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So what are the tradeoffs of Monero? Is it just small in market cap due to it coming out later? I thought you can't buy it on most exchanges? It's going to be hard for it to grow at any reasonable rate if hardly anyone can buy it. :(
Can it scale better than Bitcoin? If not, and everyone has to use Layer 2 tech on Monero then how is that any diff/better than using Layer 2 bitcoin (assuming privacy could be had in Layer 2, which it seems like it maybe can, though, I'm no pro).
Let's figure another scenario. Let's say Monero becomes the world reserve currency. No one can track anyone. Is that a good thing? Though maybe not possible and maybe it'll never happen, but I like the idea (and maybe it's only an idea) that bigger institutions (countries, banks, etc) have money that's traceable (bitcoin) but then normal citizens have some privacy (Layer 2). If countries and bankers use Monero is it a good thing that everything is hidden by default?
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Trade offs off the top of my head
  1. Not directly auditable circulating supply. Although in practice no one does this with Bitcoin, they just trust their node to audit (if they even run a node in the first place) like any Monero node runner. Monero uses complex cryptography and math to make sure there is no Monero that was created out of thing air (pedersen commitments). https://www.getmonero.org/resources/moneropedia/pedersen-commitment.html
  2. Limitless supply. No hard cap. Has a tail emission. Although inflation is less than gold, and a constant (not a percent of supply), so in terms of % it is always falling closer and closer to 0%. And the bad part of fiat is that supply issuance is centralized, unpredictable, and arbitrary - all the opposite of Monero mining
  3. You have to sync your wallet which can be annoying, but some wallets have background sync features. Or you can use a light wallet that connects to your own node that runs at home.
I don't think countries, institutions, banks will ever use Bitcoin like that. Maybe between themselves, but they won't allow their citizens the same privilege. Monero is not trying to be a reserve currency. It is just p2p digital cash.
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