This thread is only for comments discussing the uncertainties, shortcomings, and concerns some may have about Monero.
NOT the positive aspects of it.
Discussion can relate to the technology itself or its economics.
Talk about community and price is not wanted, but some discussion about it maybe allowed if it relates well.
Be as respectful and nice as possible. This discussion has potential to be more emotionally charged as it may bring up issues that are extremely upsetting: many people are not only financially but emotionally invested in the ideas and tools around Monero.

How it works:

Post your concerns about Monero in reply to this thread.
If you can address these concerns, or add further details to them -- reply to that comment. This will make it easily sort-able.
Upvote the comments that are the most valid criticisms of it that have few or no real honest solutions/answers to them.
The comment that mentions the biggest problems of Monero should have the most karma.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard Feynman

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Thanks for making this thread. I don't have any real criticism, just hoping for FCMPs and Serai to work out smoothly. Both of them are absolutely vital for Moneros future.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Despite how bullish i am for monero in general, i have a major concern. Picture the following:

The monero community starts to move heavily into adoption (see what xmrbazaar.com is trying to achieve) and it starts to become widespread, BUT it's still not officially allowed by governments. In fact, imagine that governments start to realize how bad monero is for their own economics and centralized control, and they start to explicitely ban it and enforce penalties for just using it (like any controlled substance). what about then ?

What about that one random farmer (small business, selling products attending to people's basic needs to survive), who wants to accept monero to sell his vegetables, he's going to get bothered by authorities for publicly accepting monero, after getting enough fines, i'm sure he'd actually give up trying to use monero officially.

Going even further down that road, as this would be an attack on the currency itself, what about that one fed guy buying monero (wherever, right, haveno, or whatever CEX) just to find out who's selling monero, to literally prosecute them for just having monero?

Would Monero always remain a way to transact secretely ? rather than existing it as a way to transact publicly ?

This technology is not even meant to conform to any law, nor any governmental concern to assert their control over the populations, in fact, it is a direct threat to their existing control.

Now for me, Monero adoption must be a Bottom-UP process you go from individuals, to small businesses (farmers, bakeries, etc) and try to make monero getting adopted further up into bigger and bigger companies, which is (currently at least) increasingly less likely to get adopted due to financial regulations the higher up you go. Picture the day when those same financial regulations trinkle down all the way to the bottom of the pyramid onto small businesses and individuals, this'll be a very tedious environment just to transact monero

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

BTW, are you the nihilist? The one with the guides we see around those parts?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

yup its me :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If the farmer accepts XMR over the darknet (I'm really hoping that XMR adoption will lead to widespread use of I2P over TOR), the government is going to have a fairly hard time of it without active 0-days.

He needs to use the darknet and keep his mouth shut, and things will fine unless he's a kingpin of sorts

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

yea tor and monero go hand in hand, but even over tor. take mr fed going to that farmer store over tor paying in monero, at some point he has to get his vegetables physically, where he can identify who the farmer is (cant just send food by mail i guess ?)

if the farmer has to retain his anonymity, he needs a way to send his vegetables anonymously to the buyer

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Farmers market on the weekend lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

There are plenty of tradesmen working on weekends without reporting it to tax authorities. Common in cities, practically the norm in rural areas. Time spend working doesn't leave a paper trail and whoever hired them can buy all the materials for "personal use". Farmers do need to buy supplies, but unless they have John Deer equipment, the harvest amount will not be automatically counted, and it's trivial to sell some part of it on non-official markets.

I think it all hinges on how fast people get used to using monero "for real" and not only to buy some merch or for other meme purposes. When regulations come down, the people who will be hit the hardest are those bridging between fiat and xmr, because their banking activity can be moderately easy controlled.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My only concerns are Monero devs, what measures are devs taking to avoid something like the highjacking of Bitcoin?.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

@gunnm @k4r4b3y its Jon of the comunity to keep the devs in check.... that being said I think it's much harder to hijack monero.... monero has a clear goal, an unstopable mean of exchange value in a private and fungible way, in bitcoin there is not an unique narrative and the narratives that it have have been changing over time