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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?

#11

Post by salawat »

bergenty wrote: 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.

It is not a conspiracy theory. It is literally how financial regulations mandate the financial system works.

Non-cash anonymous financial transactions have been no-no for a long while, in particular under AML/KYC.

Over a certain amount, even cash transactions get wrapped in KYC/AML papertrail for law enforcement facilitation.

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

#13

Post by bestbuyer__ »

bergenty wrote: 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.

Indeed. But I wouldn't consider ZCash to be in the same category as Monero, not with the way it was pre-mined, the sketchy key ceremony, the developers' willingness to co-operate with law enforcement, and the unshielded-by-default transactions.

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

#14

Post by mindcrime »

I can see some really good uses for something like Monero - for example, purchasing a VPS anonymously. I would definitely consider that a desirable thing to be able to do. And I know at least a few VPS providers take Monero, so we're all good right?

No. Here's the rub... the problem I see, and what makes Monero less usable to my way of thinking, is the "last mile" problem of getting value in and out of the Monero ecosystem. In my case, specifically, the question of how I transfer value I currently hold - which is almost 100% in fiat currency (USD) - into Monero, in an anonymous fashion. Yes, it can be done. No, it's not easy. And then for the merchant who accepts Monero, they probably have the inverse problem of exchanging their Monero for the desired fiat currency (which you still need to buy most things) without revealing information they may not want to reveal.

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

#16

Post by edent »

As with anything - what's the user need?

The vast majority of people don't seem fazed about their credit card company knowing they've bought a sex toy. Hell, if Amex offered double-cashback at PornHub I expect they'd be inundated.

For those which do want a bit more privacy, it's dead easy to buy a single-use gift card or cash card. Will that stop the police from tracing you? No, but it makes it harder for a company to build a profile or a spouse to snoop.

So you're left with things which are (rightly or wrongly) illegal. Or incredibly taboo.

Is there a huge market for those things? If so, what are the customer benefits of Monero against cash? Or barter? Or owing a favour?

How easy is it - for both sides - to get set up? I can check cash isn't forged to a high degree of accuracy very easily. How much hard work do I have to do for Monero? How much educating my customers do I have to do? If Monero is restricted to shady stuff - how much of a target am I painting on my back?

It's possible for a company to stimulate and create user need. But that's a lot harder than tapping in to a currently unsatisfied niche.

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

#17

Post by lawn »

So I agree that transferring of value and for payments is where the usefulness is, but I think there are two reasons why the adoption is lagging:

1. Most people only care about speculation, and don't care at all what cryptocurrencies are or what they can do. And Monero doesn't do much for these people.

2. Monero is more inconvenient to use than Bitcoin is. SPV wallets aren't possible, so you need to rescan all outputs since you last opened your wallet which is very time consuming. Also you need to wait 10 blocks (~20 min) before you can spend an input, but with other cryptos you can spend a 0-conf transfer immediately.

It's unfortunate because Monero really is a better Bitcoin.

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

#18

Post by lawn »

seydor wrote: post #10
bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: post #2

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

It's actually for the perceived safety of the community. By exchanging your own privacy you also remove your own safety (you're more open to targeted theft, assault or stalking for instance).

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

#20

Post by TheChaplain »

Well it's quite obvious isn't it? If you explain to the general population what it is and how it is used then I'd say most relate to criminal activity or tax avoidance.

Us tech-savvy we know there are probably a few privacy minded people using it honestly.

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