Out of curiosity, how will that threat (i.e. “governments not allowing it to function”) look like from your perspective?
Maybe I’m missing something but I think most they can do is tax the hell out of people who hold it in self custody and report it (capital gains, both realized and even unrealized), or even make its ownership illegal in order to get some to comply.
But even then (and by the way I see that scenario a 100% probability one, at least in some countries), I don’t see how Bitcoin “would not function”. People would still be using it. Granted, not everybody. And granted, maybe out of the law. But precisely in that scenario would Bitcoin be the life boat on a sinking ship, and not an NGU scheme for getting some alpha.
The Atlas Shrugged scenario is quite a possible one, at least from my viewpoint looking at things from a western EU country.