Be aware of the EABE pattern/attack which can leak information: https://monero.stackexchange.com/questions/12479/solutions-to-the-monero-eabe-attack . Avoid repeatedly sending exchange-received funds directly to a regular business without churning and changing your identity for the business

There are several cryptocurrencies which are regularly used for purchases. Just because BTC and meme-coins get the media coverage and speculation doesn’t stop others being used for transactions.

Hidden amongst all your bullshit (which Bobr has dissected) you do have a few reasonable points

barely handle the transaction throughput of Visa

Firstly that’s a non-sequitur, you don’t need Visa throughput to be a currency, but scalability is a genuine issue in the long term. That will need a 2nd layer technology, probably using sharding or other approach for more parallelism and throughput.

Monero is confusing for average people

Generally true. Any self-custody solution will be more complex than just trusting a bank service, but substantial UI improvements can be made and some trusted simple apps will develop.

Monero is centralized

There is currently a small group of developers and researchers, but they are distributed geographically and not connected except by their involvement in the project. All hosting and communication occurs on multiple platforms, including distributed ones like this one. It’s one of the most decentralized open-source projects around, certainly far better than BTC or ETH for example.

will not be allowed to be hard-forked

Bullshit, no-one can prevent hard-forks. Both source-forks and chain-forks can be created by anyone. That is a concern actually as bad actors can cause confusion.

community can’t decided unilaterally … technical stagnation

It will be the reverse. Unanimity or a centralized foundation would cause stagnation. Monero has had forks in the past, and it will have more in the future. That guarantees technical innovation. Customers will choose their preferred version. It’s a free market for currency innovation.

US hegemony is over. Get used to it.

In the UK as well. My bank is pushing the phone app, and making it difficult to use the website without a phone. I will probably change my banking provider soon.

How naive do people have to be to believe a political party when it reverses an agenda during an election campaign?

You should read about relatives trying to help victims of romance scams on reddit /r/scams. Generally its hard or impossible to convince some who is emotionally invested. I recommend you point out past BTC volatility and drops, and suggest he diversifies a bit if that’s all his savings. He could put some in gold, some in shares, leave some (maybe 50%) in BTC. He will still win big if it “goes to the moon”, and will have some protection from a crash. Often you need to make a mistake before you can learn this lesson. Eggs in baskets.

Durable tools of all types that you can use or sell are good value in an uncertain future. Useful skills and community are important as well. Lynette Zang talks about all this.

The first 3 letters are unique for the English seed words, so you just need to encode 25*3 = 75 letters.

I also think it is worth writing them down in a way that is not obviously a crypto address. You can place 75 letters in a 9x9 square (with maybe some extra dummy letters) that looks like a common word puzzle, eg sudoku or crossword, in a specific order, eg a spiral. You can custom print a template or copy one from eg https://puzzlestream.com/sudoku/blank-grid.php .

I currently use newpipe-sponsorblock on f-droid, which looks like a precursor/sibling/fork from tubular

The US dollar has lost about 98% of it’s value since 1971 yet people still use it in trade rather than gold or silver or a better fiat like Swiss Franc. Don’t underestimate the power of inertia. Just because USD has inflation problems doesn’t mean XMR is about to take off. It will take hyperinflation or a currency crisis and even then better-known cryptos like BTC or LTC will be the first choice for normies.

I’m curious how he passed on the seed words to you. Did he write it down, give you the password for a password manager, put the info in his Will, transfer to your wallet address, or give you a hardware wallet? Did he just trust you with access to his computer data before he died?

So I installed Gossip, created an identity but did not publish it, and added some relays and followed your public key. Now Settings says my “public key not set” while Account>Keys says “ready to sign events” and your follow says “relay list not found” and Inbox is empty. What else do I need to do?

If averages are published by a reputable website, shops can choose to use the average rather than “spot” price. In any case as XMR is more frequently exchanged for more stable goods or assets, the natural actions of buyers and seller will moderate fluctuations. However if you create a trading platform to trade averages vs spot prices that will tend to increase volatility, as short-term speculators benefit from volatility.

I already have done some rough work on the idea and have a bit of an idea what a good spec would look like.

Can you expand on that? Is the idea being actively discussed/developed anywhere?

There’s a problem with audio balance towards the end (left channel only at 3:40). It would be a longer video but you could go into more OpSec - cookies/browsers, 2FA and password managers

Lots of prepper channels on Telegram with pdfs, eg https://t.me/PrepperCollective

If you want to install & update a FOSS app that’s not on f-droid there’s also Obtanium https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/dev.imranr.obtainium

I think a video featuring Xerxes, Yasmin and Zachary would be fun.

At some level it’s the fear of backing the wrong horse. To feel safe you have to be a “maxi”, and to be a “maxi” you have to deny anything else can work. Bitcoin is the first crypto most people find, and the “everything else is a shitcoin” message creates a self-reinforcing cult atmosphere. The fact that mot altcoins soon fail reinforces that.

Almost all bitcoiners are there for “number go up” profit, so the price volatility also creates a lot of anxiety. The ones that stick with it become very committed HODLers. It’s a bit like an abusive relationship, the pain makes you commit more. Market psychology is fascinating, and is why emotional investors lose their money.