Quote from: phishead on January 29, 2020, 09:06:02 PM

Quote from: cAPSLOCK on January 29, 2020, 05:00:41 PM

Quote from: Bassica on January 29, 2020, 01:57:04 PM

A blast-off in the ratio is days away.

Blast off in the ratio?

THESE 15 MINUTES ARE CRUCIAL
Wink

Honestly guys just look at the coinmarketcap top 20 and think of all the actual use cases for each of them. We're going to be fiiiine. Open up yourself a bottle of Barolo, kick back and relax.

Agreed. There's a bottle around somewhere, I will check. Meanwhile, let me muse a little.

Use cases? I actually think privacy in one's financial affairs is vital.

Of course privacy is a way bigger issue than just with your finances. Facial recognition, internet histories... big data acquiring more and more of your personal information when it's probably far too much already. People are starting to think about things they put up online in the past - and pictures on social media are already being saved, or scraped en masse just to refine facial recognition software and make it better (it is still very fallible, but will of course improve).

Soon it is plausible you may have been seen near a murder scene, when the police are under pressure to arrest someone, and then you become a suspect in a case where there is no other suspect - in spite of your total innocence. Yes, it's likely you can prove it wasn't you, but who wants to be an accidental murder suspect? And let's face it, proof that you didn't do something can be quite tough.

Financially dots are being joined on a huge scale, too. Coinbase has tech that can track your coins after you withdraw them, just to see where they go. Guilt by accidental association is a risk. 'Drugs', 'terrorism' and other heinous categories of crime are things that don't sound good in court if you have an association with them through your financial movements, even if these movements are actually innocent.

OK, I guess we're more likely to be hounded for tax, than arrested for murder.

However, it comes down to this: Privacy is an intrinsic part of freedom. You may think of privacy as something that should be a right. Your state will probably not agree in more cases than you can think of. This is a time where our freedoms are being encroached upon more than ever, and many states are increasingly beefing up the powers they have to protect what they see as their interests.

I recently got asked at a Christmas drinks party about Bitcoin by one of my neighbors. I had mentioned it once before a couple of parties back, and he remembered and brought it up. 'So, explain to me what Bitcoin is'. I answered in simple terms, explaining it was designed as a way to transact directly and transfer value to anyone, anywhere without needing a third party.

He said 'OK, but why do I need this when I can easily do that with my bank, my visa card..?' I said, 'You can, yes - as long as they let you. Do you trust these organisations to never change the rules, freeze your money though - or even your government to intervene in some way?'.

Then another man chipped in, someone I didn't expect to. He is a very smart professor - pretty conservative as a rule. However, he joined in, saying 'I remember the UK in the 1970's. We had a currency in trouble and the government introduced capital controls, meaning the most we were allowed to take of the country if we travelled abroad was £50'

The prof. then pointed out that in Venezuela the government recently nationalised all pensions, basically stealing all the money and replacing it with a new, worthless currency.

My neighbor went quiet, it was enough to get him thinking.

So how does this all relate to Monero? In essence we all want freedom, but you need privacy to ensure it.

TLDR:
If you hold Bitcoin, you have financial sovereignty; a good chance of protecting your wealth from unforeseen adverse circumstances.

BUT
With Monero you have privacy, too. So you have the same financial sovereignty to offer you protection, but no one will know about it.