[mattdesl]

It’s not technically possible for a single controller (the government) to censor and prevent transactions on an individual level across the network. In other words, the antiquated AML system we use for bank transfers cannot be strapped onto crypto ad-hoc. This is either a good thing, or a bad thing, depending on who you are asking.

As to your fundamental question, the above might already hint at it: decentralization. It’s an open source spec; shared and unified across the globe, that is not in the control of any one state government or private company. Other features like near-instant settlement times, programmability, 100% uptime, privacy (ZKP), permissionless usage, minimal transaction fees (L2)—these are all practical bonuses that do improve on the status quo in today’s payment processors.