We'll never turn permanently away from crypto because the underlying technology and networks are a revolutionary improvement.
Failure rates: https://www.swift.com/news-events/news/settlement-fails-gett...
Finality: https://www.swift.com/our-solutions/swift-gpi/stop-and-recal...
High fees and days/weeks wait times for international wire transfers are common knowledge - check at almost any bank.
The above links partly explain why this situation exists in a world where all money is basically already "digital".
It's kind of not. And the only system making radical inroads to actually improving the status quo (which has been deeply entrenched for decades) is crypto, which right now offers real solutions adopted by consumers and institutions.
Doesn't mean its perfect or that there's no dark side, just as with everything. But the media - and HN largely, on this topic - loves to play up such things, so good luck finding much accurate information there, or here.
Because the fundamental task at hand is only partially about transferring money.
In reality, it's mostly about precisely what crypto payments seek to circumvent: fraud prevention and KYC.
Just because the news typically only reports the murders that happen in a given city, doesn't mean that the only thing that's going to happen to someone in that city is to get murdered. Crypto reporting is much the same.
But yeah, technically you are still more likely to get murdered there, so only go if you're really into the other things it offers.
Just don't assume that with hundreds of billions invested, from all kinds of participants large and small, that the entire city is a fraud or otherwise nefarious. It's a major city - it has a lot going on, much under-reported.
Unless you live there, and you read the local news, attend local events, etc. Then you might have a better idea of what it's really like, and which alleys not to walk down alone at night, and where you can get the best bagels.
So this is why Ransomware peddlers and North Korea use bank transfers to move their money around, and why dark market users mail checks to each other? Or do they use crypto coins instead?
Crypto is money. Checks are money. Bank transfers are money. Cash is money.
It's all money, and it all "facilitates" crime.
Unfortunately, I assumed you knew a slight more about the topic you're discussing than you evidently do.
My reply's intended to suggest that the privacy coins you are referring to - unknowingly, or otherwise - are simply another form of money. Bracketing them with regular crypto, something I did only in keeping with how you initiated, isn't the best.
In practice, privacy coins are a small subset of crypto, some of the least-used of all types available. And again there are also legitimate use-cases with them that reduces this further to the point it's a bit silly. A subset, of a subset, of a...
But, you're welcome to succumb to the endless brainwash of BS and biased media reporting for crypto and think whatever will make you happy. Reality lay in waiting, for whenever you wish to join it and the complicated world that doesn't get clicks.
Meanwhile what you've done is failed to read my comments properly and then attempt to insult me. Read them until you understand, and if you don't, ask questions. That's the spirit of discussion and learning I'm engaged in.
If you aren't, good luck with that, and I wish you the best.
I would re-evaluate your methods.
Money laundering alone is estimated in the trillions per year according to the UN. This is significantly greater than the entire value of all privacy coins combined:
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/money-laundering/overview.htm...
Eg, even if the entirety of Monero was purchased only for money laundering, it could only account for 0.1-0.2% of the total that occurs. Where is the other 99.8-99.9% being conducted? What systems are "facilitating" that?
Well, everything that isn't crypto... banks, cash, checks, etc.
As I pointed out at the beginning.
Fraud exists. (You should know. The cryptocurrency universe is mostly that.) But more importantly, judges exist, and they do not give a single sweet damn that you say it "cannot be reversed".
(And a hearty LOL at "costs pennies". Ethereum gas fees yesterday, on the say you posted this, averaged eight bucks in actual-money terms. I can send a wire cheaper than that.)
For some of those systems, it would be a stretch to call them blockchains (there's no comparable data structure, sometimes not even consensus), but the important thing is that they come with peer-reviewed BFT security guarantees. So I do wonder, if you can have BFT guarantees for such a system, and still more capacity than you'll likely ever need, why wouldn't you?