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Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

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Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#3
Because few people actually care that much about their privacy. Compare the existence of social networks, which exist for the purpose of people being less private.

The vast majority of people want to purchase things as simply and cheaply as possible. And that's going to mean not paying a premium to purchase their money from other people. And since they'd be buying it via their existing non-anonymous means, it wouldn't do anything anyway.

If an economic system already existed, so that people could receive their paychecks in a cryptocurrency and spend it freely at any store, they'd accept that. But anonymity isn't going to be all that much of a draw for anybody who is used to making purchases already via non-anonymous means. The only people who feel compelled to do so are those purchasing things illegally -- which just makes people who would want to purchase things legally even less interested.

tl;dr: Privacy advocates put a lot more weight on anonymity than most people do.

Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#4
> I consider Web3/NFTs to be a scam

Not all NFTs are the same or even JPEGs. 90% of them are useless though.

The blockchain domains are the only valid NFTs that cannot be right-click saved and are useful.

> the only utility I see in cryptocurrency is the anonymous and decentralized transfer of value.

> However interestingly the coins that do this well like Monero are not seeing wide adoption.

The regulators would like you to pick one trait of (not so) 'anonymous' or (not so) 'decentralized' cryptocurrencies.

Those that can fully guarantee both decentralization and privacy are the privacy coins like Monero, MobileCoin, Grin, Zcash, etc (To some extent Litecoin with mimblewimble privacy) which will basically be banned from exchanges as they are attractive to money laundering, illegal activity, ransomware and payments between criminals and scammers. No legitimate business wants to be associated with that, hence why they haven't got any wide spread legitimate adoption.

But they all do have widespread adoption with illegal activity.

Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#7
post #4

> I consider Web3/NFTs to be a scam Not all NFTs are the same or even JPEGs. 90% of them are useless though. The blockchain domains are the only valid NFTs that cannot be right-click saved and are useful. > the only utility I see in cryptocurrency is the anonymous and decentralized transfer of value. > However interestingly the coins that do this well like Monero are not seeing wide adoption. The regulators would lik…

The regulators are acting in the interest of society, to a first order. People actively don’t want privacy and decentralization because it means crime, theft, and economic instability.

Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#8
post #6

I watched as Monero was gradually dropped from a lot of the major exchanges over time with no real reason being provided. Same with zcash. My conspiracy theory is that there is a coordinated effort to make truly anonymous coins unusable.

That coordinated effort is not some big mystery; the exchanges that operate in major jurisdictions cannot offer Monero due to AML/KYC compliance rules.

Monero is only available on the exchanges operating on the fringes of the banking network, or which don’t connect to banks at all.

Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#9
post #4

> I consider Web3/NFTs to be a scam Not all NFTs are the same or even JPEGs. 90% of them are useless though. The blockchain domains are the only valid NFTs that cannot be right-click saved and are useful. > the only utility I see in cryptocurrency is the anonymous and decentralized transfer of value. > However interestingly the coins that do this well like Monero are not seeing wide adoption. The regulators would lik…

Let's pretend that in my mind, "NFT === JPEG === scam for idiots and speculators" - what is a "blockchain domain," why does it have to be an NFT (or why is being an NFT better than not being one), and how is it different from the above?

Re: Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide adoption?

#10

People don’t actually care about privacy. For those that do, they see a differentiation between privacy (for themselves) versus anonymity (for everyone else).

Let me correct that for you. People are willing to exchange their privacy for safety. If it was possible to have both i doubt anyone would choose nonprivate
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