I think part of this may be that the Internet is a Western world invention and we're used to somewhat functional governance in the West. In developing countries

I think part of this may be that the Internet is a Western world invention and we're used to somewhat functional governance in the West. In developing countries finding a trust-able entity is far more difficult, and in those instances it makes sense for people to come together and pool capital into these virtual institutions that can only operate according to their script(s). We assume everyone in the world has access to non-rug-pulling companies like, say, BofA or TD Ameritrade but that's really not the case. These institutions have become trustworthy through decades of lawsuits and regulations. Anecdote: My parents immigrated to the US from Albania, a few months before our planned move my dad's bank just decided to stop existing and the owners fled the country with all the (paper) money. My parents came to a new country with no money to their name because the FDIC is an American invention that a bunch of other countries still haven't copied. So, I can see how it would work in that context, but I would agree here in the US where our tech overlords are generally benevolent it doesn't seem much more useful over web2.