So is illegitimate debanking an example of a real useful purpose for cryptocurrencies? I'm also thinking of the current Musk takeover of the Treasury payments system as perhaps leading to a useful purpose for cryptocurrency. For example, the regular payment of funds from a grant could be set up as an Ethereum smart contract. Or funds allocated by the US House could be a smart contract to prevent any other level of government from tampering with them. If you can't trust the banks or government then does cryptocurrency have some benefits? This was not seen as a Western problem because we had rule of law, but now, maybe it is. Decentralization and operating outside the control of a bank or government can be very useful features if the bank or government is corrupted. Like holding gold, except much easier to use because it is digital. Much easier to hide from a corrupt government also, maybe, though the government could know you had the funds depending on how the cryptocurrency works. In the old days people used to hide grain underneath their house to keep the government or armies from taking it, so they could survive the winter. Yes, criminals can hide and use cryptocurrencies also, but they always used money/fungible assets even before cryptocurrencies, to the tune of trillions of dollars. Seems like trying to control money has not worked very well in controlling criminals and instead root causes should be addressed.