Agreed. Crypto is the future for global finance, and if America or any other country does not want to be a part of that then they will have to face the consequences for their shortsightedness later. NEM, or any other crypto-based financial platform, should not jump through hoops and/or risk being attacked by a nation that does not believe in the value and utility of crypto. If they don't want it, then they don't get it. It sucks for the people living in those countries, but it's better for crypto as a whole in my opinion.
I mean, just look at how terrible the Bitcoin ATMs are in America from a usability perspective because of all the identity checks people have to perform by law to use them. I don't know about you, but I don't want to have to sit in front of an ATM scanning my IDs and going through all sorts of superfluous ID verification steps just to satisfy some stupid laws that should not and cannot even be applied to crypto. I want to be able to go up to the machine, put in $100 and get my Bitcoins in less than 30 seconds. Anything more than that and it is unusable. If the laws do not facilitate this kind of thing then the laws need to be changed.
I agree with you that bitcoin ATMs are in sad form right now. But it kind of reminds me of something from my childhood in a way.
When I was a kid, ATMs were very rare or non-existent. Big grocery stores would do people a favor. If a person was spending a certain amount, like say $100, then the grocery store would allow the customer to write a check for $200. $100 would go for the groceries and $100 cash would be given back to the shopper. The result was basically that the grocery store was acting like a little bank. I can actually remember my parents purposely going shopping just to get cash back, because it was after hours and the banks were closed.
I imagine in just a year or two many shops that accept Bitcoin, will also be selling it. A customer can walk into a store and buy a $5 cup of coffee, pay $105 dollars and leave with a cup of coffee and $100 worth of bitcoin. It won't take ID, it won't take long, and it won't be a hassle anymore to get Bitcoin.
Right now in Taiwan, a person can buy Bitcoin at any Family Mart (a popular convenience store in Asia) but the process is ridiculously complicated and drawn out. I imagine in the future we will see such things simplified.