Monero is scarcer than Bitcoin right now so I don't know if you want to go down that route...
How do you verify your bitcoin? Do you manually count every UTXO in existence? Or do you merely run a node exactly like Monero and just like to be an audit larp?
One thing running a node won't tell you that you might be able to discern on bitcoin is how much of the currency is locked up in lost wallets. On bitcoin you can just watch those wallets for activity, but in monero any lost currency still counts as part of our total supply since the lost addresses can't be identified by their lack of activity.
Being able to watch a wallet sounds more of a bug than feature to me.
My point was, in practice, everyone is relying on a node to do that work. They are not verifying it for themselves. They have no clue how much bitcoin is out there for certain.
Regardless, there is no definitive way to prove what bitcoin is lost. You can never be sure sure if an address truly lost their keys or are just hodling. Something like 80% of bitcoin is illiquid. Even Satoshi's unmoved bitcoin could suddenly start moving. We don't know for certain what bitcoin is truly lost.
Yeah I agree I was just saying this is about the only difference as far as the ability to audit supply. You are right there is no way to know if a wallet is lost or held in diamond hands.
