The RAND report goes one step further and suggests that governments should use advanced technical means to actively disrupt virtual currencies. That includes terrorist groups, but also peaceful deployments of digital currencies by other non-state actors, and a general war on privacy and encryption.

According to the RAND analysts, virtual currencies demonstrate a resilient means of storing data in a highly distributed fashion that is very hard to corrupt and could permit, for instance, information dissemination (blogs, social media, forums, news websites) that is resilient to nation-state interference.

The RAND report seems to suggest pre-emptive strikes and notes that “perhaps the best strategy for the United States and its allies to thwart a VC [virtual currency] deployment would be to target those properties of a VC that would most increase its acceptance, most notably transaction anonymity, security, and availability.”

– From the Bitcoin Magazine article: The RAND Corporation Report: National Security Implications of Virtual Currency

When government devolves into little more than a Banana Republic-style oligarchy burgeoned by a cadre of media propagandists and corrupt politicians, the only objective of said government is to secure, protect and grow its wealth and power. In such circumstances, which are the historical norm not the exception, “the people” come to be seen as the enemy by government and the oligarchy that controls it. Indeed, this is the unfortunate state of affairs in which we find ourselves today.

Decentralized virtual currencies pose a clear threat to government control, which is why their deployment concerns the status quo so much. Some of these concerns were outlined in a recent RAND Corporation report titled, “National Security Implications of Virtual Currency.” Bitcoin Magazine covered some of its more troubling angles in an article published a couple of days ago.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…