Monero acts as a critical backstop for Bitcoin. Its strong default privacy forces governments and banks to think twice about over-regulating Bitcoin. They know that if they tighten the screws too much, capital and users can shift to Monero, which is far harder to track or shut down. The mere existence of that option keeps the pressure in check and allows Bitcoin to operate with greater freedom. If Monero were to fail, that safety valve would disappear. Regulators could move to whitelist Bitcoin addresses and force miners to censor or even reorganise blocks that contain blacklisted transactions. Over time, state-backed miners could start competing to rewrite each other’s chains. Instead of a neutral global ledger, Bitcoin could devolve into a battleground where powerful governments decide which transactions survive. Bitcoin’s unique strength is its neutrality and censorship resistance. Monero quietly helps preserve those qualities by making overreach too costly. Without Monero standing as a harder alternative, Bitcoin would be far more vulnerable to control and could lose the very independence that gives it value.