on bitcoin are even more difficult to enforce, since transferring it is similar to file sharing over the Internet. Previously, many countries discouraging the use of bitcoin have ended up seeing increases in activity. Lastly, considering Bitcoin is both a freely available software and a widespread network of computers, there are no obvious control points for any government to target. One could make the argument that it is easier to shut down the Internet than it is to shut down Bitcoin.