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The original was posted on /r/monero by /u/quantum_explorer08 on 2024-01-31 09:42:37.

I see a lot of people around this community take pride in Monero being ‘cash’ so a medium of exchange, and being ‘really used’ as so, as opposed to being held for ‘speculative purposes’ or as a ‘store of value’ like Bitcoin.

And don’t get me wrong, I agree and it is a great thing that we have a crypto like Monero that works well for anonymous exchange of value, and that is being widely used in the niches where anonymity is a plus.

However, I don’t understand why in order to be proud of Monero being used as cash, it seems like sometimes we undermine its other qualities.

First, the notion that the medium of exchange use is at odds with being a good store of value is due to our conception with fiat in modern times, because governments discovered they can tax people via inflation thus making fiat money a really bad store of value. But all throughout history, when gold was the main currency, people used it both as a medium of exchange and as a store of value.

Cash is also an anonymous method of payment, but the main problem with cash is if you have it in significant quantity it is difficult or dangerous to store it at home and also it depreciates very fast due to inflation.

So I think Monero, on top of being useful for anonymous exchange of value, has an immense potential for long-term anonymous store of value. Even with tail emission, the inflation policy of Monero is diminishing (same absolute figure for issuance vs. a larger base) and very moderate compared to central banks.

So I would encourage everyone in this community to promote Monero as well as a good store of value. I recently saw a newbie user ask about the long-term prospects of holding Monero and another guy telling him almost to ‘get out’ if he was thinking on holding Monero as a store of value and not use it. Why not? Moderate inflation policy, increased liquidity because it is also used for anonymous exchanges, and anonymity strengthens the qualities of non-confiscability one would want in a good store of value.

Therefore, stop telling people Monero is only meant to be a medium of exchange, do not buy this fiat notion that you have to choose between a good medium of exchange or a good store of value, and tell people Monero is a good investment and protection against inflation, and also protection against confiscation from bad actors or blacklisting. Therefore it is THE BEST store of value there is, say it proudly.