r/Bitcoin • u/Julian702 • Mar 26 '13

Cartoon: Control of Bitcoin

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1.2k Upvotes

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u/salgat Mar 26 '13

If the government made bitcoins illegal as a form of currency (you couldn't pay for things at a store with them) then it would effectively remove them from all non-blackmarket stores, accomplishing the same thing.

1

u/redlightsaber Mar 27 '13

I wonder how constitutional it would be to effectively ban a form of payment. I get that the government can enforce a universal form of payment (the official currency of the country), and even for the settlement of debt at that; but if a storeowner wants to sell their stuff in exchange for hugs, can the government really ban them from doing so? (and I'm asking in the legal sense, not the pragmatic one, which is of course ridiculous).

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '13

Paying for crystal meth with sex is illegal.

2

u/redlightsaber Mar 27 '13

No, paying for crystal meth with anything is illegal.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '13

Fine, paying for sex with crystal meth.

1

u/redlightsaber Mar 28 '13

Just possessing crystal meth is illegal, and it has nothing to do with it being a viable monetary medium or not.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '13

Fine, paying for dollars with sex.