Making big $$$, obviously.

It's very clear that the whole decentralization tech angle failed a long time ago. I had a passing interest, but completely lost it around 2017-ish, when BTC blocks started filling up.

It seemed completely clear to me that a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" couldn't tolerate such dysfunction. Usage as cash wasn't working. In the end capacity had to be promptly increased, or obviously there'd be huge problems for everyone.

The first nail in the coffin was that blocks weren't expanded. The second one was that while there were plenty alternatives, BTC retained dominance, and that even forks that theoretically were superior because they did what they were supposed to do far better, BTC still won out.

So clearly I was wrong, BTC wasn't functioning as a "cash system", and this obviously didn't matter to the BTC users, and didn't matter to the world at large either.

Thus eventually it dawned on me that there were maybe a few people out there that had some interest in a "Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and the "tech", but the vast majority out there were only interested in a world-wide game of hot potato, where the only point is to accumulate coins early, then sell them to some fool on the top, and cash out.

Or, people will flood out to someone who hasn't been hit by that "contagion", because the entire point is to have unregulated money.

However, a significant volume is being traded today on DEXs (ie: uniswap). The OP fails to mention that. Uniswap did around $1bn in volume on a Saturday. These amount are very hard to fake as uniswap fees are simply brutal comparing to CEXs. This means a part of the market has moved off-grid and it’s significant. I don’t think the article argument can ignore that fact.

Yes, there's the SAR lookback, but no one reads those anyways and probably won't give the government much because criminals routinely use accounts registered with fake or stolen IDs. Binance still accepts customers from countries like Venezuela, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, etc that "respected" financial institutions wouldn't touch with a 39.5 foot pole. There are still people making $50,000 USDT -> cash transactions every day with Binance P2P.

I've been reading about how that is imminent here for 3 years now.

They also use it for OTC transactions, which are typically also hedged on centralized markets due to their uncertainty.

The centralized markets also function as banks, where you can borrow or cross-margin your positions.

So it works, it's just that only using blockchain is not good enough to deal with speculation needs and market volatility.

The decentralization aspect was mostly necessary in the early days to avoid being shut down by government. Now that crypto is widespread, it is not as important. What is important though are things that are missing from our current fiat monetary system; transparency and reliability.

While the fiat monetary system appears to be very reliable for the individual, it is in fact extremely unreliable due to its lack of transparency. Governments can easily manipulate the supply (and therefore the true value) of currency behind the scenes without your knowledge and that is one of the primary mechanisms via which it steals wealth from individuals and deprive them of opportunities.

Arguments against cryptocurrency are essentially saying that these individuals who are being robbed and deprived of opportunities don't matter because the system only needs to work for rich people and fool the poor into thinking that it doesn't harm them.

Unfortunately, many poor people understand exactly how the system robs them.

- It devalues our salary contracts via inflation of buying power.

- Centralized currency creation centralizes opportunities due to the Cantillon Effect and this creates an asymmetric playing field which unfairly benefits corporations and large organizations.

- Given that income tax is levied against each transfer between individuals, newly issued currency cannot travel very far from the government money printers as each hop away from the printers incurs a significant additional tax in the remaining untaxed amount which keeps shrinking. This exacerbates the Cantillon Effect and punishes regional areas and individuals who are far from the centers of money printing. It keeps all economic activity on a very short leash which is held tightly by the government.

This certainly has not been the case with 'big tech' or 'big insurance'. Regulation amounts to slaps on the wrist, fines. Not being shut down or the key people arrested.

Mandate that all government spending use a block chain so that all citizens can see government spending. All public finances visible to all citizens.

I think we have got it backwards trying to use the technology as untraceable peer to peer currency, instead focus on visibility into government finances to combat corruption and nepotism.