Critics like to say that Bitcoin is not useful in the real world or that it is only used for illicit activities. None of this is true. Bitcoin has a long history of being a means of payment for anyone in the world, without the intermediation of banks or payment processors. And it is increasingly being used by institutional investors in a similar way to gold.

Reality In recent years, Bitcoin has gained a lot of popularity as a store of value resistant to inflation, like gold, earning the nickname "digital gold." An increasing number of funds and publicly traded companies (such as Tesla, Square, and MicroStrategy) have purchased millions of dollars in Bitcoin in order to better manage their assets. Like gold, Bitcoin is scarce: there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins. Gold is heavy, bulky, difficult to transport and store. Bitcoin, on the other hand, can be sent digitally, as easily as sending an email.

In the beginning, Bitcoin was criticized for being the form of payment used on the dark web. But when the first major dark web market was shut down, the price of Bitcoin rose a few days later, and remained high. Like any form of money, it can be misused. But compared to US dollars, the illicit use of Bitcoin is minuscule. According to some reports, about 2% of the volume of Bitcoin transactions is related to criminal activities. And, as all Bitcoin transactions take place on an open blockchain, it is often easier for authorities to track illicit cryptocurrency activities than in the traditional financial system.