The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don’t think this is a good thing. The Governments ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing. Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. I think the speculative wave around ICOs and crypto currencies is super risky for those who go long.
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Neither Bitcoin nor BTG are anonymous. They are pseudonymous, and that makes a huge difference.
Transactions on the blockchain are more traceable than transactions in paper money.
Actually, this is rare for Bitcoin and BTG. Paper money is used for these things much more often.
About 1% of Bitcoin transactions to exchanges are illicit.
https://info.elliptic.co/whitepaper-fdd-bitcoin-laundering
Speculation in anything has risk, and people need to research and seek good advice before investing. Too many people were gambling with ICOs at random, and they will lose money to incompetent teams running ICOs and fraudsters, both.
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He in no way criticised the technology that makes up the backbone of cryptocurrency in his statement but pointed out the way humans may abuse the opportunities it creates. The Gates Foundation released software in October in cooperation with Ripple to create banking service infrastructure to developing countries.
And I never said he did. 
I simply disagree with his contention about the “main feature of crypto currencies.”
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It’s not the first case when famous “industry guys” criticize cryptocurrencies but then change their minds. As was mentioned by the previous commentator, The Gates Foundation has partnered with Ripple to support ‘pro-poor’ payment systems. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has caused a stir in September 2017 when he originally called Bitcoin a “fraud,” later saying he “regretted” his choice of words and, finally, recently his company has announced the upcoming launch of its own cryptocurrency. Of course, the JPMorgan’s coin will be strictly controlled by this banking institution to prevent any issues with fraudulent activities. But even such decentralized coins as BTC or ETH can be tracked since every block is visible. I personally use the tool made by the Cryptohound team (I work as a crypto researcher). It’s called ORS Cryptohound, which is more advanced than an average wallet explorer, yet free and accessible, unlike other professional B2B crypto forensics tools. So I don’t see any reason to call crypto risky in this regard. Maybe now it’s not the best option for personal investing, but in general, the technology has a lot to offer. I’m not a supporter of loud statements from crypto advocates like Tim Drapper, who recently said that in five years paper money will be used only by criminals, but I believe that the structure of crypto can be even improved, which is not the case with fiat money.
So, how do we use it for BTG? (You’ve come to a BTG forum, after all.)
I agree with Bill Gates that crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. So we have to do something with this problem. We can’t allow drug dealers to use this technology. According to the data from the National Vital Statistics System there were 70,000+ drug overdose deaths in the United States in last year. https://addictionresource.com//drug-rehab/locator/ - i am happy that there are more and more projects like this. That’s how technologies help in the drug war.
People will buy weapons and drugs anyway, cryptocurrencies won’t change this significantly. The government is just obliged to create the condition when you don’t need to buy this crap.