"one possibility is a global crackdown by regulators due to its incredible consumption of energy (equivalent to countries like Czech Republic, despite it being a relatively small asset in comparison with other markets). This would be pretty easy, and it would probably be top down, coming from the UN, BIS, IMF, type entities I'd imagine. Furthermore, it pretty much avoids existing AML/CFT regulations and is seen by regulators as a way of money laundering and financing criminal activity."
A "global crackdown" is only possible if you literally have the globe on board. The minute you have an element that are not down with it, then you have a problem. And that problem is already here. The Central African Republic just passed Bitcoin as legal tender, second to do so after El Salvador. And that will be the pattern - the countries that desperately need something like Bitcoin will all embrace it, eventually, and then it will out-perform all competitors. It's like trying to supress the internet in the 90s. It will end in failure.
It's been shown over and over that Bitcoin is not a good vehicle for criminal activity any longer. Yes it is anonymous, but it's also completely transparent. There are now bitcoin blockchain analysts who work with authorities to provide info on criminal activity using bitcoin. This work will continue to get more advanced. Conducting criminal activity in bitcoin is silliness, and there are now cryptocurrencies which have been designed specifically for privacy that allows this to be done better e.g. Monero and others. And I'm not even sure they will dominate that market anyway. Recent analysis has shown that a larger percentage of fiat currency is used for criminal activity than that of bitcoin, and the bitcoin percentage is continuing to shrink.
How much of the internet traffic is used for criminal activity, and why are we not shutting down the internet? It's the same argument.
A lot of this stuff simply comes down to the average person not yet understanding what Bitcoin actually is.
A "global crackdown" is only possible if you literally have the globe on board. The minute you have an element that are not down with it, then you have a problem. And that problem is already here. The Central African Republic just passed Bitcoin as legal tender, second to do so after El Salvador. And that will be the pattern - the countries that desperately need something like Bitcoin will all embrace it, eventually, and then it will out-perform all competitors. It's like trying to supress the internet in the 90s. It will end in failure.
It's been shown over and over that Bitcoin is not a good vehicle for criminal activity any longer. Yes it is anonymous, but it's also completely transparent. There are now bitcoin blockchain analysts who work with authorities to provide info on criminal activity using bitcoin. This work will continue to get more advanced. Conducting criminal activity in bitcoin is silliness, and there are now cryptocurrencies which have been designed specifically for privacy that allows this to be done better e.g. Monero and others. And I'm not even sure they will dominate that market anyway. Recent analysis has shown that a larger percentage of fiat currency is used for criminal activity than that of bitcoin, and the bitcoin percentage is continuing to shrink.
How much of the internet traffic is used for criminal activity, and why are we not shutting down the internet? It's the same argument.
A lot of this stuff simply comes down to the average person not yet understanding what Bitcoin actually is.