I want to talk about my recent experience with monero. I can't comment on a currency that has never been used yet, even though some people will swear to god that they love it and it's better than a decade of BTC use, even though you need BTC to get it, and the fact that only two places (illegal marketplaces) will be accepting it (but haven't yet). My focus on this discussion is the people pushing it.
How many in the community will agree that this stuff is being shilled to death? How many have felt the effects of it's brigade of downvoters? Why does anyone who has a tinge of healthy skeptisism get attacked, downvoted, and have their opinion immediately called fud by supporters of a never before used currency?
I had two legitamate concerns about this brand new, never before used currency that a hundred people (/u/travis-, /u/honestlyimeanreally, /u/protekt0r, /u/avgeca, etc...) have sworn is better than BTC. Just mentioning monero around here will summon the entire platoon of monero circle jerkers to a comment like flies on shit. I ask, who else are these people trying to get on board as hard as they want the DNM community on board? Reddit is filled with other communities, are there any other subs lurked so hard by these people? They will claim that they aren't targeting this community, but who in the fuck else uses DNM's?
The other concern was, what other applications outside of the two markets will monero serve? Because if there are none, getting in on this will only have you sticking out like a sore thumb and have LE looking at you like "fish in a barrel". It's like buying rolling papers at a gas station and trying to convince the clerk that you roll tobacco, they know you're full of shit! I never got a straight answer from any member of the Monero Gang for either question.
I'm not asking who will use it. I'm asking if the community thinks that the Monero Gang is working some sort of angle.
This is a summary of my thoughts on this matter. https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/5071ox/psa_monero_is_easy_to_deanonymize_in_a_handful_of/d720txx Many of you know me around here, I have no agenda other than just hanging out with y'all. I'm here every single day! Why would these dudes not want to discuss this with people like me? Why would they try to discredit me? When have I ever not had this communities best interest at heart?
Whether or not monero is a good or failed currency is up in the air because IT HASN'T BEEN USED YET!!! But the folks pushing it seem to be a little.... desperate?
So here's a copy/paste of something that I'd been chatting with others about (MDMAngel has chatted with me a bit on this too, and I value her opinion), so anyone else that would care to chat/bullshit about the subject, feel free to jump in.
Something else that I think is interesting is that one particular developer (I don't have a link handy to his interview right now) spoke about how useless most altcoins are right now (I think he actually might have said ALL, which I disagree with), and that HIS invention could be as much of a failure as anybody else's. I've gotta be AFK momentarily, but I wanted to comment here while I had a chance before logging out.
I do think there is a decent amount of people that are getting a tad too hyped about Monero over here. I respect the excitement that these people have (new things excite me TOO), and I respect not trusting it/thinking it's weaksauce right now (especially since there are current privacy concerns that, although having been addressed/having fixes comig out shortly, are still real-world concerns currently).
I do think it's interesting/odd that multiple markets have jumped on this particular bandwagon, and THAT in itSELF has piqued me interest. I've been watching/playing with Monero for a while now (making money here and there trading), but not nearly a decent fraction as long as I've been fucking with markets over my several accounts over many markets (Silk Road dayz). I respect what I ASSUME is intelligence in some of these market admins that have built what they've built, so I'm like.... "what in particular do they see here that they didn't see elsewhere...?" DASH coin is 'anonymous and safe' and such, although it's not as strong under the hood as what monero will be. Hmmm. I dunno. Just bullshitting here, and curious to hear other people's thoughts as to why it looks good/looks like shit/they want it around/they can't wait till it dies.
Sorry for the rambles.