Outlawing bitcoin means legally preventing people from participating in the network by running full nodes, and it means legally barring exchanges from operating.
It's easy to scoff at the idea of censoring bitcoin, but I'd love to hear someone defend the censorship-resistance of bitcoin, because I really don't see it.
It's trivial to make it illegal to operate a full node, and it's not like the government doesn't have the dragnet surveillance infrastructure to enforce it. You can't transfer bitcoin without access to the network (ie: you can't physically transfer bitcoin between two untrusting parties) and if the government bars exchanges from operating legally, how do you actually trade bitcoin for anything?
It's easy to scoff at the idea of censoring bitcoin, but I'd love to hear someone defend the censorship-resistance of bitcoin, because I really don't see it.
It's trivial to make it illegal to operate a full node, and it's not like the government doesn't have the dragnet surveillance infrastructure to enforce it. You can't transfer bitcoin without access to the network (ie: you can't physically transfer bitcoin between two untrusting parties) and if the government bars exchanges from operating legally, how do you actually trade bitcoin for anything?
If you think this sounds draconian and far-fetched, you might be right, but remember: the government once tried to ban gold (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 ).