bobr

No. From the most base concepts, some authority still needs to recognize and enforce the contents of the blockchain (ownership, currency, whatever).

What authority is needed when blockchain is used as a currency, what is there to enforce?

But that means it will only ever be relegated to buying drugs on the internet and scams.

You can buy much more than drugs using cryptocurrency, so this is absolutely false.

So, I haven't read much about it, but right on the page you've linked it shows banks on a diagram explaining how it works. If banks are involved, it is not permisionless - banks can block and censor transactions, they can refuse to open an account for you at all, etc.

What are the alternatives?
How else can you create decentralized permissionless money (you know, the thing it was created for in the first place, before people got an idea of putting monkey jpegs there)?