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The money is yours and no government can confiscate it.

Anyone can confiscate it.

Let's say the Government wants your cryptocurrency. You rub your hands together with an evil laugh and say it's protected by a private key that you've memorized!

They put you in jail and say you can come out when you hand over the keys to your cryptocurrency.

Or it could just be a random person with a plumbing wrench that will happily stop hitting you in the head with it if you give up your private key. Or it could be someone that breaks into your house and steals your wallet's recovery phrase. Or it could be you accidentally sending ETH to a BTC wallet.

[ricardolopes]

The original argument was that with traditional finance, banks could edit your balance when needed. That can't be done with bitcoin: the protocol won't accept transactions that aren't signed with the owner's private key.

The best metaphor is perhaps digital cash. No government can edit the cash in your wallet out of there, but as the owner, you can definitely lose it by force or stupidity.