Oddbean

It sounds like you're not aware of what's currently possible with Monero: > I don't know how to spend [Monero] in my every day life (aka no merchants IRL accept it) It's true that few merchants accept Monero directly, but that's also true of Bitcoin. However, you can buy gift cards with Monero for most major retailers: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/wg3eiw/introducing_cake_pay_buy_gift_cards_instantly/ https://coincards.com/ And the Monerozon service allows you to buy anything on Amazon: https://monezon.com/ > [Monero is] terribly difficult to swap it for other coins Which exhanges have you tried to use? Cake wallet has a no-KYC exchange built-in for most major coins: https://cakewallet.com/ If you don't like the Cake wallet, try these: https://stealthex.io/ https://basicswapdex.com/ > [Monero is] terribly difficult to swap it for fiat (which I'm not interested in but still relevant) It's difficult to do in a non-KYC manner, it's true. But that's also true for Bitcoin as well. If you don't care about KYC, you can use Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ If you do care about KYC, you can use Haveno. Haveno is a no-KYC peer to peer client based on Bisq: https://haveno-reto.com/ Here's a tutorial for installing/using Haveno: https://blog.nihilism.network/servers/haveno-client-f2f/index.html The Monerica site has a bunch of other sites that accept Monero directly: https://monerica.com/ > As of now, it is not [liquid]...and it is as such since its inception. Monero has almost completely replaced Bitcoin on the darknet markets. Monero is now the most used crypto on ShopinBit (largest European site that accepts crypto): https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/comments/1e1b1r4/monero_crushes_bitcoin_on_shopinbit/ If you want to stay abreast of Monero developments, check out Monero.town: https://monero.town/ Is Monero as easy to use as Paypal or credit cards? No. Is Monero less expensive? It depends. Per spend, Monero transaction costs are typically a few cents. Monero transactions are also irreversible, which means merchants don't have to save as much to cover credit card charge-backs. However, the initial cost of acquisition can be high. Is Monero resistant to censorship, surveillance, inflation, and seizure? Yes. With Monero, you can make political donations without fear your bank account will be frozen: https://bitcoinist.com/canada-chokes-crypto-supply/. With Monero, you can travel with millions across borders without fear that you will be [arrested for violating capital controls: https://www.uschina.org/china%E2%80%99s-capital-controls-choke-cross-border-payments. IMO, those benefits are worth the costs of acquiring Monero. With Monero, your total wealth is private, and you're at less risk of thieves (whether in government or the private sector) beating you with a wrench until you give up your money: https://github.com/jlopp/physical-bitcoin-attacks/blob/master/README.md?ref=casa-blog.