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1 sat \ 3 replies \ @guimozick 9 Sep 2022 \ on: Daily discussion thread
Asked how it would be possible for a government to ban mining. Reading about this and the conflicting opinions I came here to see if anything was said about it
Well, they can do things like change a law or, depending on the jurisdiction, simply show up and seize the hardware / arrest the operators.
But there's really little that can be done at a technical level to stop bitcoin mining from occurring. They can block traffic to mining pools, but VPNs hide that. They can investigate sites that are using significantly higher amounts of electricity than is typical, but they will find that type of enforcement to be very costly. Large commercial miners would be eliminated, but the individuals with a rig or two likely would never be found. Off-grid power (e.g, mini-hydroelectric, solar+batter, etc.) would also be never found.
China, for example, is estimated to still have about 20% of the global hashrate, even though mining was banned there over a year ago.
The improvements in Stratum V2 protocol can help miners with privacy as well:
Data Privacy and Security for Bitcoin Miners
https://braiins.com/blog/data-privacy-and-security-for-bitcoin-miners
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My opinion is, a ban on mining in the US will make Bitcoin even stronger. Why? Have a look at China banning it last year. The FUD was always like "the majority of hashrate is in China" so China can censor the txs. Now it isn't the case at all = stronger Bitcoin.
The US banning Bitcoin mining would do the same, make the hashrate to spread across the globe even more = stronger Bitcoin.
All the governments around the world (next to impossible) banning Bitcoin mining would completely dismantle all mining companies and the mining machines (ASICs) would go back to millions of users, making Bitcoin decentralised as never before = stronger Bitcoin.
Bitcoin isn't going to lose because of some politicians. They can only push it to make Bitcoin more resilient.
Anyway, I don't think the US is going to push that hard. Not now, not this year. They will just talk and realise they can only damage their own (fiat) economy.
What is incredible to watch is that after a mere decade, Bitcoin grown to a size that even the mighty White House can't ignore it any more. This fact alone, makes me to look forward another decade. It's gonna be epic!
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If they wanted to (not saying they do/don’t, just putting out a hypothetical):
- publicly traded mining companies would have to stop of have people go to jail
- they’d say “mining is illegal. If you get caught its a fine or jailtime” and then either rely ln neighbors snitching or catching you on tips or when something else happens. The police get s call for a noise complaint, show up, find your asics and weite you a ticket or take you to jail
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