The ban that upset everyone and did nothing
Just because something is designed to do one thing, doesn't mean you can't use it to do another...for example:
Explaining that you plan to use a knife to prepare food at your Airbnb, doesn't mean the TSA is going to let you keep it in your carry on.
The U.S. government recently had a similar reaction to the crypto mixing service, Tornado Cash, and banned U.S. citizens from using it.
Tornado Cash is a service that makes your crypto untraceable, it's pretty much the crypto equivalent of transacting in cash.
On the surface, it's designed to be a privacy tool - in reality, it's the ideal money laundering tool.
(We wrote about it in depth, here).
So while the ban doesn't come as a total surprise, the crypto community are still pretty mad about it.
And they're making some valid points, which go a little something like this:
Sure, governments can ban Tornado Cash, but they can't stop it from existing - and they certainly can't stop copycat services being created.
Criminals don't care about breaking the law (it's literally their job), so they're going to continue using the service - business as usual.
As copy cat services pop up, law abiding citizens will simply use them until they're banned and replaced by another (rinse/repeat).
...so the effect of the ban is essentially...a whole lot of nothing.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