Has the usage of Bitcoin come to be ‘legal’?

Bitcoin, the first of its kind cryptocurrency stemming from blockchain technology, was originally a P2P payment network that bestows its users the privilege and the flexibility to transfer a net worth without the iron hand of a central authority or third-party owner. Bitcoin naturally caught the fancy of a very unlikely and radical community that involves both the drug dealers and drug users which ensued after its creation as an anonymous cryptocurrency. Nonetheless, Bitcoin soon became an alternative answer to centralization and took away the power to regulate money from a centralized authority thus establishing itself as a ‘pure’ market currency.           ( Image source: WhatIsACryptocurrency.com ) If the use of Bitcoins became legal and people started to adapt it more regularly in place of fiat currency, then the following situations are likely to eventuate - Governments world over might fear that they will start to lose their control over currency. Being an anonymous and P2P currency in nature, any transaction with bitcoin can invite the wrath of a government as the encryption affects the surveillance efforts by the government in effect. India and China still haven’t made evident of the legal status of bitcoins as a currency/commodity. The governments of both these countries have left it to the citizens’ choice to deal with bitcoins as they deem fit. However, Japan legalized bitcoin as a tender via passing a bill. To hammer out the doubts regarding the enforceability of tax laws on bitcoins, bitcoin holding disclosures are likely to be made mandatory and tax evaders’ identity can be uncovered. Users of Bitcoin may become vulnerable to online fraudster attacks whose effects can only be mitigated either by employing multi-signature transactions or time-locked transactions. ( Israel’s first bitcoin ATM, Bitcoin Change in Dizengoff Street - source: calcalistech.com ) Whether hitherto legal or not, Bitcoin has triumphed as a decentralized currency fighting against all the odds with shining colors and verified itself with its underlying strong and secure mechanisms.