It was already trackable. An entire industry exists just to identify btc accounts. Right now it is supported by the largest collective computing effort mankind has ever seen. It's no wonder banks and companies are getting in on it. There are still no ETFs allowed.
You think the banks ignored this for years? Crypto has been in development since the 80s.
Agreed. They didn't ignore it exactly. But had to sit on the sidelines due to regulations. SWIFT, BACS, FPS and all the rest are antiquated but work. Thing is that they exist mostly to prevent massive movements of money without detection. We can now do that without interference.
It was already trackable.
Yes, they were trackable... anonymously.
That wasn't how it was originally sold to adopters. It was to be a network of individually owned systems, but when the likes of Coinbase started to broker your coins, that all went out the window. Now, they want to force everyone into a broker.
The word you're looking for is pseudonymous. This is a feature and a flaw.
In my opinion, it was only intended as a proof of concept, but that escalated as people saw it was reliable. Longest most secure chain, etc.
How you use it is up to you. If I had btc and hadn't had that boating accident, I would only convert bits now and then to Dash or Monero and spend like that. That is a more convincing use case.
The open ledger is designed to show market concentration. Which it does. Read the papers about how payments can be traced, even after mixing.
Read the papers about how payments can be traced
Being traced is different from being tracked to an individual. Being traced was only to ensure that the transaction was valid within the system and not to identify the individuals engaging in the transaction.
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