Blockchains allow for the immutable encoding of Capitalism.
We are already seeing a vast number of "traditional" finance applications being written on the blockchain. Applications that reinforce the Capitalist mode of production, in a way that is impossible to ever get rid of.
What are these "applications"?
DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations)
DAOs are "smart contracts" (code that exists on the blockchain) that encode an organisation wherein there are voting/participation mechanisms. Members can make proposals to execute some series of transactions, members vote, (upon the proposal passing) the transactions get executed.
Why is this bad?
Two reasons.
The first reason: The sheer majority of DAOs that have been created are traditional private ownership organisations. Your power in the organisation is directly proportional to how wealthy you are. Yes, any run-of-the-mill person can hop on and become a member, but this does not differ from traditional publicly-traded corporations in any way whatsoever. I can become a part-owner of Google if I want, but because I am not rich, I will always be out-powered by the mega-rich. Don't let anyone trick you into thinking these DAOs "help the little guy" by providing lower barriers to entry, more transparency, etc. While they do provide more transparency, I would argue that makes little difference to the fact that these organisations in no way empower anyone other than the rich.
The second reason: While DAOs provide more transparency in regards to what the DAO is doing, it provides the polar opposite regarding who is doing it.
How do I exile a corrupt businessman when their only identity is ihateminorities.eth?
Gone are the days when we were able to hold individual rulers accountable for their crimes against humanity.
Lending and Borrowing
This is probably one of the only areas that I see a non-negligible benefit for ordinary people (kind of). Decentralised lending and borrowing protocols allow you to freely lend your money in a way that doesn't allow you to get ripped off by a big bank. For example, I can put my USD into app.aave.com and get far more interest than any bank would ever give me.
Obviously this only matters if I'm privileged enough to actually be able to save up USD.
It obviously means nothing for most people.
Perpetual Swaps
Gambling for rich people. A good way to lose your life savings if you aren't already buffered with a lot of wealth.
Synthetic assets
Ways to "invest" in to stocks/cryptos/etc without actually owning it. Not much to say here.
Prediction markets
Decentralised betting platforms are still betting platforms. They still allow the average joe to get addicted and lose all their money.
Remember, once the majority of the financial world switches to using blockchain technologies, it will never be possible to get rid of it. Blockchains are "immutable".
Is there any reason why I should not be scared of this?
Provide me with any way you could stop, get rid of, or end this immutable & permanent hardcoding of Capitalism, and I will explain why it is impossible.
Seems like a law against anonymous investors (at least of a certain size) could deal with this pretty easily. Companies already have to be tied to identifiable individuals in various ways. In the U.S., your articles of incorporation generally have to list a few names and have to be on file with your state's Secretary of State, there are additional names required if you're a public company, and there's still more scrutiny (at least functionally) if you're a public company over a certain size.
Even if the penalties for accepting anonymous investments have trouble reaching the anonymous investors themselves, you can still penalize the company and its officers (and by proxy, the remaining, named investors), which will mean that no legitimate company will want to bother with them.
This isn't going to happen. The entire ethereum block chain is publicly searchable. People on Twitter right now are already tracking down institutional addresses in order to try to outwit them. Outside of dedicated privacy coins like Monero, the whole "everything will be anonymous in the ancap Crpyto universe" is a fundamental misunderstanding of the tech.
Cryptocurrencies will likely exist as another speculative asset class for a long time. There's a lot of excess Capital sloshing around that has to go somewhere. I could see them replacing junk bonds tbh, especially given that 0% interest rates are the norm.