[kevin_b_er]

Because none of that is the purpose of cryptocurrency. It for tax evasion by the rich, and for the cryptocurrency to seize when its used for crimes or when its defrauded out of someone else. And for riding a seemingly permanently rising currency to riches.

In any case, it boils down to "I can make money off cryptocurrency". It doesn't "help" people. If someone says that, they just want to evangelize it because they think that's the key to 'crypto go up'.

[lesuorac]

Isn't cryptocurrency pretty much the worst way to avoid taxes?

The entire ledger is public. The IRS is going to know that several millions/billions was sent to an address and can just press the exchange to reveal who it is akin to gambling winnings.

[tim333]

It's tricky if it's an offshore exchange or a private wallet or similar.

[mbonnet]

Ledgers without good privacy (aka, most), yes. Things like Monero are very different.

[snakeyjake]

I was there, at the dawn. I remember spigots giving out whole-ass bitcoins.

The "we're going to change the world" folks either became, or were pushed out by the, Gordon Gekko cosplayers approximately 227 milliseconds after the bitcoin whitepaper was published.

As far as I can tell, a larger value in goods and services, real non-crypto-related tangible things and actions, are purchased in Chuck-e-cheese tokens than crypto.

Crypto is tulip bulbs for the IT Crowd. It's hyper-tax-evading-money-laundering on steroids. It is everything about "duh banksters" the liars promoting crypto claimed to be against times ten trillion.

Crypto is like some very smart people took every negative aspect of the socio-economic system we find ourselves trapped within and amplified them because they realized the grift to be had, then they wrapped it all in a thin veneer of freedom and rebellion.

There is no freedom there.

[whimsicalism]

legal evasion is definitely a big part of it, but when your government is corrupt and mismanaged and makes it illegal to hold other currencies while devaluing the money you do hold, maybe a little law breaking is justified

e: to be clear, i'm not talking about the US