Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Monero

benkaiser.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 394 posts

Re: Why Monero

#61

Post by api »

cowpig wrote: post #57

How can anyone think this is a good thing? At least other crypto projects have a degree of transparency going for them. I don't understand how people can possibly think that identity obfuscation at scale is a good thing for a financial system. The rule of law and democracy are far from perfect, but it is unquestionably the safest, cushiest time to be alive in human history right now for the average human being. Let's…

It’s also possible to argue that your perspective comes from a place of privilege, namely the privilege of living in a country with some respect for human rights and the rule of law.

That is an anomaly in human history. Much of the world still lives under governments that are hostile to many of their people, and we can easily slide back to that condition.

I also have to point out that cash is largely opaque and we have used cash for centuries. Laws were still be enforced. While cash can be exchanged with no knowledge of anyone but the participants, large scale movements and usage of money requires interactions that are very noticeable and traceable. It’s easy to move money anonymously but very hard to use it that way. Monero doesn’t change this very much.

Re: Why Monero

#62

Post by novok »

ianmiers wrote: post #49
ahnick wrote: post #16

I'd be curious to hear from Monero fans why one might select it over Zcash? Zcash seems to have stronger security guarantees when shielded transactions are used.

I think the reddit user someone else linked to pretty clearly explained the Monero side. Zcash has a bad reputation with darknet markets and the like that use Monero. Some of it deserved. ( I say this as someone who wrote original Zerocash protocol) https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/oui6zj/zcash_vs_mon... Also, Zcash has optional privacy. On the other hand, the decoy based privacy protocols Monero uses are not…

Are there coins that learned from the bungled launch of zcash and did things right according to what was valued by the community? Like private by default, avoiding perceived trust issues by being more above board, making ASIC resistance a priority, adopting a public irreverence of compliance, not being associated with people who worked with untrusted organizations and so on?

Re: Why Monero

#63

Post by doomrobo »

DennisP wrote: post #46
joe_the_user wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not really happy promoting a cryptocurrency these days, given that most of them are get-rich-quick schemes, They're get-rich-quick schemes plus money laundering/capital-flight mechanisms. And if you think capital flight is more ethical than a get-rich-quick scheme, I'd like to introduce you to X oligarch on Y continent committing Z poorly publicized genocide. Edit: that said, the way that they facilitate dubious…

Oligarchs are well taken care of by the traditional offshore banking industry. They don't need to fall back on crypto like regular folks.

One piece of evidence for the above claim: https://www.icij.org/inside-icij/2021/03/u-s-sanctions-ukrai...

Re: Why Monero

#64

Post by Karrot_Kream »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #3
stavros wrote: post #2

I'm not really happy promoting a cryptocurrency these days, given that most of them are get-rich-quick schemes, but Monero has been solid for the past 5-6 years that I've been using it. It's completely anonymous, sends quickly, has minimal fees, and it hasn't been as full of cultists as some of the other coins I've seen. I use it to pay for some things and it's always a pleasant experience. I recommend it. The only d…

My fear with strongly anonymous DeFi is indirectly harming the environment and supporting crime. Sadly doesn't look like Monero resolve these concerns.

There's lots of things that an order of magnitude more folks do that harm the environment than DeFi/cryptocurrency/shitcoin gambling. I'd love to revisit the environmental impacts of cryptocurrency after we've moved to electric cars, decreased car usage, decreased HVAC waste, made our toilets/sinks/showers more efficient, made our factories run on hydrogen instead of coal, and clean up shipping emissions. Once we're even halfway down that list, then I think we're ready to tackle the environmental question of cryptocurrency.

