> What if bitcoins got disallowed as a currency in most places where you can use it to buy things.

Places where bitcoin is rarely accepted as currency (like Norway where I'm living), does not make it "unpopular" for ransomware (or other anonymous digital payments). As long as someone accepts it as payment, it will always be popular in that type of scenario.

I dislike the idea that anonymous digital payments are inherently bad; since they can be used for criminal transactions; which I often see here at HN. Being anonymous should not be a crime.