Oddbean new post about login | logout I can't use cash to transact with anyone on the planet instantly and it has additional unique disadvantages over cryptocurrencies besides that. I don't think you would ever say everyone should be ok with the government monitoring everything you say and do 24/7, so it's ridiculous to claim people only need private transactions to "buy drugs online". It's a strawman of the actual issues brought by not having private transactions. And it's directly related to seperating the state from money.
It's a tradeoff of supply-audit-design that is essential. Privacy, while being one of the most important aspects of individual sovereignty, doesn't solve the problem of inflation debasement and centralized control of money issuance. As stated in the Monero page above, Bitcoin solves this by providing an immutable public ledger that is currently the most secure decentralized network. We have proposals that are pushed such as Bolt 12 that tackle the anonymity problem. It is not a a clearcut failure as monero folks push it to be while ignoring the other aspect of this.
Ok, understand the trade-off, but I think the importance of privacy is often downplayed by Bitcoiners. You said yourself privacy is one of the most important aspects of individual sovereignty. If you can be forced to comply because government can monitor and trace transactions for 95% of Bitcoin users they can apply any arbitrary law they want. They can simply increase taxes to offset your avodiance of inflation, or just confiscate it completely like they did to BTC Sessions friend after the trucker protests. Great, your money isn't debased, but now it's gone 🤷♂️ Btw I don't consider it a clearcut failure and look forward to privacy improvements on Bitcoin like BOLT 12 - although it looks like LN in general will still have it's own issues that Monero doesn't and vice versa. Trade-offs like you said.