Re: Why Monero

#65

Post by fourstar »

novok wrote: post #62
ianmiers wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reddit user someone else linked to pretty clearly explained the Monero side. Zcash has a bad reputation with darknet markets and the like that use Monero. Some of it deserved. ( I say this as someone who wrote original Zerocash protocol) https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/oui6zj/zcash_vs_mon... Also, Zcash has optional privacy. On the other hand, the decoy based privacy protocols Monero uses are not…

Are there coins that learned from the bungled launch of zcash and did things right according to what was valued by the community? Like private by default, avoiding perceived trust issues by being more above board, making ASIC resistance a priority, adopting a public irreverence of compliance, not being associated with people who worked with untrusted organizations and so on?

https://y.cash/what-is-ycash

Re: Why Monero

#66

Post by 0xdeadb00f »

cowpig wrote: post #57

How can anyone think this is a good thing? At least other crypto projects have a degree of transparency going for them. I don't understand how people can possibly think that identity obfuscation at scale is a good thing for a financial system. The rule of law and democracy are far from perfect, but it is unquestionably the safest, cushiest time to be alive in human history right now for the average human being. Let's…

You know what else is similarly opaque, hard to trace, anonymous and still legal tender? Cash.

Re: Why Monero

#67

Post by [deleted] »

jpadkins wrote: post #59
scoofy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you live in a place where kidnapping isn't common, doesn't mean that it is not is common across the globe. https://lb-aps-frontend.statista.com/statistics/275545/kidna... The idea that an email asking for a blockchain currency is somehow more difficult than a dead drop of physical currency is absurd. While there are some merits, this type of value exchange is a dangerous vehicle for facilitating human ex…

you kind of proved my point. kidnappers already use cash, and changing that to different mechanism isn't going to increase or decrease the amount of crime. You haven't explained any reason why digital anonymous currency will increase crime or make it harder to catch them. Evil people use neutral tools for evil purposes. They have been since the beginning of tools. So stop trying to slow the advance of technology just…

[deleted]

Re: Why Monero

#68

Post by ianmiers »

novok wrote: post #62
ianmiers wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the reddit user someone else linked to pretty clearly explained the Monero side. Zcash has a bad reputation with darknet markets and the like that use Monero. Some of it deserved. ( I say this as someone who wrote original Zerocash protocol) https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/oui6zj/zcash_vs_mon... Also, Zcash has optional privacy. On the other hand, the decoy based privacy protocols Monero uses are not…

Are there coins that learned from the bungled launch of zcash and did things right according to what was valued by the community? Like private by default, avoiding perceived trust issues by being more above board, making ASIC resistance a priority, adopting a public irreverence of compliance, not being associated with people who worked with untrusted organizations and so on?

There are some Zcash forks with iffy dev support and no market traction. The problem is the kind of cryptography you need to do something like Zcash is very very very hard to get right. Zcash actually got the tech right and handled the issues they hit well. They just didn't do a good job with reputation outside of tech.

No one else as done the same tech yet themselves. A few things have launched and allegedly plan to add a privacy layer (Mina, Celo). But actually building that kind of tech is a lot harder than reputation management or standard blockchains.

It's still an open playing field.

Re: Why Monero

#69

Post by reanimus »

jpadkins wrote: post #59
scoofy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you live in a place where kidnapping isn't common, doesn't mean that it is not is common across the globe. https://lb-aps-frontend.statista.com/statistics/275545/kidna... The idea that an email asking for a blockchain currency is somehow more difficult than a dead drop of physical currency is absurd. While there are some merits, this type of value exchange is a dangerous vehicle for facilitating human ex…

you kind of proved my point. kidnappers already use cash, and changing that to different mechanism isn't going to increase or decrease the amount of crime. You haven't explained any reason why digital anonymous currency will increase crime or make it harder to catch them. Evil people use neutral tools for evil purposes. They have been since the beginning of tools. So stop trying to slow the advance of technology just…

Physical cash requires some level of risk for the kidnapper to get it though, because they physically have to get it in their possession

Re: Why Monero

#70

Post by darau1 »

0xdeadb00f wrote: post #66
cowpig wrote: post #57

How can anyone think this is a good thing? At least other crypto projects have a degree of transparency going for them. I don't understand how people can possibly think that identity obfuscation at scale is a good thing for a financial system. The rule of law and democracy are far from perfect, but it is unquestionably the safest, cushiest time to be alive in human history right now for the average human being. Let's…

You know what else is similarly opaque, hard to trace, anonymous and still legal tender? Cash.

True, but the key difference is that cash must be physically transported.
Post reply on HN