thsminer! Great to hear from you!!! I still have quite a stash of 'Other Coins', albeit I sold quite a nice chunk this past week, taking a very tidy profit thanks to Fuse getting in contact with me and telling me to get off my bum!!! Check out Slack, I posted to there this week about my current status.

Thanks to everyone else for the advise and comments. I especially like the sound of being able to buy gold with XMR. What I really want to see from XMR is stability with enough volume and volatility to be able to buy and sell substantial sums of XMR when needed as I want to use XMR just I use BTC, Gold, Silver and other currencies to hedge against inflation and to provide a diverse store of wealth.

One of things that I really like about BTC over the past years is the fairly stable value with steady capital appreciation.

Like TrueCryptonaire, I don't really have much need to buy anything online. And as a family, we are pretty much self-sufficient, so monthly expenses are minimal and mostly with local establishments, so I don't really have a daily use for XMR. Although it would be great to be able to buy my Danner boots with XMR, the one luxury I have to import regularly.

I would say the best part of being away from crypto for 2 years is the ability to be very rational and clear when evaluating various coins and the technology used. Risto posted very early on that XMR greatest potential was that it had significantly different and possibility superior tech to BTC and this is what seperated from other alt-coins such as LTC. Of course, a dedicated and hard-working community is very important as well.

Again thanks to everyone for warm welcome back!!!