Pretty big fan of Monero actually and I know the codebase inside out becsuse I've spent a LOT of time with it both before and after it forked from Saberhagen's scam. Community is good too.
BUT the Monero crowd harbours a lot of wishful thinking around it being more effective than bitcoin.
Totally disagree about tailings, cool idea but if fees don't rise enough for the security budget it's a dead end anyway.
In terms of use it has been more effective than Bitcoin. Look at payment stats for Nano-GPT, coincards, cake pay, and more. Despite Bitcoin's massively disproportionate market cap and stronger network effect it either barely beats or gets surpassed in usage by Monero.
DNM are either only Monero or a Bitcoin Monero hybrid with higher Monero usage. There's no stats for this since it's a darknet but you can easily surmise based on countless anecdotes on Dread.
Not to mention we have higher volume on Retoswap than even Bisq, which it's forked from just two years ago.
The only place you don't see Monero throwing punches with or TKOing Bitcoin is in the popular discourse for obvious reasons. Moneros culture is about usage, not speculation, so not much to talk about. Also, Monero's value is in discretion, which is directly opposed to announcing your interest in it.
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Swap Defi Onramp Swaps and Cards for Fiat Payments with No KYC or Minimal KYC, stands out in the crypto ecosystem by offering a self-custodial wallet integrated with prepaid Visa/Mastercard cards that allow you to spend crypto as fiat in the real world. The main focus on privacy is on non-reloadable virtual prepaid cards (single-load or single-use), which work like gift cards and require soft KYC or minimal KYC (usually just name, email, and date of birth, with no document uploads). There are no 100% no-KYC options for high-limit reloadable or physical cards (those require quick KYC with documents).Main Advantages of Non-Reloadable Prepaid Cards (Single-Load)These cards are ideal for hassle-free fiat payments:
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Swap Defi Onramp Swaps and Cards for Fiat Payments with No KYC or Minimal KYC, stands out in the crypto ecosystem by offering a self-custodial wallet integrated with prepaid Visa/Mastercard cards that allow you to spend crypto as fiat in the real world. The main focus on privacy is on non-reloadable virtual prepaid cards (single-load or single-use), which work like gift cards and require soft KYC or minimal KYC (usually just name, email, and date of birth, with no document uploads). There are no 100% no-KYC options for high-limit reloadable or physical cards (those require quick KYC with documents).Main Advantages of Non-Reloadable Prepaid Cards (Single-Load)These cards are ideal for hassle-free fiat payments:
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Global Acceptance: Accepted anywhere that takes Visa/Mastercard (150+ million merchants), including online, in-store, contactless via Apple Pay/Google Pay/Samsung Pay, Uber, pharmacies, and POS machines.
Crypto Loading: Supports 100+ cryptocurrencies (including stablecoins from various chains), with instant conversion to fiat (USD, EUR, GBP) upon loading.
No Monthly Fees: $0 monthly; low issuance fee (~$6) + variable off-ramp (0-3%).
Security and Control: Single-use prevents overdrafts; no ATM withdrawals (due to AML rules); spending controlled until the balance is zero.
Mobile Integration: Add to digital wallets for fast and secure payments (3D Secure for online).
Zypto's Exclusivities Compared to Competitors
Extreme Blockchain and Token Versatility: True multichain support for over 20 blockchains (including Bitcoin on-chain, Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Polygon, XRP Ledger, Avalanche, Tron, Algorand, Stellar, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Dash, Shibarium, Sui, Pi Network, and more), managing 24,000+ assets. Full native support for Bitcoin (BTC) on-chain transactions (send, receive, store, swap cross-chain), alongside thousands of tokens and stablecoins. Seamless cross-chain swaps without bridges or external tools, XAUT → 1 token = 1 troy ounce of gold,VNXAU → a token backed by physical gold (usually also 1 troy ounce, depending on the issuance).
All-in-One Self-Custodial Ecosystem: Non-custodial DeFi wallet (full key control) integrated with cross-chain swaps, bill payments (120+ countries), mobile top-ups (170+ countries), and access to thousands of brand gift cards (Amazon, Uber, etc.) – all in one app.
