It’s easier and cheaper to use bank wires than Bitcoin
You can't separate the currency from the ecosystem for anything but academic purposes.  The ecosystem is a mess. A commonly cited benefit of crypto-currencies is that they'll eliminate friction and fees in the system, and I think this is only because the systems don't exist.  People want security, verifiability, and reversibility when dealing with money.  There has to exist companies to do this whether they are Citibank or Coinbase, and they're going to charge money.<p>So you can take the Gov't control out of the equation, but I still have yet to hear a scenario that crypto-currrency itself makes better than fiat - it's always about the cost, complexity, and regulation of the services on top. Eventually, those will reappear because people and business want them.