When you talk about cryptocurrency, you're talking about privacy, because I know quite well that the privacy in cryptocurrency theirs no digital kind of payment that have such kind of privacy, but talking about digital kind of payment, it will be faster and easier but from my observation I think that cryptocurrency is the most fastest means of payment system, the issue is that it's difficult before you can seen a cryptocurrency option of payment especially on a centralized businesses, but I would prefer making payment with cryptocurrency if the opportunity is given to me than any digital currencies, but we should know that cryptocurrency is also a digital currency.
Cryptocurrency does not mean privacy by default. Not all cryptocurrency blockchains are private blockchains, and with public ledgers, your transactions can be traced so privacy or not, it's decided by your practice with wallets, addresses (reuse or use change addresses), how do you use your UTXOs, and whether you use VPN or Tor for connection.
Saying cryptocurrency means privacy is very wrong fundamentally.
Both of you are technically correct, because there are ways for you to stay private when using Bitcoin, but it has become not a common practice nowadays as we all normally use the same addresses, using exchange that requires KYC or some local custodial wallets.
The only things we consider Bitcoin being private is because it does not require to link your basic information to create a wallet and to transact with other people, but that's just all about it. Transactions can be traced and it will lead it to your true identity when your using custodial wallets and exchange that requires KYC.
