Liquid has strong privacy that is based on CT and though not as strong as Monero it is much better than Bitcoin, and many argue LBTC *is* Bitcoin just as lightning is. Now there are tradeoffs and risks, as there are with everything. But it a very clever platform and works quite well.
Discussion
But why settle for inferior privacy with a microscopic anon set on a permissioned network?
Just swap some Bitcoin to Monero and use it. You aren't "hodling" Monero anyway if you are spending it even if you have SoV issues with Monero. Short term price volatility will be similar for both Bitcoin and Monero.
If what you want is privacy at all costs then nothing even comes close to Monero.
And I've been I Monero user since 2014.
But there are many reasons to use liquid.
Also I think calling liquid a "permissioned network" is very black and white. It's federated. Every design choice has tradeoffs. Moneros privacy makes it harder to verify. Liquids federation increases centralization. But Monero has best in class privacy, and liquid has a lot of advantage because of the model.
Ok, but if the goal is permissionless money, the partiular sacrifices liquid makes don't make sense imo. Especially for the meager privacy you get.
Open to seeing an advantage, but I still don't really see much for using liquid unless you are just worried about slippage/volatility. And in the short term is very minor, virtually non existent, or even a slight profit in your favor half the time so it evens out.
To each their own I guess. Maybe youll find this of interest: https://twitter.com/Truthcoin/status/1689337656319016960
The first open source thing is no longer true as of last month i believe*** (took them long enough 😅)
Ignore the drivechain stuff
Sztorc wow BIP300. And in it he makes the argument that without it people will use (other coins like) Monero in the actual BIP.
"Today, coins such as Namecoin, Monero, ZCash, and Sia, offer features that Bitcoiners cannot access -- not without selling their BTC to invest in a rival monetary unit. "
I see his arguments against liquid as a bit biased. And in the end, yes, liquid introduced trust. Trust in blockstream, the federation and that code. Also elements is open source and so is the liquid node s/w.
I am not here to say that liquid is better than Monero for privacy. Not even close. And it could only get good enough at privacy to be usable if a lot more people used it. And I'm not thinking that liquid should be thought of as a pure extension to bitcoin. But like lightning uses Bitcoin as the final settlement layer for what it does. I think it's possible that the trade-offs in liquid could end up being very valuable for people who choose to use that side chain.
I only hold a lot of two crypto assets. Bitcoin and Monero. I hold a trivial amount of liquid. As well as a small amount of lightning BTC which is also attacked as being "not really Bitcoin" frequently.