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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

I think Bitcoin is awesome because unlike cash, digital transfers are built into the system.

Now, just like cash wasn't built with digital transfers in mind, neither was Bitcoin built with anonymity in mind, so not sure why Monero would be better/worse than Bitcoin for a thing Bitcoin was never made for in the first place.

The purpose of Bitcoin was never that all transactions were anonymous. Monero is great for this (or zCash), but it's a bit misleading to say Monero is "better" at something when what you are comparing it to, was never built for that "something" in the first place.

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Really not sure what you're trying to say here. People use Bitcoin for anonymous transactions and jump through various hoops to try and achieve this goal (for example using tumbling services). It seems perfectly valid to say Monero is better for anonymous transactions than Bitcoin. I'm not sure why it matters what it was "made for". All that matters is what it is used for in practice. This does not seem like a misleading statement.

If something is better than some other thing at achieving the same goals, then it is just better, period. If it turns out that, what people really wanted was an efficient way to launder money, then Monero is not really 'better' than bitcoin perse, but it rather solves a different, more popular problem instead.

Presumably it matters because the person you are replying to cares more about the less popular problem.

The bitcoin whitepaper is titled 'Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'. Cash is private and peer-to-peer. Peer-to-peer is impossible if chain analysis companies are required in the middle, as it is now to make sure you don't get 'bad coins'.

Other issues are opened up like the possiblity that a coalition of mining pools will censor transactions in the future.

Bitcoin has clearly failed at its originally intended purpose and monero is now what it wanted to be

The feature set of Monero is strictly larger than Bitcoin's.

In other words: everything you can do with Bitcoin can be done with Monero while the converse isn't true.

Strikes me as a pretty decent definition of "Better".

(unless of course, you consider the lack of anonymity a "feature". I'd bet most people don't unless they work in law enforcement or for the IRS).

Monero just makes different trade-offs than Bitcoin [1]...

[1] https://phyro.github.io/grinvestigation/why_grin.html

It's missing several of Bitcoin's features, such as an identifiable UTXO set, relative time locks, a fully auditable supply, instantly verifiable PoW...

> a fully auditable supply

You can audit Monero's supply as well. The only difference with Bitcoin is that it uses more advanced math, making it much harder for regular Joe.

Best take criticism from a self-proclaimed Monero competitor with some skepticism.

You're right though that technically Monero doesn't do everything that Bitcoin does.

> You can audit Monero's supply as well.

Not to the same degree. If anyone knows or learns the discrete log of H, then they can create Monero out of thin air undetectably.

That's not the only difference. As tromp said, if someone figured out the discrete log of H, they could inflate Monero and nobody would be able to tell. If someone inflated Bitcoin, everyone would notice immediately.

Unlike cash, Bitcoin keeps a public log of everything you've bought though.

> you

For some definitions of "you"

Anonymity is absolutely an integral part to digital transfers.

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