Crypto Banning Thoughts

The "elephant in the room" is that the first obvious "use case" for a perfectly opaque (not traceable) crypto is money laundering. In regimes that require traceability in all things financial, merely having an account that could use such a crypto would invite ... extra scrutiny. Or as they say in China, 你喝茶。

That said, I'm actually skeptical that such a thing can actually be created. The only perfectly anonymous currency ever created was and still is ... Currency. Cash. It's when we try to interface with the financial system where every last decimal is accounted for that we run afoul of the things that de-anonymise cash; when it's surrendered for credit somewhere.

The immediate, and obvious question becomes, "If that's what you think, then what are you doing here, Sarah?" The answer: It has happened, on occasion, that I've been shown to be demonstrably wrong in a given opinion (shockingly hard to believe, I know). So I keep my options open and try to follow an old Wall Street maxim: "Never let an opinion get in the way of making money.'

Countries can try banning specific types of cryptos or even mining pools like https://woolypooly.com/en/ and make it not worth the effort to use, but that's what happens when we let govts have too much power. They're also likely to eventually ban cash in favor of their central bank digital currencies.

I see this as the most likely outcome in all cases. This is because the issuing of currency, and defending it's value are seen as core functions of government: You might be able to use wampum, pukka shells or hen's teeth as a medium of exchange between yourself and your close friends, but eventually you're going to have to interact with your government in some way that's likely to involve a financial transaction of some kind. Guess who decides what that transaction is denominated in? You won't be able to (nor would you want to) say, "Could you please make that payment for the government contract I fulfilled in that super secret crypto 'HushMoney' ᵀᴹ?"

You can accept payment in the government-approved currency, but when you try to convert it, that's when you encounter ... difficulties.

The financial world as it exists since Pacioli demands to know where the money came from, and where it went. All of it. Every dime. So when money disappears from here and then reappears there, the "financial crimes" authorities become interested.