Secret Transactions

As stated earlier, there is no way to make a transaction more private than through physical face to face interaction. Cash, silver or gold can be slipped into another person's hand without any third party involvement whatsoever.

This is not the case for electronic payments. All such transactions, including crypto transactions, involve some sort of ledger or third party where details are stored. In the case of Bitcoin, all transactions are recorded and kept for all eternity on a public ledger open for all to view and inspect. There is no secrecy at all unless the ownership of the wallets involved is kept secret. However, most wallets are opened and filled at exchanges where full name and identity is required.

This means that there is nothing secret about the typical Bitcoin transaction. The identities of the parties involved are fully available to anyone who cares to investigate. In fact, the Bitcoin ledger has already been used as evidence in court in order to get people convicted for various crimes, including tax evasion.

Only an idiot would use crypto to make secret transactions. Instead, there will be physical face to face transactions and credit. The parties involved will agree on a certain amount of credit and get together every now and again to clear any debt by physical means. This is how I will deal with my business partner in cases where transactions need to be secret. Whenever we feel that we've reached the limit of our credit, we get together to settle our accounts in physical payment.

This again raises the question about what crypto is really worth. Their only practical value is their ability to be used as a medium of exchange. However, the typical transactions is neither secret nor cheap, so how is this technology worth hundreds of billions of dollars?

Neither secret nor cheap

By John Schanlaub from Lafayette,IN, USA - Wallace Study-Telegraph, CC BY 2.0, Link