Financial privacy has practically vanished over the last 50 years. Most people are in denial about it, and still believe that their relationship with their bank or their credit union is confidential -...
In crypto all transfers require a cryptographic signature from a private key that doesn’t have to be shared. In credit cards, you literally give your private key to the merchant and trust them to take the right amount. The difference of these two security models is enormous.
Also, privacy coins are private. The blockchain isn’t a ledger that shows who spent what to who in privacy coins like Monero.
Besides the power which crypto helps with because it absorbs stranded power or gives a customer for steady income to a power company that can help build more infrastructure. What else is a problem with crypto?
For groceries and most regular purchases (including online stores), there is cash. But I do use Monero for a legit reason - paying for my VPS and domain.
If you pay for privacy oriented online services, mostly by providing a privacy respecting service, they often accept Monero.
Off the top of my had I know that Mullvad VPN and Standard Notes accept Monero, but if you look for it, there are probably more.
Other than that, PrivacyGuides recommends CoinCards as a gift card store that accept Monero payments. CC has gift cards for several popular online services. They are not yet available in Europe, but if you know that the service you want to sign up for does not enforce using the gift card in the appropriate region, you can buy it from a region that is already supported.
I use it to buy gift cards in India, currently the most populous country on the planet(for better or for worse), that adds up to… 35-45% of the world population; the figure does not even include the African and south American countries where there is a significant adoption of cryptocurrencies due to high inflation rates of the local currency.
How do you do that? Monero is one of few coins that interested me back in the day, so I am not a hater at all. But adoptation is very much lacking, and i I have no idea how you but groceries with xmr.
Coincards.com gets me an instacart giftcard. Instacart card gets me my local grocery chains, local grocery chain store gives me food. I eat food and am eating monero.
Monero doesnt have ASICS so is not nearly as energy intense. You mine on regular CPUs you can buy off the shelf in your local electronics store. My miner has been running for over a year and has never used a drop of water unless its upstream at the power company itself. My air conditioner uses about 5x more power and my heater uses 7x-15x more power. At least if i had more mining computers going id get enough heat to warm my room and the monero id get from it could subsidize my power bill. I could turn 1500 watts of power into 1500 watts of heat only or I could turn 1500 watts of power into 1500 watts of heat and some Monero.
Edit: Not to mention, I don’t have to pay workers to drive cars to a building that I had to pay workers to mine the minerals for out of the ground and ship thousands of miles.
Opt out, use Monero.
Not the greatest solution
Why?
Crypto is just as insecure as credit cards. The whole point of the blockchain is that everyone can see all transactions.
You’re talking about privacy, not security.
In crypto all transfers require a cryptographic signature from a private key that doesn’t have to be shared. In credit cards, you literally give your private key to the merchant and trust them to take the right amount. The difference of these two security models is enormous.
Also, privacy coins are private. The blockchain isn’t a ledger that shows who spent what to who in privacy coins like Monero.
Not Monero!
Crypto
You are dismissing an entire category with that one word. Are you sure you’re not throwing out any babies with that bathwater?
Crypto is problematic for many reasons.
Removed by mod
I’m smart enough to not “invest” in something that has no real world value and that isn’t protected under law.
Crypto tends to be pump and run and I don’t trust it worth a hoot
Removed by mod
Besides the power which crypto helps with because it absorbs stranded power or gives a customer for steady income to a power company that can help build more infrastructure. What else is a problem with crypto?
so I can buy illicit drugs, and…?
wake me up when I can use it to buy my fucking groceries.
For groceries and most regular purchases (including online stores), there is cash. But I do use Monero for a legit reason - paying for my VPS and domain.
If you pay for privacy oriented online services, mostly by providing a privacy respecting service, they often accept Monero.
Off the top of my had I know that Mullvad VPN and Standard Notes accept Monero, but if you look for it, there are probably more.
Other than that, PrivacyGuides recommends CoinCards as a gift card store that accept Monero payments. CC has gift cards for several popular online services. They are not yet available in Europe, but if you know that the service you want to sign up for does not enforce using the gift card in the appropriate region, you can buy it from a region that is already supported.
Thank you for sharing these resources!
the world doesnt consist of the us and europe. in fact those are like, 12% of the planets population combined?
I use it to buy gift cards in India, currently the most populous country on the planet(for better or for worse), that adds up to… 35-45% of the world population; the figure does not even include the African and south American countries where there is a significant adoption of cryptocurrencies due to high inflation rates of the local currency.
Did you read my comment? I mean, you know, to the end.
I buy groceries with monero every month since Jan 2023 to present
sure, if you are in the little restricted areas where this is possible
What do you mean by little restricted areas? Because I could do it anywhere in the United States. And that doesn’t seem like a little restricted area.
How do you do that? Monero is one of few coins that interested me back in the day, so I am not a hater at all. But adoptation is very much lacking, and i I have no idea how you but groceries with xmr.
Coincards.com gets me an instacart giftcard. Instacart card gets me my local grocery chains, local grocery chain store gives me food. I eat food and am eating monero.
Nice
Cool. Thx. No option for EU.
ShopInBit works in eu and takes monero
the united states is what, 5% of the world’s population?
the rest of the planet exists dude.
That’s true. It can also be done in Europe and Canada. So you at least have to combine those together. So you’re probably looking at maybe 10%.
Least eurocentric user.
I bought groceries with Monero for years. Just buy a gift card for your fav grocier.
Use Monero for what? Buying book in the morning having a blind eye on thousands of liters of water I just waste?
Monero doesnt have ASICS so is not nearly as energy intense. You mine on regular CPUs you can buy off the shelf in your local electronics store. My miner has been running for over a year and has never used a drop of water unless its upstream at the power company itself. My air conditioner uses about 5x more power and my heater uses 7x-15x more power. At least if i had more mining computers going id get enough heat to warm my room and the monero id get from it could subsidize my power bill. I could turn 1500 watts of power into 1500 watts of heat only or I could turn 1500 watts of power into 1500 watts of heat and some Monero.
Edit: Not to mention, I don’t have to pay workers to drive cars to a building that I had to pay workers to mine the minerals for out of the ground and ship thousands of miles.