> Crypto is really only good for gambling, betting the price of this or that crypto is going to go up or down, and, crime

Crime is a pretty broad category. Sure you can use crypto to scam people and dodge taxes, but illegal does not equal immoral. Piracy, leaking evidence of war crimes and police abuse, leaking source code to hurt controversial companies, donations to banned groups, even hosting source code for illegal tools. Not all of them benefit from crypto itself but adjacent technologies that need a blockchain like Arweave and ENS.

Then there are things like drug dealing and prostitution that have real world harms but not everyone agrees they should be criminal. It's great to have a bunch of different payment methods that can be as anonymous as cash (Monero) or fully programmable with smart wallets to protect you from scams, all without any corporate cartel that could block you.

Cyberleek is a great example for both sides of the debate. They used Solana programs and Arweave to make their site uncensorable, but also created a token donation system and market cap goals to make thousands of dollars in the process (a lot for someone probably based in Russia). Is it all morally wrong, or all right, or only wrong for the money side?

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throwawayffffas a day ago | parent | next [-]

Listen that's all great in theory, but the vast majority of the actual use is extortions, drug dealing[1], terrorist financing, money laudring and authoritarian regimes evading sanctions.

The only value is that it does not go through banks.

[1] The moral problem with drug dealing is not the drugs, but the fact the people selling them are using that money to perpuate an incredible circle of violence.

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Stagnant a day ago | parent [-]

Would be nice to hear where you are basing the claim 'vast majority', when different chain analysis companies have been pretty consistent in reporting illicit activity to be closer to 1% of total transaction volume [1][2]

1: https://www.trmlabs.com/fr/reports-and-whitepapers/2026-cryp...

2: https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-drug-sales-darknet-m...

	▲	seabombs a day ago \| parent [-]
		From the TRM methodology: 1. excludes proceeds from crime that originate in fiat and later transfer into crypto 2. exclude transfers to blockchain addresses that have not been attributed to illicit activity 3. excludes laundering of illicit crypto proceeds While this seems reasonable to create a metric to compare YoY, I think it's very flawed to generate an absolute figure of illicit activity (or percentage of transaction volume).

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VCFundedGenYer a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Crypto is like AR/VR - in theory the technology is sound. In practice it's only used by bad actors and eshewed by the majority public due to how many ways it's easily exploited for illegal acts.

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KellyCriterion a day ago | parent | prev [-]

-- and prostitution --

EU: Someone in this "business" told me lately that "his girls" in "his houses" are happily switching to SEPA instant payment, so they do not have take care of the cash and it reduces the risk of wierd clients becoming violent to get their cash back.