The problem I see is that these bans are going to be rather difficult to enforce. It's one thing for a government to pull $1000 denominations out of circulation, but in a country with anything resembling a free internet (or simply enough clever people), this will be hard to regulate.
Note that Bitcoin was a common medium of exchange for the Silk Road dark web site, and its ilk. People were buying and selling illicit items all over the place and purchasing illegal services. Those people are probably the most perturbed with the volatility in the Bitcoin market right now.
Of course, the efficacy of any ban is going to depend what goods and services can be bought by Bitcoin. If Canada were to ban Bitcoin trading tomorrow, for instance, and Bitcoin ATMs disappeared, that's one thing. But, if I can buy goods from an American site, or buy streaming TV from the UK with Bitcoins, that ban becomes difficult to enforce in those cases, unless Canada chooses to firewall us from the internet like North Korea; well, perhaps the Chinese model is sufficient, but I'd be skeptical.
Bitcoin instability plays into the hands of the banks. The article posted by Drew does cover a lot of the criticisms, but gives way too short a shrift to some of the benefits that people seek. If I use my credit card to buy something from the States, which I do often enough, the credit card company doesn't exactly give me a fair exchange rate, and then they charge me a fee for the privilege of paying extra for American dollars, on top of it.
If it were possible to stabilize the Bitcoin or something similar, or peg its value to that of a major currency and be able to trust and rely on its value, I suspect the banking sector would be defecating bricks, and doing everything they could to make it difficult for people to do business with cryptocurrency clearing houses.
Note that Bitcoin was a common medium of exchange for the Silk Road dark web site, and its ilk. People were buying and selling illicit items all over the place and purchasing illegal services. Those people are probably the most perturbed with the volatility in the Bitcoin market right now.
Of course, the efficacy of any ban is going to depend what goods and services can be bought by Bitcoin. If Canada were to ban Bitcoin trading tomorrow, for instance, and Bitcoin ATMs disappeared, that's one thing. But, if I can buy goods from an American site, or buy streaming TV from the UK with Bitcoins, that ban becomes difficult to enforce in those cases, unless Canada chooses to firewall us from the internet like North Korea; well, perhaps the Chinese model is sufficient, but I'd be skeptical.
Bitcoin instability plays into the hands of the banks. The article posted by Drew does cover a lot of the criticisms, but gives way too short a shrift to some of the benefits that people seek. If I use my credit card to buy something from the States, which I do often enough, the credit card company doesn't exactly give me a fair exchange rate, and then they charge me a fee for the privilege of paying extra for American dollars, on top of it.
If it were possible to stabilize the Bitcoin or something similar, or peg its value to that of a major currency and be able to trust and rely on its value, I suspect the banking sector would be defecating bricks, and doing everything they could to make it difficult for people to do business with cryptocurrency clearing houses.
