The most obvious use of bitcoin is to enable peer to peer exchanges of currency without banks, that's its purpose. Setting up a website that accepts payments just became vastly easier without the need for PCI compliance or even SSL; that is huge. Digital cash. That it can be used nefariously is beside the point, so can cash.
> The most obvious use of bitcoin is to enable peer to peer exchanges of currency without banks, that's its purpose.
Well, yes. But in general, we as a society like banks. They're big, reputable entities. They're easy to sue if things go wrong, deposits are insured if they go missing, and they're subject to extensive regulation. I'm old enough to remember when ordering stuff online seeemd weird and strange; these days it's routine. And in large part that's because of standards like PCI.
> Setting up a website that accepts payments just became vastly easier without the need for PCI compliance
I know. But PCI isn't a wandering monster that ambushes parties of brave coders; it emerged to solve a very real problem, and it does a pretty good job of it. As a consumer, "look, no PCI compliance" isn't a feature, it's a nightmare. I only want to pay for something with Bitcoins if the process is easier, cheaper, and/or safer than doing so with my credit card. And right now, that's not the case; it's not enem close to the case. Paying for things with my credit card is very easy, quite cheap, and very safe. Today, in the real world, Bitcoin is none of these.
In short, you've identified what Bitcoin is good at, but what we need to do is identify what Bitcoin is better than existing payment systems at. And I don't think "startups too small or lazy to sign up for a Stripe or Paypal account" is an actual niche. Accepting Bitcoins isn't that easy.
TL;DR: You say the obvious use isn't evading currency controls, it's peer to peer exchanges of currency without banks. But evading currency controls is one of the only reasons why you'd want peer to peer exchanges of currency without banks. ;)
Of course that's not the case right now as bitcoin hasn't yet gone mainstream. If you think we as a society like banks, I don't think you see what's coming because you don't see how many people despise banks.
I'm old enough to have grown up pre-internet, so let's not play the age game, I'm no kid.
People tolerate banks, they don't generally like them, they don't like being fee'd to death, they don't generally have enough money to give two shits about FDIC insurance, and pretty much consider bankers the scum of the earth; car salesman are more popular.
Crypto currencies are better payment systems technically, they're distributed peer to peer banking for cheaper, but they aren't deployed enough to matter yet; that will change.
