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by aaronwalker 1259 days ago
> *don’t extend far beyond fraud, gambling, or purchasing illegal goods.

There are many use cases outside of these. See Cross-border payments, censorship-resistance, trust networks, access to credit, etc.

2 comments

> Cross-border payments

My impression is that cross-border payments are a pretty small use case, especially if you mean legal cross-border payments. I.e., “something the law allows you to do but you can’t find a financial institution to do it.”

> censorship-resistance

Sure, but again, fairly niche at this point in time in western countries. Most financial censorship cases I’ve heard of in the U.S. sounded pretty well deserved.

> trust networks

This is a niche of a niche outside. You could just say “cryptography enthusiasts” instead.

> access to credit

Example? As in, someone with bad credit can still borrow on crypto?

>> See Cross-border payments, censorship-resistance

Both being illegal. If something is censored by government, the tools to bypass or defeat that censorship are likely illegal, especially if used to distribute uncensored copied of that material. If governments have regulated payments across a particular border, bypassing those regulations is also very likely illegal.