Applying this logic, mail is the old Wild West.
You're claiming it was about commerce rather than loss of life and then using examples where there was often loss of life.
There was often loss of life during train robberies, but the economic disruption was a major component. People knew Jesse James for all the trains he robbed, not the people he killed.
It introduces a mandatory third party (the government) to transactions where only two parties are intended.
Such a virtual currency could be designed, and I don't believe it would be successful.
The Bitcoin protocol allows two parties to transact without any outside interference. If governments can restrict using a protocol remains to be seen.
...other than the entire Bitcoin network, right? When last I checked the design of Bitcoin called for transactions to be checked by other Bitcoin users and then broadcast to the entire network. That is about as far as one can get from a two party transaction.
If you want real two party transactions, you probably want this sort of thing:
I thought that idea died, was buried, exhumed, and reburied back in 1996.
Or at least that is the idea that I get from the many I know or have met.
In that sense, the larger market "winners" like the king ranch aren't really a factor, except as their presence begins to foment regulations that must apply to every single person and begin to restructure the world into one where it is increasingly difficult to live outside of a corporate structure.... ie. they fence off formerly commonly held land.