Bitcoin = Monero in your mind. They aren’t the same, not even close.

LOL. I understand they are very different entities.

| Bitcoin | Monero | |

|

| | Proof of work | Proof of work | | Uses a blockchain ledger | Uses a blockchain ledger | | Extremely volatile exchange rate | Extremely volatile exchange rate | | Unregulated | Unregulated | | Price easily manipulated by wealthy investors | Price easily manipulated by wealthy investors | | "HODL" - unrealistic expectation that the endgame is general use as currency | "HODL" - unrealistic expectation that the endgame is general use as currency | | Heavily driven by FOMO | Heavily driven by FOMO | | Uses obscene amount of energy per coin | Aspires to use an obscene amount of energy per coin to prevent another 51% attack | | Ledger has become so large it is unwieldy to store and transfer | Ledger 200+ GiB, constantly expanding | | Represents an ecological catastrope | A currently smaller part of the ecological catastrope | | Most popular currency used to facilitate human trafficking | Has features that should make it more attractive for use in human trafficking | | Difficult and annoying to use | Even more difficult and annoying to use | | Available on most cryptocurrency exchanges | Available on fewer exchanges | | Claimed by early proponents that transactions were 'anonymous' but now frequently the subject of blockchain analysis | Proponents claim transactions to be anonymous | | Pre-mining began January 2009 | Pre-mining began April 2014 | | Advocates behave like people in an MLM cult | Advocates behave like people in an MLM cult | | Represents the vain hope to individually escape catastrophe while the world burns by using theoretically clever but practically unworkable technological solutions that create further social problems, while the real, difficult though not intractable social problems of government abuse, economic instability, and authoritarianism continue to increase because resources for real social solutions are starved of resources | Represents the vain hope to individually escape catastrophe while the world burns by using theoretically clever but practically unworkable technological solutions that create further social problems, while the real, difficult though not intractable social problems of government abuse, economic instability, and authoritarianism continue to increase because resources for real social solutions are starved of resources | | $116,760 / coin | $270 / coin | | 20M coins | 18.5M coins | | Logo is a circle with the letter "B" | Logo is a circle with the letter "M" |

One of the hilarious details I discovered while researching this is that according to the US Government Accountability Office report "Use of Online Marketplaces and Virtual Currencies in Drug and Human Trafficking" in 2022,

Representatives of two analytics firms and one exchange also noted that illicit actors use privacy coins less frequently, as they are more difficult to obtain and are supported by fewer exchanges compared to Bitcoin, making it difficult to convert funds to government-issued currency.

So whatever benefits Monero claims to have in protecting the privacy of illicit activities, the people who could face real time in jail don't consider the benefits worth how extremely annoying it is to use.