I love bitcoin

I really do. I love monero as well, as I personally see it as a better form of money – a better digital currency, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate everything that bitcoin has achieved as a decentralized digital currency. We’re in the nascent of this industry, and by the way current governments and their central banks have been conducting their business, we will grow in popularity a lot in the next years. And a lot of this is due to bitcoin.

I believe monero greatly benefits from bitcoin. It’s a technologically superior currency, because it adds the vital property of fungibility. There are some trade-offs made to achieve that, but unless you’re really in doubt of the math behind the cryptography then monero simply achieves better money properties when compared to bitcoin.

Monero has seen increased usage in the last year, and a non-negligible adoption has been established as well, made of different service providers, online business and even physical stores. More people are understanding and choosing monero; we even have western darknet markets spearheading a “monero-only” policy. This currency is here to stay.

There’s no denying that the increased popularity in monero (and other cryptocurrencies) is due to the bitcoin saga and their fight with the traditional financial system. In that, bitcoin has been doing great despite increasing attempts to diminish its importance on the public mind. It’s in fact been receiving a lot of positive attention from mainstream circles, and for those people traceability is just a normal property of bitcoin. Not a big deal for them (or they might be ones benefiting from it), and more important is that this property has been fundamental to get some sweet love from those who work at the side of power, governments, compliance, analytic companies, etc – the traditional system.

I know it’s a bit cliche to say that bitcoin is the Trojan horse for monero, but it does work a little bit like that. Bitcoin opens the door for the idea that it’s possible to have an alternative financial system completely digital and that no one can freely manipulate. Once people buy into the idea, they end up learning about other concurring digital currencies, which will bring those interested in sound money to monero.

It’s on us to make sure that the people can find and learn about monero in the easiest possible way. Videos, tutorials, books, guides, pamphlets. A certain standard that can be translated and distributed in an organized but decentralized way, actively reaching the people who need to learn about it the most. A bit like the sticker guerrilla marketing, but on steroids. Teaching how a guy in Colombia can use the GUI wallet ‘Merchant mode’ on his old Android tablet to accept monero payments. Then explaining how to easily backup the seed and keys in case of some unforeseen event. There’s much to be done around the idea that cryptocurrencies exist – i.e. people are not used to self-custody. We live in a world of ultimate convenience and “being your own bank” implies in sacrificing that convenience for freedom. I truly see this as an opportunity for this community; while “bitcoin people” are cheering their increased fiat valuation, we take on the less sexy job of proactively providing educational resources to the people, so they can be ready to easily navigate in this new financial system, shielded by the corruption and economic manipulation of the powers that be.

Bitcoin’s idea of a decentralized digital cash has infected too many minds and that’s how monero benefits from it. This community has the power to take the tool that monero is to another level, by working hard to proactively educate people about sovereign money and how to use it. So for providing this environment I love bitcoin and I honestly don’t even need to explicitly point out its downsides when introducing cryptocurrency to new people. Once I explain digital currencies like bitcoin, monero and ethereum and its fundamental differences, they instinctively understand what would be good for them to transact on the daily.