I disagree with his almost completely. When you pay someone with Bitcoin, the receiver knows your wallet and can look up your balance and every transaction you have ever made. That’s crazy. People may not realize the implication at first but they will. Imagine mainstream scenario and vendor behavior: you pay once, they know you are rich and adjust the price next time around. Or your insurer trawls your purchase history and adjusts your premiums because you eat fast food. etc.
A certain amount of privacy when paying is absolutely essential for mainstream adoption.
As for legitimacy. If people used crypto for payments without ever converting to fiat, absolutely no “on high” institution or state can confer legitimacy. It’s irrelevant.
And as for money laundering and terrorism. Give me a break. The existing financial system is gamed all the time by nation states, the wealthy with shell companies and tax havens and the biggest ‘coin’ in all these activities is the USD. These laws are vigorously enforced entirely selectively and usually politically. I’d rather it was simply impossible.
As for bad actors, these exist now and always will, that doesn’t mean you stop the rest of the world having access to tools to move value how they want and avoid state run monetary policy. The world’s elites and mega corps do this now already.
I am very glad that people like Elsberg, Assange, Manning and Snowden exist in the world. They are exactly the type of people that stand between the imperfect and unfair world we live in, and absolute tyranny. I don't give a shit what they are like over a beer or if they are overbearing narcissist assholes.
As for legitimacy. If people used crypto for payments without ever converting to fiat, absolutely no “on high” institution or state can confer legitimacy. It’s irrelevant.
And as for money laundering and terrorism. Give me a break. The existing financial system is gamed all the time by nation states, the wealthy with shell companies and tax havens and the biggest ‘coin’ in all these activities is the USD. These laws are vigorously enforced entirely selectively and usually politically. I’d rather it was simply impossible.
As for bad actors, these exist now and always will, that doesn’t mean you stop the rest of the world having access to tools to move value how they want and avoid state run monetary policy. The world’s elites and mega corps do this now already.