Can Governments Restrict Bitcoin?

“Bitcoin is the application of free-market principles to money in the digital age. It is the alternative to centralized government control,” says Tucker. “It is the replacement of an old technology with a technology that is connected to the lives of real people…. Governments will try to hold it back, but this is a hopeless battle in the long run.”

Russia and Ukraine appear headed towards regulating bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, while Singapore’s central bank recently announced it won’t pass any restrictions. For now.

Tucker cites blockchain technology and distributed ledgers as making the world’s most popular cryptocurrency resistant to central bank or state intervention. “It’s true that in the past, governments have usually outlawed private money. But there is a difference this time,” says Tucker. “Bitcoin lives on a distributed ledger. It is pure math and its platform is global and immutable. Governments can no more outlaw bitcoin than they can outlaw algebra