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Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

The most "legitimate" use for bitcoin and its friends is transferring funds electronically with people that others don't want you transferring funds with (e.g, avoiding payment processors, laws, etc).

However, it remains to be seen if cryptocurrency could survive doing only that (e.g., without speculators) - because if there's no speculation how do you unload the currency? Only to others wishing to do the same. It's possible, but will it work out?

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All the while remembering that all transactions in bitcoin have a permanent ledger - so many friends seemed to think that bitcoin is somehow secret and anonymous - there are ways to make it more so, but by default it is much less anonymous than cold hard cash.

"avoiding laws" is not a "legitimate" use

I think you're using legitimate to mean "legal and most reasonable people would be okay with it" whereas the post you're responding to meant "legitimate" to mean an actual real technological advancement that wasn't doable with previous technologies

> wasn't doable with previous technologies

But anonymous London shell companies have been available for years!

Setting up an entire shell company to buy a dime bag is not an efficient use of money.

Of course, apparently fees on bitcoin are so high that buying a dime bag there isn't useful, either.

Exactly. Legitimate can mean "conforming to the laws" in which case law avoidance can't (usually) be legitimate, but I was taking the secondary meaning of "able to be defended with logic or justification" e.g., it allows something that couldn't otherwise be done (currently).

A government that fully supported an actual digital cash that was untraceable (perhaps this is best done with crypto, but you can do it without a blockchain) would serve the same purpose.

> The most "legitimate" use for bitcoin and its friends is transferring funds electronically with people that others don't want you transferring funds with (e.g, avoiding payment processors, laws, etc).

Yes. I way underestimated the size of the money-laundering industry.

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