"The switching cost from just using bitcoin to using Monero is going to be high"
For the average user sending small amounts of money, however, “My sense is that there is a larger anonymity set that you are a part of in Monero than within a bitcoin mixer,” Jonathan Levin, co-founder of bitcoin blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, wrote me in an email.
If Monero takes off on AlphaBay, it could create the critical mass needed to deliver on its own promises. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: widespread use on dark net markets might drive increased investment in and usage of Monero, thereby solving the privacy problem created by a relatively small pool of users. Indeed, AlphaBay’s Reddit post announcing its move to Monero stated: “We expect this to cause a spike in the price, so if you are an investor, now is the time to purchase Monero.
”This isn’t the first time a cryptocurrency promising better privacy than bitcoin has tried to break into the markets, making some users skeptical about the promise of Monero. Dash, a cryptocurrency that formerly went by the name Darkcoin, received substantial media attention when a few mid-sized markets implemented it in 2014. Two years later, Dash hasn’t been implemented on any online dark net markets worth noting.
“The switching cost from just using bitcoin to using Monero is going to be high, since not only is there a tech shift, a trust issue, there is also greater volatility,” Levin wrote. The $20 million overnight jump in Monero’s market cap, while potentially indicating increased usage and thus greater anonymity, also means that the currency’s value is highly volatile. If Monero takes off, it just might be the super-anonymous currency that the web’s secretive drug economy has been waiting for.
Interesting post. Good to see I'm not the only one that is thinking about this. I strongly advice people to only buy in to cryptos that have a solid background: A solid team, product, advisors, preferably VC investors, etc. Sell all cryptos that don't have this solid background. It's a waiste of money. Does anyone know about: https://www.coincheckup.com. Supposingly they researched every crypto coin in the scene based on: the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model. They even score the coins stengths. See: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Monero#analysis For a complete Monero Report.