If cash was invented today it would be illegal. It's grandfathered in for now, but new cash-like instruments aren't going to get the same treatment.
(Also, cryptocurrency is more powerful and thus more dangerous than cash because it can be transmitted electronically and it has no volume or mass. These differences are relevant if you consider that organized crime incurs nontrivial costs in handling large amounts of cash.)
this is obviously nonsense. you are confusing transactions, versus operating money services businesses. Cash is perfectly legal and so is any cash like instrument. It's when you start operating a business that is involved in money transmission, cash or not, that you need to register.
> Cash is perfectly legal and so is any cash like instrument
See what happened to bearer bonds.
Stablecoins are inherently doomed. First, they’re trying to solve the impossible trinity. And second, their untraceabiliry and explicit hard currency link makes them non-compliant AML-wise.
Even if you can make an AML compliant stablecoin, you're going to wind up with low marketshare as you have no competitive edge against over both actual banking and the cryptocurrencies getting used for money laundering. Like, by the time you centralize operations enough to comply with AML laws, you want to be using a database and an API with access tokens and resource identifiers that you hand out to approved participants. At which point you're a fancy bank, pretty much.
If cash gets the axe, these systems will be even more in demand, and the best thing is that they are open source software. Hopefully for those that live in a country where they still can enjoy their democratic freedoms and retain the right to some privacy.
(Also, cryptocurrency is more powerful and thus more dangerous than cash because it can be transmitted electronically and it has no volume or mass. These differences are relevant if you consider that organized crime incurs nontrivial costs in handling large amounts of cash.)