Re:Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide...
by openfuture on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @12:53PM
(#32240785)
Already commented elsewhere but this is called the oracle problem. It is essentially the tragedy of the commons w.r.t. bureaucracy; i.e. why should I be truthful about the state of the world if I can lie and make a profit because what I say will get recorded as truthful in the bureaucracy... this is the same as "corruption" and "fake news" etc.
We already know how to solve this problem fyi but it seems no one is interested in helping me implement it.
Re:Ask HN: Why are privacy coins like Monero not seeing wide...
by opportune on Tuesday July 26, 2022 @01:08PM
(#32240973)
Agree with this. Exchanging for fiat is hard. Most people will go cash->other crypto via centralized exchange -> monero via decentralized or p2p exchange. Then back the same way.
It’s not really that complicated if you are comfortable managing wallets and making on-chain tx’s, but your average person in crypto is probably just buying crypto on a centralized exchange (most of which don’t support monero, though some do) and also selling it there.
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.