Hello everyone! Happy Crypto Run-Up!

I want to make a brief case for why I think Monero (XMR) is a very solid coin to own for financial independence as well as potential profitability.

Here's the ticker for Monero, provided by CoinGecko (please do not use CMC)

I've maintained a long-term portfolio of cryptos since 2017 and it's never had more than 4 coins in it. I've found this to be a way to mitigate total loss risk that comes with altcoins, but still maintain a high Return On Investment (ROI) while also having financial freedom by being the custodian of my own money. My coins currently include:

• Bitcoin BTC (40%)
  • Equivalent to digital gold, federally approved to be used as investment and used as money, as stable as crypto gets
• Ether ETH (30%)
  • A major issue being exposed lately is centralized tech companies (Software, security, social media) have far too much control in the zeitgeist and in direction of the internet. Ethereum provides a decentralized platform for companies to easily get turn-key smart contracts and save billions on legal fees.
• Binance Coin BNB (15%)
  • The king of international exchanges. CZ has become far less "decentralize the world, provide financial freedom," and far more "Centralizing is actually nice, especially when needing to pass regulations." Part of my crypto portfolio is me knowing the "money," is mine. BTC will never be reclaimed or deleted from my wallet via a decision from an authority, same goes for ETH. As Binance becomes more centralized, I lessen my % of investment in it. It is undoubtedly the smoothest, UI/UX superior, and wide-spanning exchange around and I use it myself. That alone is reason to hold, as you do not have to worry (too much) about Binance closing up shop and running away with profits. 
• Monero XMR (15%)

The main factor that made me believe in Bitcoin long term was that your money was actually your money. It coincided with me learning about fractional reserves, using my money in my accounts to gamble on stocks and mortgages to the point if there was a run on the banks, they literally wouldn't have 10% of what's required. I am not a billionaire who would actually struggle to get cashed out, but it was the principle of "my money," being gambled with and not truly being there. You want to offer 1% return while leverage trading 10x with my account? Fuck. That.

Now Bitcoin comes into the more public eye, and despite the community at times wanting to reverse transactions and governmental pressures to do so, no transactions have been reversed. While there is a very high level of personal responsibility in maintaining your own funds, you actually maintain your own funds. I was not looking at it as an investment, but as money I'd be guaranteed to use and not have gambled with or seized arbitrarily. The principles of self-ownership and decentralization (all the way down to open source codes, no secrets) were almost intoxicating. 

My principles have remained the same, and that is why Monero is replacing LTC as my 4th coin to accumulate. 

GUI

The importance of an easy to use General User Interface is paramount. The Litecoin client was used by my friends who were casually into crypto just due to ease of use and stability. Monero has had a nice GUI since 2019 and the last two updates have provided increased daemon stability on my mining computers. Using Monero and being your own local node is as easy as installing any other program and confirming the exception to run it when your AV pops up.

Ease Of Use

While not as straightforward to fully understand as public and private key, the getmonero.org website does a good of explaining how to use Monero as a personal wallet and how to set it up to receive payments as a merchant. There are many mobile wallets for Monero now too which makes it easier to spend Monero on a personal wallet rather than relying upon exchanges as many do. Sending it and receiving it are still roughly as easy as getting public addresses.

Mining

Monero is a good crypto to mine as a minor-small size miner. They intentionally switch up the algorithms to prevent ASICs and dedicated devices from dominating the mining pool. It may not be profitable to mine it on your personal computer, but it is easy to set up compared to other cryptos like bitcoin. People do mine Monero profitably, but I enjoy how easy it is to set up older computers to mine and basically "set and forget," without having to do major registry editing. I personally used XMrig and use hashvault for the pool and monitoring. 

Privacy and Freedom

There is no coin more private than Monero. There is no coin continually working at maintaining privacy and economy to ensure a sustainable dependable privacy coin. You do not have to wonder if you washed thoroughly if you do not enjoy being monitored by governmental agencies on public blockchains. You do not have to wonder if you're being monitored by nefarious actors. You are free to receive and spend money as you please. Can't put  a price on freedom.

In Summary:

I have my long-term savings in large cap cryptos with principles I believe in. Monero now embodies the financial freedom and commitment to maintenance and improvement required to remain relevant in the rapidly changing crypto world. While it has a lower ROI compared to my other investments, I fundamentally support Monero and am certain when it comes time to need to spend or convert my Monero, it will in fact be there.