The more formal way to say that is that cryptocurrency payments are "payments without the requirement of multilateral fiat recognition."
Fiat money works and has value internationally, because governments extend treaty relationships with one-another to offer the same sorts of protections against fraud committed by citizens of treaty partner nations, that they do for fraud committed by domestic citizens.
But when this breaks down, so does the value of fiat money:
• Countries can do things like creating export controls on their fiat currency, to prevent capital flight; or declaring a particular denomination of their currency valueless.
• And, when two nations are at war, their governments lose the ability to prosecute one-another's citizens by treaty, and so fraud by citizens of an enemy nation goes unresolved.
Cryptocurrency payments aren't inherently anonymous, but cryptocurrencies do inherently allow two parties to continue to trade productively, even when domestic laws or international treaties would otherwise prevent one or both sides of a fiat-facilitated trade between those same two parties.
Thank you for putting it more formally. I think we can all see that I didn't put things as eloquently as I should have (not sure if I could have, but that's a different matter).
Fiat money works and has value internationally, because governments extend treaty relationships with one-another to offer the same sorts of protections against fraud committed by citizens of treaty partner nations, that they do for fraud committed by domestic citizens.
But when this breaks down, so does the value of fiat money:
• Countries can do things like creating export controls on their fiat currency, to prevent capital flight; or declaring a particular denomination of their currency valueless.
• And, when two nations are at war, their governments lose the ability to prosecute one-another's citizens by treaty, and so fraud by citizens of an enemy nation goes unresolved.
Cryptocurrency payments aren't inherently anonymous, but cryptocurrencies do inherently allow two parties to continue to trade productively, even when domestic laws or international treaties would otherwise prevent one or both sides of a fiat-facilitated trade between those same two parties.