Just a thought about the government doing 'irrational stuff'...

Banning online poker was perfectly rational for them (or at least it could have been.. if somebody lobbied them to do it, then there isn't much downside and they pocket the money).

I don't really see it as governments behave irrationally.. it's just that they don't act in your and my best interest. (They seem perfectly rational when we remember that they're acting in their own interests.)

And I don't think banning Bitcoin does much good for them.

For all we know government interests are already involved in mining and contributing to the weird issues there, or trying to manipulate it in some other way.

A hard nose "ban" can easily backfire and just draw attention to it, and/or weaken the perception of that government by its citizens, especially if cryptocurrency proves to be a benefit to all the other countries where it's legal.

In general I think they'll try to work with it to hang on to some pieces of control however they can rather than put their energy into stopping it.

Or Cliffs: I don't think it's some kind of random thing where MAYBE they'll just do X.. generally they'll do whatever is rationally correct for them