How bitcoin will free us from statist tyranny and why the state won’t be able to stop it Cryptarchist Follow Dec 1, 2016 · 2 min read

States can’t print or confiscate bitcoins. When bitcoin replaces fiat money they’ll go broke.

In anticipation of this people stop loaning money to governments which will cause trouble for them long before bitcoin replaces fiat money.

Wars, prohibitions and police brutality will end. All the wealth now wasted by states will be put to productive use. Everyone will be free to live his life as he wants.

Will the Government Try to Kill Bitcoin?

The mistake people who fear government actions against bitcoin is to think of the government as one entity, like one person, with one will, one motivation, when in fact bureaucrats and politicians all have their own interests. If someone sees that bitcoin is going to win if he doesn’t stop it, he’ll invest in Bitcoin instead. And if someone already invested in Bitcoin he’ll sabotage attempts to stop it. The US government probably loses trillions in revenue to the Bahamas and other tax havens. Why don’t they invade it? It’s because their leaders have their loot there.

Could the Government Prohibit Trading with Bitcoin?

Governments fail at stopping the bitcoin-drug-trade, why would they succeed at stopping the bitcoin-fiat trade?

Could the (chinese) Government Take Over Mining Operations?

Thinking of the chinese government as one being, it might be in its interests to stop bitcoin, but there is no one in the chinese government in whose interest it is.

Even if the chinese premier minister orders the police to take over mining operations, the actual policemen will probably rather run them themselves.

If despite all of this the chinese government would be able to get a majority of all hash-power, we could hard-fork bitcoin to change the hash-algorithm, making all existing mining devices useless.

(Note that a majority of all hash-power doesn’t let you print or confiscate bitcoins, it just lets you censor transactions and double-spend your own bitcoins.)