Charles Hoskinson "Monero, should have been the real Bitcoin"

▲ Monero (XMR), Bitcoin (BTC)/AI generated image

Charles Hoskinson reignited the privacy debate in the cryptocurrency industry by stating that Monero (XMR) is "what Bitcoin (BTC) should have been." The core of the discussion is not about price or short-term market trends, but rather a technical and philosophical debate surrounding privacy and the cypherpunk ethos that cryptocurrencies were originally intended to uphold.

According to Bitcoinist on May 14 (local time), Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano (ADA), said in an interview with David Gokhstein that Monero is a privacy-centric cryptocurrency that Bitcoin could have become if it had utilized more powerful cryptographic tools. He presented Monero not as a fringe privacy coin, but as one of the technological and ideological benchmarks of the cryptocurrency industry.

Hoskinson mentioned Monero's ASIC-resistant puzzle, full-chain membership proof, and view key handling methods, saying "there's a lot to like." He praised Monero for its pioneering role in ring signatures and large-scale privacy implementation. While Bitcoin grew into a transparent payment ledger, Monero is a project that places fundamental privacy at the center of its network identity.

He believes that implementing privacy on a large scale is much more difficult than operating a transparent payment system. Monero's contribution lies not in a single specific feature, but in a series of design choices aimed at maintaining a usable network while prioritizing privacy. Hoskinson emphasized that the Monero community has improved usability without compromising the cypherpunk ethos.

However, Hoskinson pointed out that there is a tension between the technical rigor of privacy systems and accessibility for general users. Strong privacy guarantees often stem from cryptographer-centric threat models, making it difficult for ordinary users to easily understand and use the product. He believes that the key challenge for privacy-centric projects is to enhance usability without weakening their original principles.

Hoskinson stated that the cryptocurrency ecosystem absolutely needs a strong privacy camp like Monero. He argued that not all projects need to solve the same problems or make the same trade-offs, and that different roles exist in various areas such as scalability, smart contracts, payments, identity, and privacy. He emphasized that Monero should remain an important pillar in the privacy sector, and its role should never be underestimated.

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