One thing about authoritarian/totalitarian governments is that they want to control all aspects of the county that they currently reside in with an iron fist. As a result, the people there are most likely restricted to following the current dictator or group of people in charge and are unwilling to step out of line due to the fear of consequences. Cryptocurrency can probably bypass that control Considering that a majority of places with dictators can still access the Internet via a VPN or other means they can use cryptocurrencies.
An example would be in China, considering that their government controls its economy and has a lot of restrictions on what people can and cannot do with the currency (RMB) that they use. Cryptocurrencies can bypass that control as they are not controlled by any government and can keep the identity of its users a secret when they do transactions this can result in people using cryptocurrency being able to freely trade without any restrictions on how much they use. As a result, cryptocurrencies allow people in oppressed regions to become freer as they are not restricted in terms of money and trade.
What if the country bans and makes it illegal to make any kind of transactions using crypto currencies? You see, the dictator over here didn't ban the currency itself, but was able to put a ban on the usage thus anyone using the currency is committing a crime. Even if they some how manages to stay away from the sight of the government, whats the use of buying it if they can't actually use it. Like none of the stores in their country will be willing to accept crypto currency. We need some better solution.
In that case you use
Tails from a DVD (or usb stick).
Update Electrum and use it from there. While you may not do purchases directly in bitcoin at shops, you can exchange for fiat only the minimum needed, do everything from Tails and they can never tell.
If they are prosecuting Tor users, use Tails in a public computer, for very brief amounts of time, and always change place. Or use random wifi access points (make sure your mac address is spoofed randomly, as most OSs seem to do by default nowdays).
If you want to know why buy bitcoin, the reason is simple: To preserve your savings. You might not see it now, but by the time you see it, it will be too late. Its best to have a portion of your savings in bitcoin, in case your fiat crashes, as most often happens when fools govern, fools that defy the economy and think printing will cure any budget deficit just fine, like it happened here, and in Zimbabwe a decade ago by the same kind of stupidity from the same kind of people.
Bitcoin, so you can understand it better, is money that is separate from the State. They cannot "control" it, so they fear it, but they cannot stop it. Just spread the knowledge, and you will see later how everything fits.
Oh and if you happen to leave the country, you won't have problems taking the money out. Or when they order the banks to give you miserable amounts of cash per day, like its done here. Eventually, you won't be able to survive if you just "obey their rules". Consider this your chance. If your "brilliant" ruler decides overnight to make everyone poor by messing the fiat and blame some other "enemy" country, you will have some cushion if you saved in bitcoin.
Now when you think you don't need it, is the time. Later, it is too late. Remember this, and act.
