I've followed cryptocurrencies for years. From a technical standpoint, a privacy coin like Monero seems superior to a completely transparent blockchain like bitcoin. See https://web.getmonero.org/ https://www.monero.how/why-monero-vs-bitcoin Granted Bitcoin has a lot more adoption, but that could change. I like to buy Monero at Kraken. What are your thoughts on Monero?
If i remember John McAfee said years ago Monero is untraceable or maybe even completely anonymous , but also somewhere he said that McAfee antivirus or other products are useless.
They are banning privacy coins in other countries and probably soon in the U.S. This alone tells me that they can't figure out how to track it. Whenever someone trades Bitcoin for Monero, the history of the transactions end when Bitcoin is traded for Monero. From cryptoglobe "According to Jerek Jakubcek, a Strategy Analyst at Europol, transactions conducted using the Monero blockchain aren’t traceable. Jakubcek’s words were shared in a webinar from Blockchain Alliance, dedicated to the performance of privacy-centric cryptocurrencies. He said: Since the suspect used a combination of Tor and [Monero], we could not trace the funds. We could not trace the IP addresses. Which means, we hit the end of the road. He added that the transactions were initially traced on the Bitcoin blockchain and were visible, adding “that’s why we were able to get reasonably far.” As soon as the funds moved from BTC to XMR, however, he noted “that was the point where the investigation ended.”
BTC is the apex predator in the space. Coinjoin, wasabi, et al. with BTC’s liquidity makes Monero a niche for those who want to go the extra step. As a replacement to BTC, nothing yet has the characteristic of initial fair distribution, a founder who never cashed out and sheer hashpower as BTC. Altcoins are just to entice those with glint and glimmer while BTC is quietly accumulated. All roads lead to Bitcoin.
The Privacy is good. However I expect most countries banning any trade with privacy coins in the future to prevent terrorism financing, money laundering,drug transactions on the dark web and countries with sanctions to build nuclear bombs(N.Korea and Iran).
I love bitcoin, it has changed my life, from being in debt and no savings to being debt free and holding a crypto portfolio worth over $250K I also love Monero, at one time it was the biggest position on my crypto portfolio, they have funded 2 of the best PhD minds in cryptography research and even (Bitcoin's) Greg Maxwell speaks of the Monero project with respect (one of the privacy techs that is used in Monero, RingCT, can be attributed to Greg, Confidential Transaction) I use both on a regular basis and I make more than 10 transactions every month using bitcoin (and Monero for privacy on bitcoin), and yet, even at this moment, I hold a few thousand dollars' worth of both coins combined. I would always defend bitcoin from the haters, but my road does not lead to Bitcoin. My goal is financial well being of my family and me. And if you're 100% in bitcoin, that's great, but bitcoin has been stuck in a range from low to high 9K the past 3-4 weeks, yet, I slowly diversified to 50% from 100% Tezos crypto portfolio to a few Ethereum DeFi coins and have made over $50K. There's a a crazy-ass bull market in DeFi coins for the past several months, some have over 4000% gains and many triple digit percent returns, but you wouldn't know it if you're stuck in bitcoin, it helps to keep an open mind, after all, ET encourages trading, so you could always trade a small bitcoin holding into other coins and back, just a thought.
I agree that a hot altcoin is a bit like a lottery ticket in terms of ROI. I have one that went from pennies to $15. I first received it as a gift and then accumulated prior to it breaking out. It is what got me to look at BTC with more diligence. Perhaps not all roads lead to BTC, mine did. I am profoundly appreciative of it’s value proposition of immutability as a treasured resource in the digital age. We are still early. Congrats on your good fortune. May it continue to increase in abundance.
We are still very early, bitcoin's marketcap is less than $200B and Gold's MC is over $7T Thank you very much for the kind words and I wish you the best, also.
If you like Monero, you may enjoy Mastering Monero book. It's free to download PDF and it has really great content: https://masteringmonero.com/
Honestly, if the government is so useless in being fiscally responsible by doing helicopter money, why shouldn't we protect our assets from future forfeiture?