Putting an entire society under ubiquitous surveillance to catch a tiny minority of criminals isn't a good bargain. Fact is, though, that's not even why they do it.

Eventually you get to the point where you see that the information and ultimate large scale control permitted by the collection of that information is itself the end goal, and that it has nothing to do with detecting or preventing crime.

It's easier to trace Bitcoin than cash.

Which to me sounds like a better argument to NOT make it illegal. From the perspective of government that is.

4. It snuffs those pesky troublemakers and brings them back in line through monetary inflation across generations.

Bitcoin has been around for less than twenty years. Since then it has seen massive deflationary periods (when the relative value rises, like up until a month ago), and massive inflationary periods (when the value drops) In 2018 bitcoin had an "inflation" rate of roughly 500% (meaning that at the beginning of 2018 you could buy a basket of goods with an equivalent value of $13.5k USD, at the end of the year you had to spend 500% more bitcoin to get the exact same basket of goods. Meanwhile you only had to spend 2-3% more USD to get those same goods)

The fact that there aren't bitcoin loans is proof that it is not a viable store of value.

There is volatility for sure. But the same is true for any asset: stocks, bonds, real estate, even gold. Albeit not as much as a currency only around for 20 years, as you said.

As for loans, lots of exchanges let you trade with leverage, effectively trading on borrowed money.

Also, there exist institutionally backed Bitcoin options: https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/bitco...

Monetary inflation can also be a good thing as it reduces wealth inequality and income inequality.

More like increases inequality [1][2]. If you're rich, you have access to rock-bottom interest rates which you can then invest. If you're an average citizen, you watch all asset values (real estate to start with) soar while your income stays relatively stable.

1: https://www.clasp.org/blog/how-inflation-reinforces-economic...

2: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/income-ine...

It doesn't, quite the contrary. Poor and middle class people hold much more of their wealth as cash than rich people.

Only if the newly-created money is distributed, and doesn't just belong to the Federal Reserve.

As the system works now, the Federal Reserve prints the money and gets to spend it, and I can't imagine a more unequal income.