A Ban On Bitcoin Might Be Harder Than It Seems Due to a Simple Freedom of Speech Issue

Earlier today the US Congress asked Facebook to stop the development of their cryptocurrency Libra. Even though the move is unfair, the same thing might not be possible for Bitcoins.

Members of Congress just sent this letter to Facebook asking them to officially stop development of Libra.

Wait till Congress finds out they can’t send letters to Bitcoin🔥 pic.twitter.com/rCG1jh4RhL

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) July 3, 2019

During a panel at the Bitcoin 2019 conference that included Max Keiser of the Keiser Report, Bill Barhydt of Abra and Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Digital, Libra was seen as potentially a positive thing for introducing crypto wallets to the 2+ billion users across Facebook's apps. At the very least, Libra will normalize the concept of carrying crypto and transacting in crypto even if there is little success with the Libra currency.

Here's what happens when you get all your bitcoin "dorks in a row" with @maxkeiser @cryptomanran and of course @APompliano pic.twitter.com/r8jd9Qdupz

— Bill Barhydt (@billbarhydt) June 26, 2019

There is another reason which Bill points out why Bitcoin cannot be banned. It is a free speech issue. He said:

“The edge of the network, I think, should scare all of us because it’s not a Bitcoin-specific issue. That’s, you know, a government overreach issue and a free speech issue that I think we don’t take seriously. We don’t hear enough of a narrative around Bitcoin as free speech. And free speech needs to be a protected human right across the board.”

Bill thinks that even if the top crypto is banned, it will still exist in a way it does in India and China. He goes on to say:

“The government can’t stop — the United States Supreme Court has already opined on this. You can’t prevent people from holding ones and zeros on a device in their pocket. That ship has sailed. We already know that. The question is: What can they do at the edge of the network — the onramps and offramps, the places where they exert control over the banking system, the exchanges, [and the] stablecoins.”