Cryptocurrency, along with mixnets, end to end encryption, the internet itself, and a scattering of other technologies together make it possible to create a (or more likely several) virtual electronic realms outside the control of existing sociopolitical power structures and unbounded by geography.
They eventually should make it possible to do this unstoppably.
Whether or not these systems, communities, and economies solve any problems for you primarily depends on two things:
1. How accepted they become by the rest of the world (they are more likely to be useful if they can become part of, and enhance, our lives - for example by cutting out exploitative middlemen from some types of transaction or providing for cheap, frictionless, ubiquitous micropayments)
2. How abusive and/or broken our meatspace societies become (you might feel differently about bitcoin, Tor and the rest in an authoritarian fascist regime with hyperinflation than you do in today’s America, for example)
In a few cases we have solved real problems that require this new digital realm to solve, but there’s certainly more to do (as is evident if you try using current iterations of the tech, or better, ask a non technical friend to!).
Some examples:
- The problem of slow innovation in finance. DeFi might be a toy that’s currently learning everything we already know but it’s doing so rapidly and already creating a few innovations on the edges
- The problem of rebellion and civil disobedience — which are important democratic acts that have shaped much of the world we live in today — in an age of ubiquitous information and financial surveillance and control
- the problem of moving US dollars (or somethings close enough for many uses) around if you, your organisation, or even your country is locked out of the US correspondent banking system, because like it or not, dollars are the world’s reserve currency at this point in time
- etc.