I'm ready to get downvoted to oblivion but... The beauty of cryptocurrency is that no central authority can dictate what you can and cannot do with those funds. They cannot freeze those funds in your account, provided you have those funds in your own wallet under your control. This would be like holding cash, unless they literally raid your house, they can't touch that crypto.
If you had a family member in Russia who was struggling to get by, you could send them crypto right now, but you could not wire the money internationally. That's only an example, but imagine if you were in that situation right now and your family was destitute with no way to get out. Crypto is basically the only tool that would allow you to instantly send them funds from anywhere in the world. The same is true for transactions, we see PayPal freeze accounts for businesses and people out of nowhere, but that simply cannot be done with a crypto wallet that you control.
Why do people think it's a scam? Because a bunch of people decided to start treating it like a speculative investment, and then lost a bunch of money. No surprise, it was never intended to be a speculative asset, rather a currency. Of course, people figured out that they could make money by pumping and dumping, furthering people's view that it's a scam. I send crypto to a bunch of the podcasts that I listen to, nobody can ever shut that down just because they don't like what the podcasters talk about on the show. It is a direct way for the listeners to support the podcasters with minimal fees and no government intervention. Just because people have abused it, does not mean the technology is bad. It means the way people are using it is bad, and that is thankfully changing over time as more utility companies accept crypto (for example).
You should specify that not all crypto is created equal. Not all crypto is decentralized. You need to research to determine which crypto is actually worth something and what is just fiat like the current system.
Then this comment is -5 in the chat:
I'm ready to get downvoted to oblivion but... The beauty of cryptocurrency is that no central authority can dictate what you can and cannot do with those funds. They cannot freeze those funds in your account, provided you have those funds in your own wallet under your control. This would be like holding cash, unless they literally raid your house, they can't touch that crypto.
If you had a family member in Russia who was struggling to get by, you could send them crypto right now, but you could not wire the money internationally. That's only an example, but imagine if you were in that situation right now and your family was destitute with no way to get out. Crypto is basically the only tool that would allow you to instantly send them funds from anywhere in the world. The same is true for transactions, we see PayPal freeze accounts for businesses and people out of nowhere, but that simply cannot be done with a crypto wallet that you control.
Why do people think it's a scam? Because a bunch of people decided to start treating it like a speculative investment, and then lost a bunch of money. No surprise, it was never intended to be a speculative asset, rather a currency. Of course, people figured out that they could make money by pumping and dumping, furthering people's view that it's a scam. I send crypto to a bunch of the podcasts that I listen to, nobody can ever shut that down just because they don't like what the podcasters talk about on the show. It is a direct way for the listeners to support the podcasters with minimal fees and no government intervention. Just because people have abused it, does not mean the technology is bad. It means the way people are using it is bad, and that is thankfully changing over time as more utility companies accept crypto (for example).
You should specify that not all crypto is created equal. Not all crypto is decentralized. You need to research to determine which crypto is actually worth something and what is just fiat like the current system.
Exactly why i tell people to be leery of XRP. It’s not a blockchain… it’s just a ledger, a very centralized ledger.