Unique Vault Key Card (VKC): NFC card-format hardware cold storage ($75-100), with split-key and 3FA (biometrics + device + card). Tap-to-sign for offline transaction approvals, supporting 24,000+ assets across all chains, including BTC on-chain. No other platform combines this with spending cards.
High Privacy Flexibility: Single-load with soft KYC offers a rare balance between anonymity and usability (decent limits, up to $10k in some models), without relying on banks or CEXs.
Rewards and Perks: ZYP points on spending/gift cards; lifetime referral program; concierge perks on premium cards (travel, purchase protection).
No Traditional Banks: Direct loading from any DeFi wallet or exchange; focus on decentralization and volatility protection (convert crypto to stable fiat on load).
Limitations for True No-KYC
Not 100% without any verification (minimal soft KYC required for compliance); high-limit/reloadable cards require full KYC.
Single-load: Non-reloadable (buy a new one after zeroing out); no ATM cashouts.
Variable limits (e.g., $2k-10k daily on privacy-focused virtual cards).
In summary, Zypto's single-load prepaid cards are one of the best options for everyday fiat payments with maximum privacy and minimal friction, especially when integrated with the self-custodial wallet's unmatched blockchain versatility (including full BTC on-chain support) and exclusive VKC. Download the app at zypto.com to try it (available globally). If you prioritize absolute zero KYC, alternatives like Bitsika or NoKYC.cards may be options, but with fewer DeFi features.
https://ref.zypto.com/kbBXhYOhDZb
https://store.blockstream.com/?code=KgD7dk4Ejmt6
Satellite Kits Go off-grid and stay connected to the Bitcoin network 24/7 without internet reliance using the Blockstream Satellite.
Jade is the Bitcoin-focused hardware wallet emphasizing transparency and isolation, compatible with apps like Blockstream Green for air-gapped transactions via QR codes, Trezor and Ledger have been hacked more than once.
Fully open-source code/hardware for community auditing, true air-gapped operation (no USB/Bluetooth for signing), and native Liquid network integration for sidechain assets like L-BTC/USDt.
Liquid is a federated Bitcoin sidechain second-layer solution designed for fast and private settlements, using confidential transactions to hide amounts and assets(However, the Blockstream Green Wallet has the option to route using Tor), and enabling the issuance of tokens. It is not focused on instant micropayments, rather on safer and more efficient movement of larger values.
Does not use JavaScript environments or NPM packages. Instead, it is built with Swift (iOS), Kotlin (Android), and C++ with QML (desktop/Qt), completely avoiding this vulnerability that affects packages with billions of downloads and that can swap crypto addresses to steal funds. This means that users' funds remain completely safe.
so youre criticism of tail emission is that it should be *higher? to incentivize miners? doesn't that depend on the purchasing power of the unit?
and isn't the whole point to avoid the necessity of relying exclusively on fees?
I'm just not clear what you mean.
tail emission is better than nothing but I don't feel certain it's going to be good enough.
I like the idea of burning fees and giving block producers only new coins
yeah I feel ya
it's obvious that something is needed, but whether it's "good enough" or not depends on specifics that we can't know.
therefore
Yeah it's a good idea. There's been some proposals for this but nothing too concrete. I like the ETH burn and mint system but dislike that the supply increase rate isn't fixed like Monero's. There's a middle ground here surely.
No what I mean is the fees alone need to be sufficient for the security budget. If tailings are required there's a much bigger problem.
High fees kill layer one medium of exchange. Even higher fees kill self custody in layer twos. Force closures become expensive thus raising the minimum channel balance for security. Opening channels are also more expensive thus raising the bar for self custody.
Tail emission is absolutely essential for proper layer one medium of exchange. It's a huge reason why Monero is so user friendly. Guaranteed cheap fees for perpetuity. Dynamic blocks are a big part of this too, both work in tandem to make the best layer one medium of exchange network we have today.
Utilization numbers respective of market cap being disproportionately represented by Monero proves the fruit of this combination.
keeping l1 transactable for ordinary people is just one aspect of tail emission.
The simple fact is that the security burden of the network has to be born by all users. NOT just those users that spend.
The results of pricing in a fixed supply of monetary units is obvious in Bitcoin culture.
nobody uses Manhattan real estate as a MOE.
