Re Crowd funding. Not that I've had money to invest in anything major. I've been involved with quite a few projects (chain restaurants) that went belly up. Investment is always a risk. From that link Tom offered stating:
That's small potatoes compared to business investment.
Re Bitcoin:
And how were these same illegal financial activities performed before bitcoin? Banks using US dollar as currency exchange. I hate to get political here but. Remember when the US government stated they were going to track the money supply back to the source for 911 and they never did? They didn't even try, This was long long before the advent of bitcoin. So Banks which handled transactions for outrageous fees are no longer able to profit on drug, weapons, insurgencies. I'm sure they still do.
Meanwhile the banking industry has gotten worse and worse for consumers. A buddy of mine and I were speaking of banks the other day. He started to mention all the limitations, penalties and charges. I thought I had it bad. The reason why I maintain a regular bank account is... payroll checks, IRS, It's a nuance and a half. It's easy to see how people get sucked into check cashing, quick loans.
If I could move money around with bitcoin the same way as I do Paypal I'd be all in. Bill pay, atm, money transfers. All much more secure then traditional banks with none of the hassle.