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Cykros | 3 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Monero is more like stacks of non-sequential $100 bills. It's an awful store of value.  But it does provide privacy, which beats bank accounts, and can be transferred without physical travel, so there's some value add. All depends how much you're willing to pay for that in devaluation while using it. Given how much fiat gets wasted muling money around in the conventional financial space, this seems to suggest that monero is here to stay -- it just shouldn't be mistaken for a great savings vehicle.

Especially when the tools from Samourai Wallet (and the now forked Ashigaru Wallet) do a lot to close the gap using bitcoin-native methods.
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SaberhagenTheNameless | 3 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Samourai no longer has Whirlpool, it was shutdown, so the privacy offered is considerably less than what it once was. 

And even then it's privacy wasn't cheap, fast, or as robust as Monero offers. It also required you to run your own Dojo which most users simply aren't going to do.
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hh | 3 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 You can easily coinjoin BTC with Wasabi nowadays. You pick your own coordinator, they don't run one for obvious reasons. Works flawlessly.
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SaberhagenTheNameless | 3 days ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 I thought it was cool what Kruw did to help decentralize the servers, but there are still a few disadvantages vs Monero

Largest inputs in a round have less privacy
Non-uniform amounts (more vulnerable to amount analysis)
Smaller anonymity set especially for recievers
Liquidity isn't shared between different coordinators
Still more expensive in tx fees
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Cykros | 10 hours ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 What about stonewall 1 and 2, ricochet, and stowaway? Did they go the way whirlpool did?

Haven't had a chance to do the research on the back end -- didn't realize any of this was centralized enough to be shut downable.
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SaberhagenTheNameless | 4 hours ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Stonewalls and Stowaways are still possible I think. 
Not sure what was so special about Ricochet, but it's down too - it just moved your coins a few addresses before sending to an exchange which anyone can do themselves.

Sad part is they were in the process of decentralizing coordinators for Whirlpool and implementing Monero atomic swaps. Suspicious timing for the feds to show up for sure.