Yeah, because someone's random ruggable mint (or my own exploitable always-on mint) is totally the same thing.

another very serious Bitcoin person recommending solutions that compromise fundamental principles

Idiot is the one that recommends a non self sovereign solution over the best Digital money 👀

Great! It's all about choices, and not everyone has the same needs.

I've hodled AND spent for longer than Biden's favorite age, and it became very apparent since the beginning that managing onchain bitcoin privacy is extremely error-prone, and I'm a very technical guy.

When Monero came along it was missing essential features (amounts were not hidden yet, and ring signatures were comically small), but that is now in the distant past, and with FCMP coming soon™ it will only get better.

So while my BTC bags gather dust yet get heavier and heavier, it is my XMR stash that is actually *used*.

To be fair I keep a small bag of BTC available on lightning for certain transactions, it has good enough privacy/anonymity, albeit with more tradeoffs and more gotchas than Monero to be honest. But it's a decent option too.

I prioritize privacy and anonymity, as without that you're just a controlled slave, constantly watched, constantly monitored, everything you do added to your eternal dossier / permanent record.

As far as I am concerned, that is no way to live. So I do whatever I can to avoid it, and when it comes to my personal finance, #monero plays a huge role in that 💪.