Will Bitcoin be regulated in 2013?

Will Bitcoin be regulated in 2013?

www.datelinezero.com

Earlier in December, a European bitcoin exchange said it had been granted “payments service provider status” by French government officials. In other words, the French government considered the exchange to be like Paypal, or similar services.

The exchange is called Bitcoin-Central. The status allows them to seek protections against loss from fraud, among other legal “perks.”

This sparked a good deal of controversy within the active bitcoin community.

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While I am not sure bitcoin could actually be regulated (can it?) I do think that government could easily feel threatened by bitcoin. After all, what is a government good for if not for controlling our trade?

If governments felt it was time to take down bitcoin, I would think they wouldn't try to regulate the crypto-currency. Rather, they would:
1 - discredit bitcoin by associating it with drug-dealing, child porn, and terrorism. (The same tactic they use with anything, and anybody they want to discredit)
2 - They would undermine any faith and trust in bitcoin by destabilizing it. Easily done by buying up a lot of it, over a given period of time, and then selling it all off in a short amount of time, causing the price to drop rapidly.

I would also argue that these things may have been done last year, when the value of bitcoin went up and then suddenly plummeted, and when the Silk Road story broke in Gawker.

More to come in 2013?

www.datelinezero.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I think anything that the government does not currently have their greedy paws all over and control is up for the chopping block. Bitcoin is one of the most effective ways of keeping a purchase "off the grid" and not tied to your name in some government database so I wouldn't be surprised if they go after it.

reply to post by mother1138


Expect the government to try everything to bring it under regulation.

But it will not be that easy to bring it under regulation in this case.

Bitcoin is widely being used in the TOR underground forums to conduct various 'illegal' activities.