The way I usually phrase this situation is something like
"The goals of a strong government are in direct opposition to the goals of most modern cryptocurrencies", and this is yet another subset of those goals where we can see the forces fighting against each other. I find it hard to convince myself cryptocurrency can win out in the long-term, as the more rules they find ways to skirt around via technology and decentralization, the more they will be clamped down upon by regulations.
You can spend a decade developing a provably-anonymous cryptocurrency (which we have indeed now done), and all it takes to break your anonymity is a law that forces you to report all transactions on a form, or else face prison time.
FinCEN was particularly aggressive and quick to act here, so I do hope they change course, especially given the unusually short comment period. This is where cryptocurrency users should be thankful for some of the less-centralized bodies in the ecosystem (e.g. Coinbase) who will happily spend millions (if necessary) to help fight these actions legally on behalf of their users and business.
You can spend a decade developing a provably-anonymous cryptocurrency (which we have indeed now done), and all it takes to break your anonymity is a law that forces you to report all transactions on a form, or else face prison time.
FinCEN was particularly aggressive and quick to act here, so I do hope they change course, especially given the unusually short comment period. This is where cryptocurrency users should be thankful for some of the less-centralized bodies in the ecosystem (e.g. Coinbase) who will happily spend millions (if necessary) to help fight these actions legally on behalf of their users and business.