Comment by KetoManx64
12 hours ago
Bitcoin has forked a few times it's creation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bitcoin_forks The determining factor for which fork is successfully is bases on the Bitcoin node runners and miners choosing which fork they devote their resources to.
Governments around the world are 100% attempting different plans to destabilize or destroy Bitcoin because it harms their interests and ability to print money from thin air. But at the end of the day it's a distributed ledger, so even if they do find a way to manipulate or damage or takeover the network the Bitcoin users can just fork it from before they did their damage and continue from there. That is the ultimate power of a decentralized blockchain, nobody has ultimate power and everyone votes with their resources.
Power comes from the barrel of a gun.
Yes. That is why the Second Amendment is so important. It reminds those in the government not to overstep their bounds.
Got some specific recent oversteps that were prevented by armed citizens in mind? Or are you just talking about ancient history or on-paper theory?
The government in the US has far bigger guns than the citizenry these days.
The only thing that will ever prevent a government from abusing its populace is the willingness of actors of the state - police and soldiers - to say no to abusive orders. Independent thinking coupled with believing in the people more than the executive is the only thing that will ever keep us safe. Guns are not defensive tools. The state can shoot you before you shoot them if they decide they don't like what you're doing.
Put guns in the hands of the people you're policing and you just make it that much easier for the police/soldiers/govt sympathizers to make it us-against-them and side with the totalitarians.
Yes, it's certainly been educational seeing the gun rights folks stopping the government overstepping its bounds in the USA. A real lesson to the world.
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If anything, the real risk of BTC isn't governments destroying it.
It's that everything you do on the blockchain is there forever, so if a government needs you in jail for using it, they can show you were involved in a financial crime and the blockchain proves it... And if you are unwilling to give up your public wallet they can keep you in jail indefinitely until you do.
Bitcoin is pseudonymous, not anonymous. Every activity on the network is encoded into a perpetual auditable dataset, by design.