[pcthrowaway]

I'm not sure what you're responding to, but I wasn't merely suggesting that a benefit of cryptocurrency is the ability to fool the government, though privacy-coins certainly are an important tool in areas with oppressive governments.

At the same time, the leading crypto platforms enable an amount of transparency that isn't possible with traditional financial institutions.

The wasted energy argument has already been addressed, and is specific to proof of work platforms which are the minority of the top 50. After the ETH2 transition is complete, it's likely proof of stake crypto will have a larger market cap than proof of work crypto.