[vinhboy]

> The current practices seem to be for governments to mostly ignore cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to mostly ignore government

To me this is the biggest falsehood about cryptocurrency. There is virtually no anonymity in cryptocurrency. You can't do anything with cryptocurrency without verifying your ID. It is now ubiquitous to provide your driver license and social security on every reputable exchange.

I honestly find it more restrictive to use cryptocurrency than the few dollars I have in my pocket. I can take it outside and buy some candy in the alley without anyone having a record of it. Can't do that with cryptocurrency.

The only way to get around this is to mine your own coins. However, mining is impossible for individuals because of the mining farms.

[thiscatis]

That's not correct. You are talking about fiat ramps (to get "old" money in or out). If you mine or stake and get awarded and just use it within the ecosystem there's no need for "id verification". So saying "You cannot do anything with cryptocurrency without verifying your ID" is an overgeneralisation of "You cannot exchange other fiat money for cryptocurrency or visa versa without verifying your id".

[berberous]

To add to your comments:

1) Mining is still possible with individual GPUs for certain cryptocurrencies (e.g. Ethereum), although you probably aren't making more than 50 cents per days.

2) Decentralized exchanges will let you convert any cryptocurrency to another (e.g. mined Ethereum to privacy centric coins and back again).

3) In addition to mining, earning crypto for work, and receiving crypto for payments, you can still buy crypto locally for cash.