Monero Maximalism: Or, How Bitcoin Is a coin
The Biggest Problem with Cryptocurrency
Most normal people hear the word "cryptocurrency" and assume that means that
they are "cryptic" or "private," but that's actually a huge, perhaps the hugest
misunderstanding of our time and it has some big consequences. The "crypto" in
cryptocurrency merely comes from its cryptographic nature.
When it comes to actual privacy, cryptocurrencies are an unmitigated disaster:
All transactions and wallet balances are easily viewable on the necessarily
public blockchain.
This might not seem like a problem to some, and there are also some who will
retort with "Well, I'm not doing anything illegal so it doesn't matter to me."
But here's the thing: Every currency in human history has been totally
private, so we have no other similar disaster scenario to even compare this
to.
American dollars are centrally financially controled, but we can transact
without that being public information. Even when using a Visa or Mastercard with
your bank, Visa or your bank might know of the transaction, but it isn't
broadcast publicly to the entire world like Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin is therefore a unique privacy disaster that we can't even
anticipate. No cryptocurrency is widely used enough as an actual currency for
people to really feel the burn of this, but this opens up huge liabilities for
every human on the planet. You might think the American dollar is a
NWO/Satanic/Mark-of-the-Beast currency that will take away your freedoms, but
let me tell you that Bitcoin as it is is far worse!
The Disaster of the Bitcoin Future
Here's some of the things we can expect in a world running on Bitcoin:
Your personal budget, income and bank account is necessarily public
information.
Every business's expenditures and payroll are now necessarily
public information. Everyone in the world knows how much everyone makes and know
what suppliers each business transacts with. Trade secrets are a thing of the
past. Employee privacy is a thing of the past.
Consumer privacy is a thing of the past. Everyone knows how much
money everyone spends everywhere else.
Even giving money to friends for favors or help is visible to the
IRS. This makes easy micromanagement and taxation of even minor things that
might not be plausibly taxable now.
Nearly every privacy law is rendered unenforceable and useless by
Bitcoin.
No sane person would volunteer to reveal all their bank accounts, transaction
histories, spending habits and thereby physical movements for no reason to every
government and business in the world. But if you use most cryptocurrencies,
that is exactly what you're doing.
It will be even worse.
Losing personal privacy is one thing. Maybe you don't even mind a world where
eveyone is continuously "doxxed" and bombared with perfectly targetted ads a
là Minority Report.
More important than that is systemic privacy. In a system with glass walls
like Bitcoin, criminals, governments, corporations and regulatory agencies
realize that it is very easy for them to abuse and exploit people. Expect the
maximum amount of extortion, the maximum amount of taxes on increasingly mundane
things and the maximum amount micromanagement.
While you might not be able to imagine in your mind's eye all the terrible
things that might happen with a fully monitorable currency, needless to say, it
will contain what are, in effect, indescribable Lovecraftian monsters from the
blackest Stygian depths. Bitcoin is the opposite of freedom. It is giving a
carte blanche to all the world's worst people to prey on innocents.
The Solution: Monero
 (also
known by its ticker "XMR") is an exception to this.
Monero is a digital currency that has the blockchain technology of Bitcoin, but
has in its core very smartly designed tech to keep the transactions on this
public blockchain totally opaque. It takes what we've learned from Bitcoin and
makes a complete project that can function, in fact is functioning in real
life.
Firstly, the technologies which make the Monero blockchain private:
1. Ring signatures to protect sender privacy. All transactions
are jointly signed by not just the actual sender, but ten other addresses.
Security by obscurity and plausible deniability.
2. Stealth addresses to protect receiver privacy. Instead of
one address on the blockchain, you technically have a different address for
every single transaction and only by your private view key can you see that they
are yours.
3. Ring confidential transactions to obscure the amount sent.
/pix/satoshi The creator of Bitcoin really intended to create what Monero would
later become. Bitcoin itself is incomplete.
None of this means any complication for the user. Monero works just like any
other cryptocurrency and if you use the default graphical Monero
wallet, it's just as easy to use
Electrum or something else for Bitcoin.
