@Ree @sun The dollar is uber-centralized. Two organizations, the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury, create it, regulate it, and control it. The banks are also under the authority of those orgs, so even checking / credit cards / loans are effectively controlled by the same two organizations. There is no decentralization and currently no way to do so even if they wanted to decentralize.

Several years ago, some large-ish banks got caught money-laundering drug profits. They denied all charges, paid a fine, promised to change their ways. A bank from a foreign nation known for its bank secrecy laws was caught--I believe it was financing known terrorists, but it could have been a drug cartel--and was given a fine after its home government intervened to request that the US not give their bank the death penalty.

So yes, there are reasons for those anti-money-laundering laws, but the biggest violators get token wrist slaps, while the person who uses Zelle to send their roommate their part of the rent risks having an IRS investigation.

I was going to be an ECON minor or a MATH minor, but I couldn't make up my mind and wanted to get my degree already, so I graduated without either minor (one class away from either of them). One of my finance professors had once been sent by USGov to help $FOREIGN_NATION build its banking system. There's so much fascinating stuff (and zillions of minute pieces of information that no one can keep straight in their minds) in that industry, and that's before the Treasury and the Fed dropped their masks and showed that they would f*ck us all and let us die as long as the banks stayed in business. I'll bet there's more conspiracies between the Treasury, the Fed, and the banks today than any conspiracy theorist could ever pursue.

So, no. Banking regulations and tax laws making it difficult to obtain and use cryptocurrency is not a good thing. It prevents more legitimate uses from arising and allows banks to exploit us longer.