[kadoban]

As far as the US government is concerned, this primary effect of Bitcoin and other crypto is a weakening of their ability to enforce sanctions and prevent money laundering.

If Bitcoin was a government program, it probably wasn't the US government. I'd guess North Korea, Iran, Russia, etc. One of the countries heavily bothered by US-led sanctions, or at least one that doesn't already have an important ~global currency to disrupt.

It seems to have grown mostly in the English-speaking world to start with, but that doesn't seem like a fatal flaw of my theory.

[ErikBjare]

The same could be said for Tor and onion routing, which was a US government program.

[kadoban]

Tor was created to allow contacting people securely from within restrictive regimes, wasn't it? Doesn't seem like the same thing to me. The US has a history of free speech advocacy, not of encouraging others to be able to spend money freely.

It's also a big government though, it is quite possible that some part would have driven something like Bitcoin for its own reasons. It just doesn't strike me as very likely compared to the alternatives.

Most likely, in my estimation, is still probably it being started by non-government to be clear.