I won’t contest the mainstream perception, but I think the reason for that perception can’t be attributed to being “used by drug dealers and criminals” alone (or even primarily). The traditional banking system, and traditional methods of money laundering, most notably cash and traditional currencies (Dollars, Pesos, Euros) is and always has been the most prevalent way money is laundered and most used medium of exchange for serious crimes.
Cryptocurrency is a rounding error in comparison (as of 2022, cryptocurrencies were estimated to account for just 0.62% (less than 1%) of total money laundering globally).
To give a sense of scale, Monero’s entire market cap (total value of all Monero in existence) is equivalent to only 3 billion usd. Compare that to the UN’s estimate of total global money laundering: 2 to 5 trillion dollars per year. (put another way, the total value of all Monero in existence is equivalent to roughly 1/1000th of the total money being laundered every year using traditional methods).
personal thoughts (read: mildly annoying mini-rant :)
I think Monero today is where PGP and strong encryption were in the 90s. It has a mostly undeserved perception in the mainstream, due mostly to hyperbolic and imbalanced headlines and fearmongering that will hopefully soften with time.
There is great value in a cash-like digital currency, that preserves a similar level of financial privacy as we’ve always enjoyed (and still enjoy) with cash, offline. While–just like with cash–these attributes can be attractive to bad actors, the same attributes are also attractive to the rest of us. Preventing crime [immoral, harmful, or malicious activity] is a worthy goal, but it doesn’t supercede human rights, and reasonable privacy is a human right.
