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Comment by akimbostrawman | Hacker News Reader

Until you need to move or share it. That's why monero XMR is the only serious fungible and decentralized cryptocurrency

I don't doubt what you're saying. But as someone who is really not buying into cryptocurrencies, this is exactly what someone who holds a big amount of some obscure cryptocurrency would say.

I've heard good things about monero from a friend. This is not an attack on monero, rather a reflection on the general tone of the message.

>some obscure cryptocurrency

Monero is so obscure the IRS has put out a million dollar bounty to trace it, unlike any other crypto even btc lol

That reply felt like it reinforced the parent's point.

That's a terrible argument, the IRS taking an interest in obscure finances is usual. Can't escape from the tax office by trading in obscure things.

Monero is, time of writing, #12 on the coinmarketcap leaderboard [0] and less than 1% of the crypto space by market cap. It's hard to complain about that being called obscure; anyone who gets a feel for crypto by looking at a top 10 coins list isn't going to see it.

Although it is a technological miracle. That coin specifically might do poorly in the long term so I'm not about to call it an investment, but I think it's quite possible that Monero holds a probable entry in the history books in 150 years time.

[0] https://coinmarketcap.com/

To add ^, Remember this is fairly early still. We still have people walking around thinking that bitcoin sent by aliens of some sort. The adoption of understanding is still in progress, the correct definition of the technology needs to be better understood by the public. You don't have to agree with it or use it, only associating crypto with cybercriminals and " China " arsenal of spy tools; is only prolonging better uses for the technology and more of a use case for criminals to remain imminent. The contrast isn't that great between transactions by Visa Mastercard: codes that tell a software - + and what balance is already there. A billionaire does not have a billion in cash at the bank, sorry. They have to request that and I'm not even sure what the policies are for large cash sums. The billion is written on a paper 1mm thick and signed and stamped from the bank "check" The idea is not far from crypto. Rhetoric is still out and with that it hinders adoption and lets people with no knowledge of the technology have a voice in governing the use and widespread adoption.

It's a store of value, rather than a medium for transaction. If you want to move or share it, you pick it up and move or share it mostly...

I think how easy it is depends on the country and state of things. I would not want to move or share even small amount of gold outside of first world countries even in good times.

Not sure about this, isn't it hard to convert to fiat currency for real-world spending? Since it is often used for illegal activities, Coinbase (and I guess other big exchanges as well) don't trade it.

Just send USDC to Coinbase and convert (sell) to USD for free and withdraw.

You'll still get a 1099 with zero capital gains for it.

> Just send USDC to Coinbase

Sorry, but I'm not much informed about cryptocurrencies. How does one get USDC from Monero? Through some other exchange acceping both?

Yes, it’s a currency swap. You need to find another person (such as a bank, or in crypto parlance, a “defi”) willing to take what you have and trade you what you want.

Yes, there are even semi-decentralized exchanges based on smart contracts, where you can find trade offers posted by others and execute them in a zero-trust way.

You can swap directly in modern wallets, such as Trust Wallet. It's built in now.

You can always atomic swap between bitcoin and monero.

Unless you are moving more than about 1 million dollars in gold, it's actually quite easy to move it.

I would be nervous moving borders with ~1 million dollars worth of gold.

Talk to airport security people. The number of travelers, particularly from India and the middle east, with gold bars is nuts. It isn't loose bricks in a sock bag, but piles of one-ounce bars in plastic wrappers, stacked like playing cards, is not unusual. The Canada mint has a reputation for excellent gold/silver. Middle eastern tourists regularly return home carrying stacks of canadian gold/silver bars.

As opposed to junk like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Gold/comments/1xab90c/first_gold_ba...

When the canada mint does a movie tie-in, they do it better: https://cdncoin.com/collections/rcm-new-arrivals/products/20...

Not really fair to compare a 0.5g pellet to a coin.

It's very easy to pick it up, put it in a car or van, and move it to a different location.

It's much less easy to convert it to something you can actually spend. Even if you can get it to a buyer, they'll always offer you less than you expect/want.

Reputable dealers have KYC reporting duties of their own. Disreputable dealers... may have other ideas.

Of course dealers have KYC (you generally need to give your id) but this thread was about having one's own gold in a safe, not about shady dealings or stealing gold.

Gold sells at about 1% less than the current market price of the gold content of your item which I find fair. It might be easier here in Antwerp than in other places to deal with gold because it's kind of a gold trading hub. You can basically show unannounced (I suggest going by bike rather than by car because there is little street parking) and trade your gold for cash at the -1% rate, obviously if you get to the million euros range it's going to be a bit different, but for a few tens of thousands it's business as usual. And it's not like it's a difficult place to reach from anywhere else in the EU.

Not sure why this is getting downvoted.

One of the only surviving darknet markets only takes Monero as currency.

Make of that information what you will

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