[close04]

Correct in principle but not all that insightful because it's something almost universally true. "Fentanyl! Ads! Widespread surveillance! Can be good or bad".

You have to look at the reality. Crypto has been used overwhelmingly for scams and crime.

[CelestialMystic]

> Crypto has been used overwhelmingly for scams and crime.

So has regular currency.

[vkou]

The overwhelming use of regular currency is crime? Where?

[CelestialMystic]

There are transactions happening all the time in regular cash for weapons, drugs etc. Large banks have been found to be knowingly processing funds from terrorists, drugs dealers and have got fines. If you anti-war, you would also include the wars that are financed partly by the ability to print money.

These transactions while not the majority of transactions I would wager is far larger in terms of dollar value that the whole crypto ecosystem.

The reality is that criminals will find loop holes in a system and they will exploit it if it is worth exploiting. Many of the checks done in banks now impede transactions. I was buying a car (private seller) and I couldn't transfer the cash without going through a fraud check, even though I had signed the transaction with a card reader in the app. It turned a 30 minutes of test driving the vehicle and checking docs into 3 hours of wrangling on the phone. BTW I am not the only person having these problems with banks in the UK.

As for what crime we are referring to as well in this scenario needs clarifying as well. I suspect that most of crypto transactions are through darknet drug markets. These markets reduce the risk of violence to basically zero when purchasing drugs. While I am not one of these people that is pro-legalising all drugs, the reality is that people are going to buying them.

[throwaway1854]

Wherever any consumer-level illegal drug transaction has happened, which is everywhere.

[vkou]

The overwhelming use of fiat in my town does not consist of buying and selling street pharmaceuticals.