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"Protecting" free trade from "bad actors" is just an extension of the state to control what "free trade" is from what it considers "bad actors".
Bad behavior does exist, but current technology far exceeds the capacity of bureaucracy to implement free trade, protection from bad actors, and most importantly Trust. The state itself becoming a bad actor is an increasing risk, which technology helps to hedge against.
I think it's important to remember that the Government IS PEOPLE. How are the people in Government any different from "normal" people.
They're not.
And so the people in government will be just as misguided, corrupt, fallible as any other organization of people. Technology helps us hedge against those failures.
That's ad hominem. You can make that argument for any player (stripe, any intermediary, the customer etc).
Personally I trust the state (at least mine) more than any corporation. But that's just me.
I can elect representatives and I have a direct vote multiple times a year to shape national policy.
The banks and corporations are not. I trust them purely based on their reputation and trust in following the rules that we have put in place.
The state as a bad actor is controlled by democracy, not technology.
Aside from that, in payments the bad actors you need to actually worry about are malicious vendors and customers and hackers stealing your details and your money. None of which Cryptocurrencies make better, mostly they make that worse, because they were designed as digital cash.
I can assure the cost of those regulations is enormous for the banks. They were forced to make the SEPA transfers free but you ended up paying for it everywhere else.
and then let's not even talk about the instantly part, that is just simply not true.
