>The difference is how malleable the internet infrastructure is compared to the real world. Just put up cameras with facial recognition everywhere, require eve

>The difference is how malleable the internet infrastructure is compared to the real world. Just put up cameras with facial recognition everywhere, require every citizen to have biometric IDs (face from multiple angles, fingerprints, DNA), make covering your face illegal and bam you catch like 99% of bike thieves. >Would ransomware have taken off like it has without bitcoin? Probably, yeah. Gift cards work well too for example (they're just not as convenient), and I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to transfer money too if you're willing to incur like 50% transaction losses. >Is there some technical change to bitcoin that could make it less attractive to bad guys? Bitcoin already tracks every transaction ever. You'd have to somehow prevent mixers from existing, but I'm not sure how that'd be possible.