[vectorpush]

People who buy drugs "in the streets" generally aren't versed in how to acquire and manage cryptocurrency. Most people buying drugs have a personal relationship with a dealer and don't do transactions "in the streets". Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers". Finally, in my personal opinion, a street transaction would be preferable to giving out my address to anonymous dealers on the internet, but I know some may agree on that point.

[jstanley]

> Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers".

This is false. You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash: sell things for it, exchange currency with friends, exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins, steal it, run a business taking payment in it, ...

[vectorpush]

> You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash:

This is obviously untrue. Cash is ubiquitous throughout every corner of society, while cryptocurrency is extremely niche to the point of practical obscurity.

> sell things for it

The overwhelming majority of potential buyers will not have even heard of crypto.

> exchange currency with friends

Very few people have friends who dabble in cryptocurrency.

> exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins

Risky, time-consuming and impractical, especially for someone that's only looking to buy some weed. Additionally, localbitcoins puts you back "in the streets", you're better off just exchanging cash for drugs in the streets rather than exchanging cash for crypto in the streets so you can go back online to buy the drugs.

> steal it, run a business taking payment in it, ...

That is absurd. You're not making a very convincing case.

[johndevor]

Bitcoin ATMs are very popular and easy. I know a guy who runs some and I know what kind of clientele use it... A lot are in rough shape to say the least. And he does very large volume that is growing fast.

[vectorpush]

Bitcoin ATMs are rare, notoriously unreliable, often require invasive KYC and always come with a gigantic markup.

[sillysaurus3]

There are even bitcoin ATMs that make it trivial.

[nowarninglabel]

Not disagreeing, but just to test this a bit. I'm in San Francisco. What's the safest and easiest way for me to go acquire Bitcoin or Ethereum right now? Note, I don't have a credit card.

[jstanley]

Probably a LocalBitcoins in-person cash trader. In a city like SF there should be a decent number to choose from.

It gets harder if you're somewhere more rural, and many of the LocalBitcoins online traders (at least in the UK) require a lot of KYC information, but you should be able to find somebody if you look for long enough.