Monero is for normal people
Monero is often portrayed as being subversive because it is coming to totally
replace Bitcoin on the dark net for illegal transactions. It often has a
reputation associated with those potentially criminal purposes it could be used
for (same thing with Bitcoin before blockchain monitoring became a science).
Monero is not doing anything illegal that cash couldn't do beforehand, but
there's a more important point:
Much more evil can be done with public transactions than private transactions:
they can cause blackmail, rumors, gossip-mongering, witchhunts, stalking and
targeted robberies and attacks. Seasoned criminals know how to juggle Bitcoin
and other non-cryptic cryptocurrencies to avoid compromising privacy; normal
people do not and can fall prey to some of the worst things just by using
Bitcoin for normal things in normal ways.
At the end of the day, it's not Monero that's weird or subversive or niche,
it's Bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies. Privacy is a bare minimum for any
functioning currency. Currency users deserve that and no currency could
function without it. The dollar, the euro, the renminbi and every other currency
by definition has the same privacy features as Monero. Bitcoin just doesn't
have that.
Monero solves all of Bitcoin's other problems.
Bitcoin also has other drawbacks:
1. Bitcoin block size is limited to such a small size that spenders
have to compete with massive fees to get their transactions processed. It often
takes $10 of Bitcoin to send $5 of Bitcoin.
2. It is unclear if the Bitcoin have incentives to continue once all
Bitcoins are mined.
3. Bitcoin mining is increasingly centralized and requires extreme
specialty ASIC hardware to compete.
All of these pale in comparison to the privacy issue, and a lot of smoke is
generated by random coins trying to solve these issues, but Monero has a
solution for them all.
_ __ __ _ _
/ | | / | ___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ | |__ __ _ ___ | | _____ __
| | | |/| |/ _ | '_ / _ '__/ _ | '_ / _/ __| | |/ _ / / /
| |_ | | | | (_) | | | | __/ | | (_) | | | | | (_| __ | | (_) V V /
|_(_) |_| |_|___/|_| |_|___|_| ___/ |_| |_|__,_|___/ |_|___/ _/_/
_ _ _ __
| |_ _ __ __ _ _ __ ___ __ _ ___| |_(_) ___ _ __ / _| ___ ___ ___
| __| '__/ _| '_ / __|/ _|/ __| __| |/ _ | '_ | |_ / _ / _ / __|
| |_| | | (_| | | | __ (_| | (__| |_| | (_) | | | | | _| __/ __/__ _
__|_| __,_|_| |_|___/__,_|___|__|_|___/|_| |_| |_| ___|___||___(_)
Monero has variable block size that avoids this issue as well, as long with a
disincentive for large blocksizes to prevent spurious transactions (that could
otherwise be theoretically used in an attack to compromise network privacy).
____ __ __ _ _ _ _
|___ | / | ___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ __ _(_) | | | |__ ___
__) | | |/| |/ _ | '_ / _ '__/ _ / / / | | | | '_ / _
/ __/ _ | | | | (_) | | | | __/ | | (_) | V V /| | | | | |_) | __/
|_____(_) |_| |_|___/|_| |_|___|_| ___/ _/_/ |_|_|_| |_.__/ ___|
_ _ __
_ __ ___ (_)_ __ ___ __| | / _| ___ _ __ _____ _____ _ __
| '_ _ | | '_ / _ / _| | |_ / _ | '__/ _ / / _ '__|
| | | | | | | | | | __/ (_| | | _| (_) | | | __/ V / __/ | _
|_| |_| |_|_|_| |_|___|__,_| |_| ___/|_| ___| _/ ___|_|(_)
The second issue is the big question mark behind the whole Bitcoin system. Once
all Bitcoins are mined, will miners continue to process transactions if they are
paid by fees only?
This isn't an issue for Monero because there is never a point where the block
reward for mining is zero. It will eventually stagnate at 0.6 XMR for eternity,
which is a supply inflation which approaches zero over time and avoids the issue
of no block rewards. This is called tail emission.
