> So where do cryptocurrencies provide value? Well, the main one is in areas where traditional, government-backed fiat currencies can't be used. In other words, mostly illicit cases - drugs, money laundering, etc. Otherwise, especially for those in nations with more developed financial infrastructure, there's no compelling reason to use bitcoin other than purely ideological motivations.
Definitely. Tack ransomware onto that list too.
There's legitimate use cases too though which do present at least a few compelling cases - for example I've had large purchases outright refused because the seller thought there was a chance I was a credit card fraudster. Nothing says "the money is yours now" like a cryptographic proof of that. They straight up told me, even after I gave them proof of ID - "sorry, too risky, pay with bitcoin".
I've also been flagged by maxmind and similar anti-fraud tools before when I made VPS purchases over Tor. But because I paid in Bitcoin support was able to approve the transaction without a second thought - no more fraud risk could occur.
Of course - these types of purchases aren't that frequent - but they do occur.
Definitely. Tack ransomware onto that list too.
There's legitimate use cases too though which do present at least a few compelling cases - for example I've had large purchases outright refused because the seller thought there was a chance I was a credit card fraudster. Nothing says "the money is yours now" like a cryptographic proof of that. They straight up told me, even after I gave them proof of ID - "sorry, too risky, pay with bitcoin".
I've also been flagged by maxmind and similar anti-fraud tools before when I made VPS purchases over Tor. But because I paid in Bitcoin support was able to approve the transaction without a second thought - no more fraud risk could occur.
Of course - these types of purchases aren't that frequent - but they do occur.