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Comment by ghostwriter | Hacker News Reader

> I don't have the time, energy, or skill to securely run important servers all by my self.

But some other people do.

> I give an institution my money and, due to a combination of their size, insurance, and regulators, I'm confident that my money will still be there tomorrow. They are unlikely to give me fake notes, and they can refund me if I've been defrauded. I trust them.

Good luck! Your trust in them is not a guarantee that you are able to get your money back from them at any point [1] [2] [3] [4]

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/aqxz5n/h...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/ryc8i4/b...

[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/l4tps5/h...

[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/cbpxit/h...

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Your first example was caught up in a government mandated anti money laundering investigation.

If the government is after you, crypto isn’t going to protect you. It might make the cost to go after your money a little higher if you’re willing to violate court orders and live as a fugitive.

No, but it sure is easier to deal with day-to-day expenses if you don't have an empty account.

You can co-operate with an investigation whilst also not handing over complete control of ~all of your assets for the interim.

Not if the investigation includes a warrant to seize your crypto assets. Which a money laundering investigation certainly could.

"the government is after you" is a spectrum. The fact that you're under suspicion for money laundering doesn't mean they'll send seal team six after you. Using crypto raises the barrier for seizing your money, just like having cash on hand means that you can still pay for necessities when your accounts are "caught up in a government mandated anti money laundering investigation".

In the US at least, the method for seizing crypto is the same as for seizing money in a bank account. The only difference is that the warrant is served on the person who owns the crypto wallet instead of a bank.

That’s what I meant when I said the cost to seize your money goes up if you’re willing to defy a warrant.

However, if using crypto as a currency becomes mainstream, governments will crack down.

Crypto might be decentralized, but governments could easily require registering wallets, and force businesses to only transact with people who are registered.

Mainstream crypto money does not negate non-mainstream means of owning and securing your funds, similarly to how centralised chat platforms do not negate p2p or federated chats that use gateways to interact with the mainstream world if necessary, but are totally independent otherwise.

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