Note also that any solution to Bitcoin's first problem above, will necessarily
exacerbate the second problem. If you solve the fee problem, you make the mining
incentive problem worse. If there is the Lightning Network or something else
that reduces Bitcoin's fees dramatically, the chance of those lower fees
maintaining miners will decrease dramatically.
I will say, if you think that the capped supply of Bitcoin will work out fine
and might be better, you can still have the benefits of Monero
with, which
is a Monero fork with a capped supply and doge-tier memes (it also has a higher
ring signature size of 22 which might theoretically be better for privacy (or
overkill)). (See on
Coinmarketcap) They also have a
meme site.
_____ __ __ _
|___ / | / | ___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ ___| |_ __ _ _ _ ___
|_ | |/| |/ _ | '_ / _ '__/ _ / __| __/ _| | | / __|
___) | | | | | (_) | | | | __/ | | (_) | __ || (_| | |_| __
|____(_) |_| |_|___/|_| |_|___|_| ___/ |___/____,_|__, |___/
|___/
_ _ _ _ _ _
__| | ___ ___ ___ _ __ | |_ _ __ __ _| (_)_______ __| | | |__ _ _
/ _|/ _ / __/ _ '_ | __| '__/ _| | |_ / _ / _| | '_ | | | |
| (_| | __/ (_| __/ | | | |_| | | (_| | | |/ / __/ (_| | | |_) | |_| |
__,_|___|______|_| |_|__|_| __,_|_|_/______|__,_| |_.__/ __, |
|___/
_ _ _
__ ___ _____ (_) __| (_)_ __ __ _
/ _ / / _ | |/ _| | '_ / _|
| (_| | V / (_) | | (_| | | | | | (_| |
__,_| _/ ___/|_|__,_|_|_| |_|__, |
|___/
_ _
_ __ ___ __ _ ___ ___ _ __ ___ (_)_ __ (_)_ __ __ _
| '_ _ / _/ __/ __|_____| '_ _ | | '_ | | '_ / _|
| | | | | | (_| __ __ _____| | | | | | | | | | | | | | (_| |_
|_| |_| |_|__,_|___/___/ |_| |_| |_|_|_| |_|_|_| |_|__, (_)
|___/
Monero is specifically designed to avoid allowing specialty hardware (ASICs)
participate in mining. This makes individual mining on consumer computers more
possible for longer and makes it hard to farm Monero. They use a technology
calledRandomX to
do this.
Other Monero Perks
In short, Monero is cryptocurrency done right. Bitcoin was a great proof of
concept, but Monero fixes all the issues that the Bitcoin project brought to
attention.
There are yet more good features of Monero that are worth mentioning:
___ _ _ _
/ _ _ __ | |_(_) ___ _ __ __ _| |
| | | | '_ | __| |/ _ | '_ / _| |
| |_| | |_) | |_| | (_) | | | | (_| | |
___/| .__/ __|_|___/|_| |_|__,_|_|
|_|
_____
|_ _| __ __ _ _ __ ___ _ __ __ _ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ _ _
| || '__/ _| '_ / __| '_ / _| '__/ _ '_ / __| | | |
| || | | (_| | | | __ |_) | (_| | | | __/ | | | (__| |_| |
|_||_| __,_|_| |_|___/ .__/ __,_|_| ___|_| |_|___|__, |
|_| |___/
_ _ _ ____ _ _
__ _(_) |_| |__ | _ _ __(_)_ ____ _| |_ ___
/ / / | __| '_ | |_) | '__| / / _| __/ _
V V /| | |_| | | | | __/| | | | V / (_| | || __/
_/_/ |_|__|_| |_| |_| |_| |_| _/ __,_|_____|
__ ___ _ __
/ (_) _____ __ | |/ /___ _ _ ___
/ /| |/ _ / / / | ' // _ | | / __|
V / | | __/ V V / | . __/ |_| __
_/ |_|___| _/_/ |_|____|__, |___/
|___/
In some cases, you might not want privacy, but transparency with Monero.
