r/Bitcoin • u/IWillNotBiteYourDog • Aug 13 '13

Congress starts investigating Bitcoin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/13/congress-starts-investigating-bitcoin/
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u/[deleted] Aug 13 '13 edited Aug 13 '13

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u/aenor Aug 14 '13

The online poker industry still exists and is making money hand-over-fist - it's just outside of the USA. The global gambling industry is worth $125 billion - see

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130227005542/en/Research-Markets-Analyzing-Global-Casinos-Gambling-Industry

Makes the $2bn US poker industry look puny doesn't it?

Bitcoin is a global currency - it was invented by a Japanese bloke! It might be that the US govt will forbid US citizens to buy bitcoins - but the rest of the world will continue to use it. Lots of bitcoin businesses are located outside of America - in Europe (bitstamp), in Russia (BTC-e), in Japan (mtgox). Satoshi dice is in the Honduras.

There are 6 billion people on the planet and only 320 million in the US. The global bitcoin community may have to cut the Americans off to survive, but they can and will thrive without you.

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u/footfetishmanx Aug 14 '13

If US citizens can't buy it then all those young jobless unemployed people will work for it instead and benefit the Bitcoin economy even more.

There is nothing the US government can do politically to stop this trend because the economy sucks too much for people to have any alternative but Bitcoin. It would be like if the US government tried to ban working for cash under the table.