Time was Bitcoin proponents would talk about the future of money (investment).
Now everyone just wants to get rich at the expense if the poor fool who comes later (speculation). We're now at the mania stage of this bubble, where crazy things happen and ordinary people invest because of the distorted prices.
What is their utility beyond being a lottery ticket? That was my original question. Lotto winners have mixed outcomes, so I'm not sure that its clear if those lives were improved. We may come find out they weren't.
State governments have had a monopoly on lotteries for my entire lifetime, so if we've granted that crypto is nothing beyond a lottery ticket, then there is no issue with society regulating it to whatever degree we can agree on.
Society can regulate whatever it wants. Usually it can attempt to make some sort of justification but the justification can be fairly flimsy (as the marijuana regulations have proven). So sure, society can regulate crypto, as the US Gov already has attempted to do.
For the utility of decentralized currencies, it's best you get information from more than an Internet comment. Which sources have you used already?
