Privacy

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Crypto (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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How viable is crypto as a private medium exchange in the modern world?

I see the value of using cryptocurrencies as a form of digital cash (from both a personal privacy point of view and a broader political/economic point of view) but am also put off by a) all the scamming and speculation and moreover b) the friction and privacy tradeoffs involved in getting any of it.

One of the obvious problems is that not many sellers accept it as payment. I can accept that. But AFAICT, in order to pay those that do, I must either do the legwork of conducting a peer-to-peer exchange of fiat currency for crypto (PITA) or use an exchange, which will have records of my personal identity. I'm aware that I could launder exchange-bought crypto to obfuscate my ownership of it but that is also a PITA. I suppose I could also mine coins but that has the most friction of all options and is a poor use of electricity production in my view.

Is there a solution that I'm not aware of, where I can buy (or indeed sell) crypto easily and privately?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My point being, as long as there is never any way to buy groceries with crypto, it will never be greatly valuable. It won't be worthess, people will want it, but crypto will never grow into anything.

Because if that, not as many online services will every accept crypto because they don't want to pay to exchange it. But if crypto became another form of payment for retail, then a lot more online stores and services will also accept crypto instead of being responsible for taking card information.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I have been buying my groceries with Monero since January of 2023. And I'm still alive, so it must work. Otherwise I'd be long dead of starvation.

Edit: I have found that the absolute most difficult things to pay are the things that require a direct ACH transfer such as your car payment, credit card bill, or mortgage. If anything at all accepts a debit card, it can be paid for with crypto.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You can walk to grocery store and pay with monero? I can't find a way to buy monero without a credit card.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

In Switzerland, yes, you absolutely can walk into a grocery store and pay with Monero at the checkout counter. In the United States, you can buy an Instacart gift card and get the grocery store to deliver your food or go pick it up and pay with Monero.