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Al X G's avatar

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for Bitcoin today, eh Mike? The more I learn about cryptocurrency it seems the more I like my fiat inflating cash which sadly didn’t go real far in the grocery store last night. UBI seems to be on the horizon but available only through a CBDC and for properly injected robo citizens. It’s all moving so fast now. Great read!

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Mike Fay's avatar

UBI/CBDC is the surest bet you can make, imo. It’s not that BTC is a problem, it’s that it’s a problem if you only go halfway. Using it to circumvent the establishment can bite you if you still rely on the old system. This is less of a problem with ZEC, XMR, etc. The issue with those coins is the network adoption doesn’t sniff that of BTC. I don’t blame you one bit for staying in fiat. Our savings is fiat. We just view crypto as bug out insurance the same way we do canned food, ammo, silver, and full gas canisters.

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Al X G's avatar

Cryptocurrency is still too murky for me to take a plunge, but that is changing. I believe a move in that direction might be inevitable since I’ll never take the spike spikes.

Thanks for my continuing education!

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Mike Fay's avatar

Thanks for reading

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Pawsative's avatar

What do you mean ‘the network adoption doesn’t sniff that of BTC.’

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Mike Fay's avatar

More users

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Pawsative's avatar

This is one of your more readable articles.

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Zee's avatar

It's important to note there are some services that help with this flaw in Bitcoin like nunchuk.io and https://samouraiwallet.com/

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Mike Fay's avatar

Yup! The next evolution in BTC knowledge. Thanks for sharing

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Pawsative's avatar

Coinbase is affiliated with the World Economic Forum. I believe the WEF is scrubbing biographies from their websites and took this one down today.

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Mike Fay's avatar

Yikes. I’ll look into it!

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Pawsative's avatar

“Monero transactions are confidential and untraceable.

Unlike selectively transparent alternatives (e.g. Zcash), Monero is the only cryptocurrency where every user is anonymous by default. The sender, receiver, and amount of every single transaction are hidden through the use of three important technologies: Stealth Addresses, Ring Signatures, and RingCT.

Because every transaction is private, Monero cannot be traced. This makes it a true, fungible currency. Merchants and individuals accepting Monero do not need to worry about blacklisted or tainted coins.” - about Monero

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Mike Fay's avatar

And this is nitpicky again but Monero isn’t the only coin that is anonymous by default. It’s just the one with the largest market cap.

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Pawsative's avatar

So what others are there that offer more privacy?

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Mike Fay's avatar

ARRR, BEAM - much smaller followings. There are probably others, tbh. There are soooo many cryptos

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Mike Fay's avatar

I have two main issues with Monero: the first is it’s not available on Coinbase. So you have to be more than a crypto beginner to get it. It’s nit picky but I think it’s still valid. The bigger issue is RingSignatures might not be as untraceable as advertised. The signer address is still visible in the ring, it’s just not as clear which address the signer is. ZK snark is a better structure imho. I’m also not as concerned with t address optionality because there are times when you would actually want proof of a transaction. For instance if you’re a business owner and a customer requests a refund. It might make sense to allow that to be public. I like Monero. I have some. I just think ZEC makes more sense for mass adoption

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