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

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 121 posts

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

#51

Post by foobarian »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #34
woodruffw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s no small irony that the simplest answer is the right answer here: you can’t force consumers to use your product. They need a reason to use it, and none of the current ones are sufficiently compelling.

I've always wondered why consumers seem to lack foresight though? Like the foresight of governmental / corporate dystopias due to information asymmetries. or foresight that exclusively buying goods manufactured abroad will eventually affect your home price as your neighbors one by one lose their local jobs... Do we know why people act in such a way? Edit: I'm quite shocked at the deep presumption of negativity. I was…

Maybe people are just like peasants and don't know any better. Maybe someone needs to do the Narodnik thing and go to the people [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_to_the_People

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

#52

Post by woodruffw »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #34
woodruffw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s no small irony that the simplest answer is the right answer here: you can’t force consumers to use your product. They need a reason to use it, and none of the current ones are sufficiently compelling.

I've always wondered why consumers seem to lack foresight though? Like the foresight of governmental / corporate dystopias due to information asymmetries. or foresight that exclusively buying goods manufactured abroad will eventually affect your home price as your neighbors one by one lose their local jobs... Do we know why people act in such a way? Edit: I'm quite shocked at the deep presumption of negativity. I was…

There are very few incentives for long term (meaning multigenerational) foresight. Cryptocurrencies embody this: they're either planet-torching (PoW) or encode neofeudalism (PoS) into their consensus schemes.

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

#53

Post by barkingcat »

Very easy, because anonymity was never the point of cryptocurrency - it's all about ease of manipulation and Monero is the "outcast" because it can't be tracked and manipulated.

This is a case where the cryptocurrency world wants "anonymity on paper, but not that much anonymity"

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

#55

Post by bcatanzaro »

snikeris wrote: post #36
bcatanzaro wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Money was initially private and decentralized. When it lost those attributes theft and economic instability became the norm.

I think it's the opposite. Theft and economic instability were the norm until we developed things like economic regulations and a banking system. The Wild West was not known for its economic stability for example. Neither were the Dark Ages.

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

#56

Post by [deleted] »

chaostheory wrote: post #25

HN is notoriously very anti-crypto as a community for valid reasons. While asking this question to crypto maximalists isn’t going to get an ideal answer, you’re not likely to get it here either for different reasons. Too much bias. To answer your question, as others have mentioned very few people actually care about privacy vs finding another hedge against inflation.

[deleted]

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

#57

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

I tried to mine it a few years ago on a couple of machines. The net benefit was close to zero and I realized even if I rented a lot of them, it was simply not worth the hassle. So this is from the "creator's" point of view.

As an user, I simply don't need it. Most of the time I buy physical products so I have to give them my real address anyway (I could set up an alternative way but again too much hassle for almost zero benefit). For these few times when I actually buy digital products, I simply don't care enough and I pay via Paypal. So yes, they can profile me using my Paypal address, but that's the price I'm willing to accept.

As a merchant, I simply wouldn't accept it because of high volatility and related problems. Also, in my country there are certain rules for entities of certain size and I'd need to do additional bookkeeping just for that.

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

#58

Post by fl0id »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #34
woodruffw wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s no small irony that the simplest answer is the right answer here: you can’t force consumers to use your product. They need a reason to use it, and none of the current ones are sufficiently compelling.

I've always wondered why consumers seem to lack foresight though? Like the foresight of governmental / corporate dystopias due to information asymmetries. or foresight that exclusively buying goods manufactured abroad will eventually affect your home price as your neighbors one by one lose their local jobs... Do we know why people act in such a way? Edit: I'm quite shocked at the deep presumption of negativity. I was…

There is a diff between people not anticipating possible bad outcomes and acting on it. Since forever, people have complained about bosses, governments etc. still, to a large degree the easiest way wins and some people just need that ‘ease’ to survive their life. The needle of capitalism. And many that do see it as a big problem, disagree on the solution.

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

#60

Post by selectodude »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #43
Aaronstotle wrote: post #31

I think the fiat on/off ramps are a large problem for Monero, I say this as someone who is a huge proponent of Monero and would like to see adoption rise. It is only offered on one exchange (Kraken) which inherently limits availability, there are certain vendors who do accept Monero such as Mullvad, and a popular wallet for iOS (CakeWallet) will soon allow you to redeem Giftcards for Monero. Right now, if I gave my f…

I have always wondered how much money laundering is in mining. It seems pretty benign to buy a whole bunch of CPU/GPUs on the used market and then have them mine you cryptocurrencies (not just monero, but notably monero is CPU favorable). This might be a massive onramp for fiat to cryptocurrencies. A quick google talks a lot about tumblers and other buy/sell strategies, but I'm curious about mining. I would hate to b…

I admit that this is speculation because I don't have the free time or desire to do some sort of deep dive, but the NFT market absolutely reeks of money laundering. Point being - why bother going through all that effort to actually mine stuff when you can just buy and sell NFTs a few times to clean money.
Post reply on HN