Monero isn’t about making an investment, it’s about spending it in real world. As long as you only use monero for a fraction of what you spend overall, I wouldn’t worry too much about price fluctuations.
That site was recommended to me before, but I couldn’t find someone who sole low amounts of XMR ($30 or less) and that I could pay in cash. The easiest way for me was to ask someone I know IRL to buy it for me.
I hear you. I’ve really been interested in cryptocurrencies as an investment. Only as a means to an end. But I did not expect my money to devalue so fast with having spent it yet. Part of me also feels that as long as products and services are priced in FIAT, cryptocurrencies can only be a means to an end.
This is where I feel stable coins are a great way to become independent from centralized finance if only more merchants accepted them.
Crypto volatility is a thing and bitcoin is no better than monero in that regard.
There are stablecoins but they’re not private and swapping is not practical and expensive.
As for now I don’t see a real practical alternative to cash in terms of ownership and privacy but then online transactions are not possible.
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What are stable coins? I’ve heard that term being used before.
I’ve also heard the argument of using cryptocurrencies not just for financial privacy, but to protect yourself against the government or banks that could freeze your account unethically.
I’ve heard the story of the Afghan refugees to Germany, I think, who were able to leave with all of their savings because they were in a USB in a cryptocurrency.
That’s all fine and dandy. But say your bank accounts were frozen, and you have $50 0000 in cryptocurrency for a rainy day. It’s hard to convert large amounts in FIAT cash if, say, you want to pay 3 months of rent for a place. Also, if you live in a country where cryptocurrencies are not widely accepted not just for digital goods, but physical ones, it’s going to be tricky.
I recently found out about Cake Pay from Cake Wallet, which is a service that allows you to buy gift cards from all over the world completely anonymously. The US is obviously the country with the most gift cards for all kinds of things: clothing stores, restaurants, movies, pet store, shoe store, etc…If you look at gift cards for other countries, there isn’t as much variety. So you are still very much dependent on what you country has to offer.
Let’s not forget cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile, which is why I wrote this post in the first place.
I could be wrong, but I suspect that that stores and people who accept Monero and other cryptocurrencies as payments must convert to FIAT within days if not others, other wise they lose so much money.
A simple search for this will yield a better answer than what I can provide - I’d recommend reading a few pages/websites to learn about them.
Yes, this is true. No government sanctions can affect any country or merchant using crypto.
There are always ways to do it. But like you said, only hard - not impossible.
Actually, it has more to do with what the merchants and brands in these country can offer than the country itself. It’s more company dependent than country dependent as it is gift cards that should be available in those countries to buy, not necessarily crypto.
Most crypto is. But popular crypto like BTC are stable enough for everyday use. Albeit, you never can tell with any certainty onviously, hence stable coins as a better crypto alternative for everyday use.
All stable coins can be frozen and will have the same problems as the traditional banking systems in that regard.
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Apparently I was misinformed with this detail. Thanks for clarifying.