But if you can't trade it for goods, is it really valuable? My challenge with crypto over the last few years is that there is little that I can actually buy with it. Its not a secure hold of value either and state actors hold too much control over the backend miners.

So, is it really any better than FIAT? I'm more and more disillusioned to this as time goes by.

If I can't reliably offramp my crypto to the local FIAT, it is no better than gold buried in a different country.

If I can't use it directly (avoiding the offramp problem) to buy the necessities of life like shelter, food, clothes, etc; then it is not useful for that part of my life security.

Finally, even if on/off ramping was straightforward; no one will pay for my services IN crypto because transaction fees have exploded. The fees for credit cards are less intrusive than #eth these days.