I really doubt that most people see Bitcoin's features as pluses rather than minuses. I have always thought that the financial institutions we have in mainstre

I really doubt that most people see Bitcoin's features as pluses rather than minuses. I have always thought that the financial institutions we have in mainstream currencies are institutions that societies want. If ever Bitcoin goes mainstream, the Bitcoin economy would end up a lot like the world economy when it was gold-backed, albeit one where the transaction costs were not physical but hidden in the work done in blockchains. It seems to me like people are mistakenly thinking that Bitcoin's lack of financial institutions are a property inherent to the currency rather than the simple fact that Bitcoin is a currency that is not mature enough to have actors sufficiently invested in it to want to create regulatory institutions on top of the currency. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me easier to regulate Bitcoins than say, gold. It is far easier to trace and verify the provenance of Bitcoins than that of gold, and hence far easier to classify Bitcoins into "clean Bitcoins" and "dirty Bitcoins". A cabal of influential institutions can simply refuse to deal with wallets and businesses that deal in "dirty Bitcoins", and that can serve as a basis of institutional regulation of Bitcoin as a currency.