Privacy is sorely needed in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Cryptocurrencies could help raise people out of poverty in developing countries and boost economies with increased money transfers—or they could be a way for oppressive regimes to track down every transaction and have more opportunities to accuse innocents of wrongdoing.
The appeal of blockchain technology to people with antiauthoritarian streaks is obvious. Many in the US have a bone to pick with the banking system. In the thirties, the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages, drew maps of areas in which it would do business, excluding poor and minority communities. This practice continued for a generation, and it was devastating to the core of many American cities, destroying hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth:
More recently, the 2008 global financial crisis resulted from speculative bets on future derivatives and dodgy lending practices, which drove real-estate prices sky high (and then...