Suppose you're running a kind of non-profit that want's to proudly show all
their financials to potential donnors. Monero allows this too with Private
View Keys. You can publish your private view keys on your website for your
transactions to visible to whoever has them.
__ __ _
| / | ___ _ __ ___ _ __ ___ (_)___
| |/| |/ _ | '_ / _ '__/ _ | / __|
| | | | (_) | | | | __/ | | (_) | | __
|_| |_|___/|_| |_|___|_| ___/ |_|___/
_ _ _
__ _ ___| |_(_)_ _____| |_ _
/ _|/ __| __| / / _ | | | |
| (_| | (__| |_| | V / __/ | |_| |
__,_|___|__|_| _/ ___|_|__, |
|___/
_ _ _ _
__| | _____ _____| | ___ _ __ ___ __| | __ _ _ __ __| |
/ _|/ _ / / _ |/ _ | '_ / _ / _| / _| '_ / _|
| (_| | __/ V / __/ | (_) | |_) | __/ (_| | | (_| | | | | (_| |
__,_|___| _/ ___|_|___/| .__/ ___|__,_| __,_|_| |_|__,_|
|_|
_ _
(_)_ __ ___ _ __ _ __ _____ _____ __| |
| | '_ _ | '_ | '__/ _ / / _ / _|
| | | | | | | |_) | | | (_) V / __/ (_| |_
|_|_| |_| |_| .__/|_| ___/ _/ ___|__,_(_)
|_|
Monero users and developers are constantly trying to improve, break and
stress-test the technology. A lot of the features I've mentioned here have been
added to Monero since its founding. If you want to have an in depth look at the
history of Monero's development and technology, you can see this video series
"Breaking Monero" where some guys overview how Monero has overcome previous issues to
become the prime privacy coin of today.
Using and Holding Monero
If you're reading this, I'll assume you're at least superficially familiar with
cryptocurrencies and probably have some Bitcoin. Even if that's not so, just
follow the links and you're smart enough to get started.
Wallets
Get a Monero wallet here from their main
site. Write down and store your wallet seed where you will never lose it.
Getting Monero
The first thing I recommend everyone should do is put your public address on
your website for donations and produce high-quality writing and other website
content. Monero users will usually be more likely to send small Monero donations
since transaction fees are low. This also increases the profile of Monero in
the eyes of anyone who sees it, which is a good costless investment for you now.
Cryptocurrencies are driven by networking effects. Note that you can make a QR
code with qrencode or an online generator if you're a true-blue normie.
The unofficial site Monero.how lists many exchanges
where you can exchange Bitcoin or Ethereum for Monero and store it on your
private wallet, including many that don't require KYC (sending in an ID).
The site Local Monero is even an anonymous service
where you can mail in cash to exchange with a trusted Monero vendor or vice
versa.
I also recommend using Bisq for the highest level of
privacy. It is a peer-to-peer and totally anonymous exchange which even creates
its own Tor service automatically. You can exchange XMR for BTC there too.
something very new, but when it happens and goes fully public, you might expect
a lot of value in Bitcoin moving over into Monero.
Use now or to HODL?
They also keep a small list of the growing number of services that accept
Monero. Everything from online
services, to houses, to computer parts and more. I also keep a Monero donation
address public and recommend others to do so as well. Since
Monero transaction fees are so low, microtransactions and small donations are
easy.
Although if you're persuaded by my case here, you might just want to HODL Monero
for the most part and expect that it will rise. As I'm writing this (April 21,
2021) Monero has increased a lot recently in the ongoing bullrun, but it is
still proportionately far lower than it was in comparison with Bitcoin in the
2017 run. I have no clue whether it will moon or crash hard at the end of the
bullrun or anything, all I can say is that I think the technological
fundamentals are far better than Bitcoin and all other currencies and its only
getting scarcer.
What separates Monero from everything else is that it is a gimmickless currency
that has all the bare minimums of privacy. It is Bitcoin perfected. It's what
Bitcoin should've been. That's it.