No, he's saying the only way to know that the cryptocurrency is real and spendable is because of the transparent blockchain that everyone agrees on to confirm the existence (and by extension, value) of it.
The $20 is not a good analogy because it actually has a central issuing authority. But if you absolutely had to compare, you could loosely compare the fact that you can hold that $20 bill in your hand and examine it and see that it looks like every other one, and everyone else agrees that it is $20 when they see it, and they accept that it has the value of $20.
Nobody here is advocating the ability to see "who" had it previously. That would not be anonymous. That would be bitcoin.
No argument there. Again, that is what the transparent blockchain is for. Non-fakeable agreement by majority, not by a central authority.
He's making the assumption that a coin's value is somehow tired to it's transparency.
So not only does a coin need a transparent blockchain, it also needs decentralized processing power (read $$$ of equipment) to keep it going.
I don't blame you for having flawed understanding of what a blockchain really is. There is currently a widespread anti-bitcoin campaign that innundates us with the words "blockchain technology is the big takeaway from bitcoin" and preaches an ambiguous future with no mining, i.e. centralized ledgers...*sigh*
Nobody will use something they cannot prove exists. Did you ever stop to think that you might be the one who is being a bit illogical here? That is like, the whole point of Bitcoin. You're completely missing the poetic beauty of Satoshi's design which creates value through decentralized trust and provability.
Tok's point still stands.