> "that crypto would be a boon for the lower classes seems to me to be extremely dubious"

Why? The lower classes are the most vulnerable to inflation. And even the poorest have cell phones these days. See TXT-banking in Africa. Or this example with Bitcoin: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tatianakoffman/2020/07/14/this-...

> "it would shift [power] away from governments and into the hands of the wealthy"

You repeat yourself. ;) There are certainly risks - 51% attacks, etc. I don't know if crypto is the whole answer or maybe part of it, but when you consider how much the current financial systems are controlled and rigged, it's hard for me to see crypto as not an improvement for the common people.