[smackeyacky]

> They definitely don't ENCOURAGE illegal activity. You can argue they can maybe facilitate it.

This is what I like to call the "sawn-off shotgun" idea. Sure, there might be a legit use for a sawn-off shotgun, but they are never used for that[0].

I would agree that speculation is the most common use for Bitcoin, although I'd more characterise that as rube farming. If you attempted to launch a security with the characteristics of Bitcoin, you'd be in jail. When the music stops, there simply won't be any chairs.

As for disregarding a technology because I don't agree with the use cases, it's perfectly legit to avoid pyramid schemes and greater fool farms for the same reason. The often-cited-but-always-missing good use cases for crypto currencies are such a tiny proportion of what it actually gets used for they become a novelty.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawed-off_shotgun#:~:text=guns....