Could a government conrol Bitcoin?

I posted a tweet a few days ago commenting on my incidental encounter with the high fees and long wait times of Bitcoin that we are currently experiencing due to the flood of adoption driven by Ordinals and BRC20. The poll in the tweet was reposted to Facebook, where I received a comment from an old friend who is an astrologer. Her comment essentially said, “Ditch Bitcoin for Gold and Silver, as the government is going to take control of Bitcoin.” This conclusion came from another astrologer who has apparently made some accurate predictions in this area before (source is here if you are interested).

I have to admit that my initial reaction was pretty dismissive - no, this isn’t possible. Or is it? How do I really know that it isn’t possible? I mean, technically, what about Bitcoin makes this highly improbable, if not outright impossible? The question comes at a very interesting time, as there has been some FUD around Ordinals and BRC20 tokens representing not use case innovation, but rather an attack on Bitcoin, or the fake news that the US Government was dumping Silk Road Bitcoin that caused a 6% drop in the BTC price. By the way, Ian Majors did a great YouTube video on the Ordinals FUD I mentioned above - well worth a watch!

So now, I am down a rabbit hole, as one often is with Bitcoin, and I want to really understand how vulnerable Bitcoin is or isn’t to government manipulation or even outright control. My belief and understanding have always been that the decentralized nature of Bitcoin prevents this possibility - the only real levers any government has are to effectively or outrightly ban Bitcoin by shutting down the on/off ramp via central bank fiat or shutting down or limiting access to the internet, preventing sovereign individuals from running their own nodes or mining. Not that these would be 100% effective, as evidenced in Argentina, where government prohibition around the use of foreign currencies (among other civil liberties) has created a black market for money trading. This is the usual outcome for these kinds of prohibitions, and I am sure the case would be the same for Bitcoin.

Of course, many smart people out there have pondered this same issue and have come to the same basic conclusion - prohibition will likely only make the Bitcoin use case more attractive and will most likely increase adoption, not get rid of it. Some have suggested that instead of banning, governments would attempt to create something better that removes the need for Bitcoin. This seems to me like CBDCs, and I’m pretty sure the cat is out of the bag on these, as they’re not in the interest of anyone who values their freedom and sovereignty.

At the end of the day I am back to the same place. I think the idea that Bitcoin can be stopped or effectively controlled or banned by any one entity is wishful thinking and too late. According to bitnodes.io there are currently 45455 Bitcoin nodes across the globe spread across 134 countries. 2 of them are mine and if you needed only one reason to run a Bitcoin node, I think helping to ensure the world has the option of a truly decentralized digital currency that doesn’t require anyone’s permission to use as you choose is a pretty good one.