Snapchat is mostly for porn? Signal is mostly for drug dealers? Tor is mostly for pedophiles?
The early adopters of a technology are the users that need it the most, and have the highest opportunity cost from not using it. You can think of them as beta-testers for the "nothing to hide" folks. You are looking at the beginning of a technology and criticizing the beta-tester population.
Can be used to buy things illegally. Think ADHD meds or sanctions breaking.
In an ideal world, the ADHD meds where I live should be made available by GP prescription to reduce the backlog. Right now, it takes years to get a diagnosis free of charge, or to get a prescription for thousands of USD.
Of course, somebody (the dealer) will be left holding the bag after it unravels. But it's rich to ask sufferers to put their lives on hold.
The beginning? It’s been fifteen years. Hundreds of billions have been invested. We’ve been through several massive hype cycles.
If there is any potential for mainstream adoption of crypto, what exactly is holding it back at this point? It’s not new; it’s not obscure; and it’s certainly not underinvested.
Of course the crypto promoters will never admit that because the only reason to invest in crypto is this narrative — “it’s something brand new, very few people understand it, you can get in on the ground floor and be part of a revolution, etc.”
Its a far more efficient "bug bounty" system than the tech industry has ever created. Far easier to get paid far more with far less liability.
Its the ultimate PvP game. far more efficient game against people for resources than walled garden finance or society has previously created. It will always attract participants.
And that's before even getting to the relativity of your nation's laws. Are you suggesting we care about some other country's capital controls because crypto use gets around those ... too? Is our go to response "wait, that's illegal laundering to move that much money... in China"
It is. That said, I know a bunch of people who use it to buy ADHD medication, who can't otherwise afford to get a prescription in a timely manner. And I don't even know that many people! I suppose there's many downsides to enabling crime, but there's some silver lining.
The early adopters of a technology are the users that need it the most, and have the highest opportunity cost from not using it. You can think of them as beta-testers for the "nothing to hide" folks. You are looking at the beginning of a technology and criticizing the beta-tester population.