non-government entity is ethereal. If you really thought about it hard, there aren't a lot of good reasons to trust the US dollar based on the US Federal Government. The dollar isn't backed by gold, silver, or any other tangible asset, nor is it backed by the government's ability to create marketplace value like, say, a company's stock would be. It's really only backed by the government's ability to tax and control the money supply, and they are as guilty of manipulating that to their own benefit as any private entity would be in their own shoes.

If anything, people's faith is more in the US economy than the government itself.

So there is an opportunity for crypto to be viable without government backing, but it needs to find a way to stabilize in value. For basic capitalism to work, you need to have some confidence that money tomorrow will have a predictable value vs. money today.