Decentralization protects Bitcoin from censorship, similar to how it does for digital media distribution via torrents. In torrent terminology, Bitcoin database has over 20,000 peers worldwide, many behind Tor or VPN making it difficult to identify their location from IP address, and the number of peers are growing every year.
People overestimate government ability to repress internet. It is not possible to truly ban any site on internet unless you are willing to ban the internet itself like North Korea. It’s just that most people don’t find it worth the effort to sidestep ban using a VPN. Like when India banned Tiktok, most people simply shifted to Instagram instead of going an extra mile to access Tiktok. Similarly, most people in China don’t care much about accessing foreign news portal or social media to go that extra mile.
High inflation countries like Venezuela, Argentina, Nigeria aren’t concerned about Bitcoin. That’s because of their high level of poverty. A person who must always be prepared for any financial emergency which may require all their savings cannot afford to invest in an asset with 80% drawdown, even if it is short term. That’s why the people in these countries are pouring their money into dollars, and authorities are more concerned about illegal forex exchanges and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) than Bitcoin. The countries which have surrendered to dollarization like El Salvador or Argentina may even prefer Bitcoin because what they truly hate are US capitalists interfering in their country’s politics using dollars. Unfortunately you need a certain amount of affluence to afford volatility, so even if their governments promote Bitcoin, there will be very little adoption for now.
US, China, Europe, India - countries which hold the reserve currency status or hope to achieve it are the ones that see Bitcoin as a threat. But there are internal debates because nobody wants to be left behind in terms of technology. That is why Banks in US are harassing crypto investors on one hand while launching Bitcoin ETF on the other hand which makes it very easy for stock investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin. Similarly, while China has banned Bitcoin in mainland, it is promoting it in Hong Kong. The longer they keep debating, the stronger the voices of opposition will become.
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