Right now, I like anything that helps normalize the white-hot hype of cryptocurrencies. There's some real utility in this technology, and we won't get to see it until companies are forced to make sustainable business cases and serve real customers. However, > A website set up by the Chinese central bank warned that cryptocurrencies are "increasingly used as a tool in criminal activities such as money laundering, drug…
The sustainable business case is permissionless nature of Bitcoin. Everything else comes down to it. This talk of blockchain technology being somewhat of a new wonderful invention that's supposed to magically make companies more profitable...? Not so. The reason why Bitcoin exists is because governments want control over money. Bitcoin gives people freedom. Period. Everything else is noise.
Of course. And for a good reason. People utter this line as if governments wanting control over money was somehow bad.
Money, within all human societies that exist or existed, is pretty much synonymous with power. It is the tool that allows an individual to incent, compel and coordinate other people to do what said individual wants. With $1 you can make someone cook you a hot dog. With $1K you can get someone to give you pretty advanced tech. With $1M you literally make other people build you a house.
State by its design is supposed to have monopoly on ultimate power. Since money is synonymous with power, the state needs to control money in order to fulfill its function (and to secure its ability to fulfill that function). So it's obvious that the state may not be happy about technologies that prevent them from controlling the money. It's threatening the state's ability to enforce rules. And despite the popular dystopian rhetoric, state being able to enforce rules is almost always a good thing for the society.