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title: "A friend asks why I prefer Monero to Bitcoin: Unlike Bitcoin, Monero…"
date: 2022-03-28
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships updated his status.
---

# A friend asks why I prefer Monero to Bitcoin: Unlike Bitcoin, Monero…

*March 28, 2022 · Facebook*

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A friend asks why I prefer Monero to Bitcoin:\
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Unlike Bitcoin, Monero is truly private at the base layer by default. No third party can see who you\'re trading with, trade amounts, or your holdings.\
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Right now, most people are holding Bitcoin as a speculative asset; they\'re not trying to actually use it for commerce in their day to day lives.\
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However, eventually, they\'ll want to buy things with their BTC. When they do, they\'ll find it\'s a hassle to do so privately. Using Bitcoin privately requires conscious effort and rigamarole, such as using a special wallet (Samourai) to mix their transactions, recycle their addresses, and use the Lightning network (which is, among other things, an attempt to increase privacy on a second layer).\
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Whereas with Monero, all transactions are private by default. It\'s a lot simpler and less error prone to trade privately. This is why most darknet markets have switched to Monero.\
IMO, the Bitcoin community won\'t adopt proper privacy protections at the base layer because there are too many players who want to play nice with the government, and avoid greater regulatory pressure (many fiat on-ramps have booted Monero to please the regulators).\
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As a result, when people realize that using Bitcoin exposes most of their transactions to the world, many of them will switch to Monero.\
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In addition, Bitcoin mining is done by a few centralized firms using highly specialized mining rigs aka ASICs. Monero\'s mining algorithm, by contrast, is ASIC resistant, and can be profitably mined with ordinary hardware. As a result, it\'s a lot more decentralized and censorship resistant.\
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Finally, the Bitcoin community is dominated by an informal cult (the Bitcoin \"maxi\'s\") who are censorious and highly resistant to criticism or change. I find the Monero community to be much more open to criticism (both within and without).\
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For example, every week, the /r/monero subreddit holds \"Scepticism Sunday\" in which they invite criticism of the Monero technology and ecosystem.
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