Genuine question: Where can you freely spend #monero today? Bitcoin can at least be spent as sats/zaps/wrapped/native Bitcoin in some places. Does Monero have use cases in any countries?

XmrBazaar (beta) - Monero Marketplace

Buy and sell products and services for Monero

and ofcourse all darknet markets. Also lots of companies accept Monero.

Thanks for sharing. So interesting that we haven't seen these marketplaces. I remember a few folks shilling Monero back in 2017, but then the hype died down and we forgot about it (also those were the days of shitcoins constantly flooding the market). We've exited literally everything except Bitcoin and some gas-level ETH + stables needed to enter/exit BTC positions. With the sheer amount of govt involvement in Bitcoin, been looking for an alternative to park 🪙. Gotta look at Monero a bit more closely 👀

Besides the two other comments. As I am aware it should be pretty widely accepted in Alaska and maybe in some places in South and Latin America. Monero also struggles with adoption to the general public as all crypto's do. BUT, the minute any government attempts to remove cash from the market. You will see fast adoption and a demand that you pay in Monero at your local pusher, food truck, hairdresser, carpenter etc. Cash and CC is currently too convenient for the average Joe to run any risk in crypto. We are just waiting for their introduction of CBDC. You can also find a little over 1500 webshops here..

Cryptwerk

1600+ businesses and stores accepting XMR as a payment in 2024

Monero (XMR) accepted here. Pay with XMR. The directory of companies and stores that accept Monero as a Payment.

Thanks, this is helpful. So many markets to explore.. When you're fighting the system, you don't put all your 🥚🪙🥚 in 1 🧺 basket anyway, so we'll buy some regardless. #TheMoreYouKnow The only thing I'm not sure about, is for us to be able to push merchants towards accepting a particular crypto that isn't accepted/approved by their local govts or such. We can surely hope (and those who come from crypto and start their own businesses can accept various stables/crypto options) but I wonder if the clampdown on cash will yield faster adoption for anything other than Bitcoin until #Monero gets more mainstream? FWIW, 1 of our best devs on a crypto project in 2017 used to believe in it pretty strongly, so we haven't forgotten the token 💭

Agreed, I also have a holding in BTC and ETH. I tend to use XMR where possible. My main holding is shielded in XMR, due to all the benefits and safety of private and hidden capital. I consider my money as an issue between me and my local tax office, no one else. But, I'm not agnostic. So, if someone only accepts CC I just transfer some funds to a prepaid CC. If someone only accept BTC or NANO I have no issue in creating a temporary wallet behind Tor and do a swap and pay.

Sounds good. Which wallet, DEX/platforms, websites would you recommend to get started? We'll fish out the Monero white paper and give it a read too.

Cool!! Cake Wallet (mobile) is great, you can have multiple wallet incl. BTC, NANO, LTC. You can not on-ramp directly to monero, so you create ex. a NANO wallet and an XMR wallet in Cake Wallet. Go to your NANO wallet and hit "Buy", Cake will try to find the best price. When you receive you NANO you just hit "swap" and choose your XMR addr. (in the address book icon). Cake will again try to find the best swap price for you. That's it. So far, I am not relying directly on the DEX/CEX. As I don't do trading, I buy and hold. In the case of monero I also spend a considerable amount on anonymous servers, domains, stuff on XMRBazar etc. I guess you could probably slice the top of the cost by using Kraken or Bisq, but I can live with the additional 5% cost doing this directly from the wallet.

Gotcha, we'll bookmark this to go down the rabbit hole soon 🕳️🐇 thanks Cake reminds us of the days of Pancakeswap and trying to earn the $CAKE token 😅 Maaaan, I'm realizing how much money I've lost to shitcoins 🥲 Oh well, better late than never 🫠