I just fear that if people here remain hostile, it could give regulators the support they need to get rid of it. I don't care whether the technology becomes big or not, and I don't think it's suitable for business models. However, I do think that since 2008, the banking system has changed for the worse. People are now suspected of committing a crime if a transaction looks odd. Sometimes, I receive emails from my bank asking about the source of money I've received. This is a huge invasion of privacy, and many people may not have documentation about such transactions anymore. It's unfair to be treated like a criminal when you haven't done anything wrong. I believe that Bitcoin provides great relief from this situation. The community can be inconvenient at times, but I don't think that matters much.
> I believe that Bitcoin provides great relief from this situation.
I think this is a mistake: your country’s laws usually apply to everything, which means that Bitcoin either doesn’t change anything because you’re using a legal exchange or you’re technically in violation of the law and leaving a public record for prosecutors. We’re inclined to technical solutions here but the banking system is a political construct and there isn’t a good way to change it other than engaging with the political process.
This also provides the answer for perceived negativity. The bad reputation is due to providing poor, often illegal, services and the way to change that is to provide something useful which makes life better for someone. For example, PayPal is pretty unpopular but many people still use it because it’s a necessary evil (broad reach, available in most of the world, etc.). If some of the many billions of dollars spent on cryptocurrency companies had produced a useful payment system which was fast, easy to use, had reasonable fraud and privacy protections, etc. a lot of people would switch. Instead, we had 14 years of people shilling Bitcoin despite it providing none of those things because they knew it had only the value they could talk buyers into believing, and nobody at PayPal, etc. is staying up nights worried that they need to offer customers a better deal to keep them.
