[ EDIT:
If anyone wants to try out Bitcoin Cash, go download a wallet (electroncash.org works well for computers, and the Bitcoin.com wallet works well on phones), then put your BCH address as a reply to Jonathan Toomin's comment below, and he will send you some to play around with. Takes about 5 minutes to set it up, and the fees are around $0.001 per transaction.
Likewise, if anyone wants to try out Monero, set up an account at https://mymonero.com/#/, send your wallet address to me via Signal (650 773 6419), and I'll send you some to play with. ]
A friend asks: "...what is a cryptocurrency that's better suited to being an actual currency than Bitcoin? Which is the best cryptocurrency in terms of... ease of use, speed of transaction, etc etc?"
My answer:
Monero (XMR) is currently the best overall at meeting the goals that Satoshi originally set out for Bitcoin (censorship resistant, decentralized, permissionless currency). Most of the darknet markets have switched to it.
It's not the _easiest_ to use, since many of the exchanges that make the fiat -> crypto exchange easy have dropped truly private coins. Localmonero.co is probably the easiest way to acquire Monero without giving up your privacy.
The easiest to use is probably Bitcoin Cash (BCH). It's a fork of Bitcoin that uses large block sizes, which allows for small transactions with minimal fees and short confirmation times. Otherwise, it's the same as Bitcoin. Most of the same exchanges that support Bitcoin also support Bitcoin Cash.
My recommendation:
1. Acquire Monero via Localmonero.co.
2. Acquire a crypto debit card: https://www.thebalance.com/best-bitcoin-debit-cards-5115199
3. Use Monero directly whenever you can.
4. When you can't pay with Monero directly, swap Monero for Bitcoin Cash with Morphtoken, and then add the BCH to your crypto debit card.
Nothing you purchase with your crypto debit card will be private, but that's no worse than the present.
If anyone wants to try out Bitcoin Cash, go download a wallet (electroncash.org works well for computers, and the Bitcoin.com wallet works well on phones), then put your BCH address as a reply to Jonathan Toomin's comment below, and he will send you some to play around with. Takes about 5 minutes to set it up, and the fees are around $0.001 per transaction.
Likewise, if anyone wants to try out Monero, set up an account at https://mymonero.com/#/, send your wallet address to me via Signal (650 773 6419), and I'll send you some to play with. ]
A friend asks: "...what is a cryptocurrency that's better suited to being an actual currency than Bitcoin? Which is the best cryptocurrency in terms of... ease of use, speed of transaction, etc etc?"
My answer:
Monero (XMR) is currently the best overall at meeting the goals that Satoshi originally set out for Bitcoin (censorship resistant, decentralized, permissionless currency). Most of the darknet markets have switched to it.
It's not the _easiest_ to use, since many of the exchanges that make the fiat -> crypto exchange easy have dropped truly private coins. Localmonero.co is probably the easiest way to acquire Monero without giving up your privacy.
The easiest to use is probably Bitcoin Cash (BCH). It's a fork of Bitcoin that uses large block sizes, which allows for small transactions with minimal fees and short confirmation times. Otherwise, it's the same as Bitcoin. Most of the same exchanges that support Bitcoin also support Bitcoin Cash.
My recommendation:
1. Acquire Monero via Localmonero.co.
2. Acquire a crypto debit card: https://www.thebalance.com/best-bitcoin-debit-cards-5115199
3. Use Monero directly whenever you can.
4. When you can't pay with Monero directly, swap Monero for Bitcoin Cash with Morphtoken, and then add the BCH to your crypto debit card.
Nothing you purchase with your crypto debit card will be private, but that's no worse than the present.