Digital, decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have provided millions with private, fun, and often lucrative, next-generation forms of currency and speculative assets.

Cryptocurrency has accomplished this all through a system the government, and indeed no central authority, can control. So, naturally, paternalistic big-government politicians such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren want to rain on the parade. Speaking at a Senate hearing this week, the Massachusetts Democrat railed against cryptocurrency and called on the federal government to regulate or eliminate it.