Investing in Monero - Do You Have Any Ethical Issues?
I would like to talk today about this cryptocurrency has caused a lot of movement in the market in the recent weeks..
This post is not about the coin itself though - I am far from being experienced in this area. And I have a rule for myself not to discuss stuff where I don't have enough knowledge.
For the technical review check out this great post that explains in details how it works. Or talk to the guys in @satoshifund, they seem to know everything :)
I want to bring up a different topic - Ethics.
Monero has shown a tremendous growth this month.
We have discussed in my family about investing in it earlier and it was one of the rare occasions where we didn't reach a common ground.
And the reason is that I didn't feel comfortable in investing in the currency because of is its primary market. It's well known that the currency is used primarily in the dark net and serves the need of drug dealers for increased privacy compared to Bitcoin.
It spiked to as much as $10 on Sunday after AlphaBay, one of the most popular sites for buying drugs like liquid LSD and hybrid cannabis, said last week it will begin accepting the currency on Sept. 1. The total value of all Monero in circulation pushed past $100 million on Monday, up from about $25 million at the end of last month, according to coincap.io. /Bloomberg.com/
My open question to you is simple - are you comfortable with that?
Are you ok knowing that your investments stimulate the turnovers of a drug market?
I am not here to judge, and that's why my post is in form of the question. I really would like to see how other investors deal with those kind of controversial issues.
Of course, we can argue that Bitcoin initially served the very same market and only in the recent couple of years grew up to serve larger business needs.
And finally, fiat money is also used in criminal spheres and issued by corrupt governments, so we cannot escape supporting them in some way.
With Monero I see a difference though, and it's the intended use - the currency has been created mainly to serve this market, which has been confirmed by many sources.
So I didn't feel OK investing in this asset. I am not sure I am right here (especially with its growth of 1700% :-) - so I want to hear other points of view!
I hardly have any money to invest anyway,but I would not invest in monero for ethical reasons,like you described. And it´s very true that similar ethical issues applies to fiat money. One might argue that it´s better to stay out of the fiat monetary system all together. Unfortunately it´s not clear to me if cryptocurrencies can really do that much to prevent the financing of corruption,crime and oppression.
But smart contracts, by themselves or combined with cryptocurrencies certainly are good tools to prevent corruption and crime,by tracking the origin of products, (tackling problems like blood diamonds) or demanding transparency for certain financial institutions,making them accountable to the public and to law enforcement.
That's the point - blockchain has enormous potential to serve the world to be more transparent and safe, but so far the technology finds its best application in very gray areas.. Probably because this is what human nature is. Though I clearly see the trend of spreading the technology to the business world, like the smart contracts that you've mentioned. The question is what will prevail
Drug markets are nothing compared to pharmacy markets. Not even by a fraction, do they have morals? Anyway I am not going to vote for monero, or against it. But the drug markets in general, they only deal what the pharmacy corps are leaving out of their agenda. Short of speak they allow this market to exist...
Monero is just a coin how the users will use it though that has nothing to do with the coin and is all about the owners.
TL;DR a coin is just a coin. the root of evil is on the beholder. everything beyond that just propaganda. Morals has nothing to do with economics and that is common logic. Profit is not about morality just numbers going up and down. The day traders will never care what they are supporting or not. There is no profit for morals to be made of. Sad but that is the way our world is working.
I agree with you.. And we cannot change the world with our personal choices, that's true. But it's also about how you feel yourself after a certain decision, not necessarily how this decision affects the whole structure.
And there are ways to achieve profit without trading off the morals, not all businesses are as dirty as drug and pharma. But I totally agree about the latter one - I know people from this industry and the stories that they tell are pretty scary
I suppose people use Dollars, Euros, Pounds, etc to buy drugs already. Not my place to judge what people do with any crypto after they get it.
I know, that's one of the reasons why it's not so straightforward... But it seems like this particular tool is built specifically for this market
I am not sure. Though I agree, that monero has grown significantly.
we try to live in a democratic world, but my personal state - we shouldn't help with building up dark infrastructure, or maybe we even should restrict it.
Maybe we should - this is more of a theoretical discussion. And what happens when it comes to your personal choice? Will YOU invest in this kind of asset?
Yes, I will. Sorry.
:))
Well I was thinking on that and probably I wouldn't invest in it.
This is a welcome discussion point. Interesting to see I'm not the only one that is thinking about this. Buy and hold for the upcoming 2 to 5 years and the market will find it's way. We do need to look better at the insights of every coin. What team is behind it, is there any management. How strong is the product, is there any product at all? Do you know this interesting site? https://www.coincheckup.com Every single coin can be analysed here based on: the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model and much more. Check: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Monero#analysis For a complete Monero Investment and research analysis.