It's not 2013 anymore. BTC isn't very private at all, at least if the feds want you. Entire companies have formed JUST to scan blockchains and track payments and police agencies all over the world are using these services to catch criminals. This is why Monero was adopted by darknet markets so quickly. I've seen these CEOs speak to congressional committees.
Reasons to use crypto:
- Remittances
- Unreversable transactions protects sellers. Credit cards protect buyers and screw sellers.
- More convenient to use than credit cards when all you have to do is snap a pic of a QR code and hit confirm. Sending money to friends much easier/safer than using Paypal.
- For non-US persons, currency devaluation is a big deal. Crypto guards against this (China, Britain, Venezuela, etc)
- Be your own bank. Banks stealing your money is also an issue in many countries. FDIC only insures up to 250k, and probably won't protect you if something really bad happens. In the US, the banks steal our money via taxes, but that could change.
- Using BTC for drugs is a bad idea, but it still offers significantly more privacy than credit cards, which log every transaction. So if you're buying porn or VPN service, it's great. (again, XMR works if you want more privacy)
- Asset seizure is a problem in the US. Cops can steal your money if they find it in your car. The feds can freeze your bank accounts BEFORE you're convicted. Innocent people go on trial all the time.
- If you travel a lot, your accounts can be frozen by security systems designed to protect from credit card theft, which at a minimum is a huge PITA to tell them everywhere you're going. Payments from out-of-country can also take a long time. (weeks)
- Most importantly, bitcoin is about freedom. Banks and credit card companies can't decide who you can send money to. So if you want to send money to organizations that expose corruption (Wikileaks), you can. Also, again, US persons historically haven't needed to worry about this, but in other countries there have been times when families had to flee at a moment's notice, and withdrawing your funds from a bank before fleeing for your life isn't feasible. (e.g. Syria)
Yes, bitcoin fees are a big problem. But there are some reasons why they are so high right now. One, the miner cartel is spamming the mempool. Because they control most of the hash power, they can do this because they receive most of the mining fees from their own spam. They won't control so much of the hash power for long though, as new competitive miner hardware is going to launch next year. Secondly, exchanges are not using SegWit for transactions yet. (apparently they are lazy) SegWit transactions are much smaller/cheaper. Transaction throughput would triple from current levels if all transactions were SegWit. Coinbase is 'working on it'. Get a SegWit wallet if you haven't yet.
Lightning will also be a big fucking deal. Instant transactions, near zero fees, micropayments, full anonymity, monetary compensation for running a full node.
