[zepearl]

Ok, you aren't wrong, but let's try not to be too naive - unluckily what's good for you (privacy, flexibility, speed, ...) is good as well for the "bad" guys.

I guess that the final question will be if it's used more for "good" or for "bad" purposes (or maybe just if the amount of "bad" purposes surpasses a certain acceptable level).

(same thing about cash - I think that most governments keep introducing stricter rules about cash withdrawals/deposits/transfers)

[CryptoPunk]

The bad guys can also be IN the government. When the government consistently omits threats from state bodies in its risk analyses, then the public tends to overlook that danger and heed, or at least not vigorously oppose, calls by the government to reduce privacy and increase surveillance.

[zepearl]

> The bad guys can also be IN the government.

Yes, possible, focus on the "can/might". In general I would say that it's less likely (on the other hand there will always be 100% chances of the opposite, meaning that there will always be N bad citizens brainstorming about how to use "the system"/"any system" for their own advantage).

> When the government consistently omits threats from state bodies in its risk analyses, then the public tends to overlook that danger and ...

Well, it can be true (meaning that in general people are probably more prone to accept compromises when they feel threatened), but such a general discussion is in my opinion out of context here. Monero was designed to handle transactions in a way that pushes privacy to the extremes, unluckily at the same time the same mechanism can be used as well by criminals.

Personally I think that "currently" the ones benefiting of the features offered by a cryptocurrency like Monero are mostly criminals as I don't think that most people have a strong need for highly-private transactions (might change in the future). Monero's other features of flexibility/access/etc... (to e.g. be able to trade in 3rd world countries without the need to have a bank account) are already offered by other cryptocurrencies.

[CryptoPunk]

>>In general I would say that it's less likely

I would say the potential risks from the state are much more extreme, even if they are less likely to materialize.

>>Monero are mostly criminals as I don't think that most people have a strong need for highly-private transactions

Cryptocurrencies right now are largely unusable due to them actively compromising their users' privacy.

Crypto users are aware of this and their attempts to cover their digital tracks makes use of crypto cumbersome.

Privacy-protected crypto solves this.