RE: If banks and exchanges can hold our money against our will, crypto is essentially pointless.

Thanks. Yep. I am not surprised, either. Many seem to think that this "crypto revolution" is still going to transpire via these major banks, governments, and exchanges who stand to lose everything should such a revolution occur. What is needed is markets that move and act fast, and utilize the currencies freely, regardless of, and ahead of, the regulation. Then for the regulators it will be a choice of shifting with the paradigm or withering. Or exercising brute, violent force, which we all know is not beyond them. There is always a risk to living freely when tyrants are in power.