This is not the right analogy for cryptocurrency. The "Linux" in this case is cryptography itself. It actually used to be restricted. In the 1990s the United S

This is not the right analogy for cryptocurrency. The "Linux" in this case is cryptography itself. It actually used to be restricted. In the 1990s the United States still placed export restrictions on computer cryptography software, but those were sensibly removed. (You couldn't even distribute a web browser with full-strength HTTPS support under those rules!) Today nobody has a problem with the availability of cryptographic algorithms. It's the prevailing applications in cryptocurrency specifically that create the problem because they run counter to existing laws. Just like if you use Linux to run a piracy network, the problem isn't Linux but what you do with it.