Even though it is claimed the private keys (the "passwords" mentioned) are not known, I'd be interested to know if the public addresses of these crypto accounts are known, so they can be monitored for any changes to the funds held in them. For instance, you can go here https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html to monitor the hundred richest bitcoin addresses.
If indeed the only record of these private keys are held in encrypted form on the laptop, of course that was plain negligent and arrogant of the guy. I notice right at the end of the piece there's a comment that "Some are questioning whether Mr Cotten is even dead and others have accused the company of lying to them".
At least with crypto, you are your own bank and have complete responibility for looking after your funds; you have total sovereignty. You just need to take sensible precautions. Give it a few years and it will be as easy to use as Paypal. We're still in the early adopter stage now.
I believe around only 3-5% of the fiat "money" we all use now is physical notes and coins; the rest is digital, zeroes and ones on screens. All new money is created as debt by banks and certain other financial institutions.
At the beginning of 2017, legislation was quietly introduced that allows bank bail-ins if we have another financial crash, unlike the taxpayer bail-out we had in 2008. You might remember the Cyprus bank bail-out a few years ago, where account holders were given a "haircut" of their funds. If we were to go down the cashless society route, that would allow the govt to coerce us into spending during a recession (at a time that most people would want to hang on to their funds) by threateneing to remove any percentage they desired from our accounts: use it or lose it.
With bitcoin, only 21 million will be created, unlike most fiat currencies that can be printed to virtual infinity - like we are seeing with repeated rounds of QE - which will reduce the buying power of these currencies.
Be careful not to get sucked into the mainstream media playbook that seeks to maintain the cozy status quo for the elites.