What is cryptocurrency?

[Jolly Blue Giant]

No, but cash isn't as easy to use as a payment method for large transactions. For starters, it requires a physical transfer, and very large amounts take up space.

Ever read stories about Pablo Escobar? He lost 2.1 billion dollars a year from his cash pile rotting in his warehouse or getting eaten by rats. He spent 2,500 dollars per month on rubber bands alone that were used to bundle the cash. Nice to have a lot of cash, but not easy to hoard tons of it or move it to a place where you can purchase big items

https://www.businessinsider.com/pablo-escobar-and-rubber-bands-2015-9

[DaveBrown74]

Ever read stories about Pablo Escobar? He lost 2.1 billion dollars a year from his cash pile rotting in his warehouse or getting eaten by rats. He spent 2,500 dollars per month on rubber bands alone that were used to bundle the cash. Nice to have a lot of cash, but not easy to hoard tons of it or move it to a place where you can purchase big items

https://www.businessinsider.com/pablo-escobar-and-rubber-bands-2015-9

Exactly.

Cash is an easy way to do illegal business if it's less sophisticated crime, not massive sums, and done at a local level. Mafia type activity and drug dealing within a specific local area is perfect for cash transactions. Much tougher when you're talking about higher level, more sophisticated, and more global type crime or terrorism. Crypto is perfect for that.

[MightyGiants]

From what I could gather from a bit of research, it appears that crypto can be traced, but it's not easy.  So small crimes will still fly under the radar, but if it's big enough for the feds to try, you can be found.

[uconnjack8]

Exactly.

Cash is an easy way to do illegal business if it's less sophisticated crime, not massive sums, and done at a local level. Mafia type activity and drug dealing within a specific local area is perfect for cash transactions. Much tougher when you're talking about higher level, more sophisticated, and more global type crime or terrorism. Crypto is perfect for that.

Yeah, nobody could get these things done before crypto, big cash transfers didn't exist.   

Again, if regulated, addresses could be only to registered people who had to prove identity, which is basically how the bank monitors things. 

As for the global crime type and terrorism, what exactly are you talking about?  Did 9/11 happen because of crypto?  What about the Oklahoma City bombing?

[DaveBrown74]

Yeah, nobody could get these things done before crypto, big cash transfers didn't exist.   

Again, if regulated, addresses could be only to registered people who had to prove identity, which is basically how the bank monitors things. 

As for the global crime type and terrorism, what exactly are you talking about?  Did 9/11 happen because of crypto?  What about the Oklahoma City bombing?

Of course not. Never once did I say or imply that large scale crime and terrorism cannot happen without crypto. That's pretty blatantly putting words in my mouth, building a straw man, or whatever else you want to call that.

All I said, which I am still saying, is that crypto has clear appeal to a criminal element and definitely can help facilitate transactions between nefarious actors. If you don't think that's the case then we can agree to disagree.

By the way, despite our back-and-forth on this one aspect of the discussion, it was never the main point of my original post, which was simply to pose the fundamental question of why crypto is needed in the first place at a mass level for legitimate purposes (other than pure speculation).

[MightyGiants]

Ransomware hacking wouldn't happen if not for crypto, it's the hackers only accepted payment method