Since this question routinely comes up on HN, I gathered a few legit examples[0] of how Crypto is helping.
I am also willing to have a bet about overall Crypto market cap[1] at the end of this decade (11:59pm PST on 31st Dec 2020) - I bet it will be more than 1T USD vs 932B today.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32406095 [1] the number at the top of https://coinmarketcap.com/
I think 2018 was a legitimate run when we were all thinking of legit use cases and arguing whether they were practical. The last few years were more of a bubble, with NFTs and shitcoins all over the place.
Crypto seems like something that would benefit from Gustafson's Law. Digital finance infrastructure is not yet good enough to make it useful. Like Instagram relying on web and app tech, crypto still needs lots of changes in how we deal with money and how governments treat it.
What are you thoughts on the next wave?