How viable is crypto as a private medium exchange in the modern world?

I see the value of using cryptocurrencies as a form of digital cash (from both a personal privacy point of view and a broader political/economic point of view) but am also put off by a) all the scamming and speculation and moreover b) the friction and privacy tradeoffs involved in getting any of it.

One of the obvious problems is that not many sellers accept it as payment. I can accept that. But AFAICT, in order to pay those that do, I must either do the legwork of conducting a peer-to-peer exchange of fiat currency for crypto (PITA) or use an exchange, which will have records of my personal identity. I’m aware that I could launder exchange-bought crypto to obfuscate my ownership of it but that is also a PITA. I suppose I could also mine coins but that has the most friction of all options and is a poor use of electricity production in my view.

Is there a solution that I’m not aware of, where I can buy (or indeed sell) crypto easily and privately?

  • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    6 hours ago

    I thought kraken stopped selling Monero last year, but even with a stablecoin it’s still KYC.

    reto is good to have but with that you can only buy in large quantities.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
      1·
      6 hours ago

      There just aren’t many small peer-to-peer traders yet, but that will occur over time, and Kraken in the EU did have to stop selling Monero, but at least Kraken in the United States still does, although as I said I don’t expect that to last long. Don’t get me wrong, there are some small peer-to-peer traders on reto. Just not many.

      • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        1 hour ago

        but at least Kraken in the United States still does,

        oh, forgot that it’s a regional thing

        There just aren’t many small peer-to-peer traders yet, but that will occur over time

        hopefully, but I was thinking earlier about it and with how the security deposit system works, it may be more risky to do it in small quantities (but then, the monero buyer doesn’t get the monero until they paid, so I’m not sure what I was thinking about). and of course, I imagine that in smaller quantities it would have a higher pricing too

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
          1·
          1 hour ago

          Yep, with the security deposit system, the Monero buyer does not get the Monero until they have paid. And the security deposits mean people are less likely to try to run away from a trade and not pay. Zero deposit offers do exist, but the seller is the only ones who can create those. And so they can choose to not do those if they wish.

          Getting a smaller quantity or using a higher risk payment method does generally mean a higher premium.