Risks of Cryptocurrencies [pdf]
&gt;&gt;However,   unless   censorship   resis-tance  in  an  electronic  transaction  is  a  requirement  (such  as  for  drug  deals,  ransom  payments,  money  launderers,  and  those  seeking  to  evade  currency  control),  irreversibility  combined  with  the  volatile  price  means  Bitcoin  is  sig-nificantly  inferior  to  alternatives  such  as credit cards or PayPal<p>This is not true, as Elaine Ou explains:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elaineou.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;01&#x2F;the-value-of-settlement-finality&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elaineou.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;08&#x2F;01&#x2F;the-value-of-settlement-fina...</a><p>Any high charge-back industry would benefit from an irreversible payment method, which is why several offer steep discounts if one uses cryptocurrency.<p>With respect to volatility, that&#x27;s largely a function of very thin trading volumes, and the high proportion of cryptocurrency&#x27;s current value stems from speculative demand. In a hypothetical mass-adoption scenario, trading volumes will be huge, solving the first problem, and growth potential will be significantly less, making speculative value a much smaller component of the cryptocurrency&#x27;s total value.<p>So this only applies in the early adoption phase:<p>&gt;&gt;This   also   means   that   unless   the   buyer is a believer in Bitcoin, the buyer ought to buy Bitcoin only immediately before  they  initiate  the  transaction,  to  avoid  volatility  (and  will  have  had  to  mine  or  buy  the  Bitcoin  in  any  case).<p>In a mass adoption scenario, immediately converting to fiat currencies through exchanges will not be necessary.<p>&gt;&gt;Bugs  in  these  smart  contracts  can  be   catastrophic.<p>This is indeed a major risk, but one that can be mitigated through methods like formally verifiable smart contracts.<p>&gt;&gt;The exchanges themselves also cre-ate systemic risks. Almost all exchang-es   seek   to   avoid   regulation,   which   means    they    implode    with    almost    seeming  regularity—usually  due  to  a  combination of theft and fraud.<p>Absolutely false. The failure rate of exchanges has dramatically declined over the last several years. Methods like cold wallet storage have significantly reduced the losses suffered when an exchange is hacked, and the exchanges are now much more professionally run services than they were in 2012&#x2F;2013.<p>I question the impartiality of the author when he makes a claim like this.<p>&gt;&gt;In  many  cases  the  bandwidth  limit  for  crime  is  not  the  crime  itself,  but  the  money  laundering.<p>I am dubious about this claim. Is there any case of a criminal activity being easy to get away with, but not widely committed, due to the difficulty of laundering the proceeds?<p>&gt;&gt;It   is   primarily   criminals  who  regularly  benefit  from  censorship-resistant payments<p>While it is true that criminals benefit the most from censorship-resistant payments, this is no different than criminals benefiting the most from privacy. It is not an argument against censorship resistance or privacy. The flip side is that exercising one&#x27;s basic rights, and ensuring one&#x27;s own survival by doing something as fundamental as trading a good&#x2F;service for money, requires becoming a criminal in some countries, like Venezuela.<p>Circumventing Orwellian levels of mass-surveillance and centralized control in places like Xinjiang is also an antitode to a much more dangerous risk to society than that posed by malevolent non-state actors:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrw.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2018&#x2F;02&#x2F;26&#x2F;china-big-data-fuels-crackdown-minority-region" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hrw.org&#x2F;news&#x2F;2018&#x2F;02&#x2F;26&#x2F;china-big-data-fuels-cra...</a>