This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/monero by /u/Vespco on 2024-05-16 01:33:59+00:00.

In the very likely scenario that monero is outlawed, as I am sure it is on some places (esp. For goods and services), I think we should explore a mechanism to allow monero users to find one another and still use it as currency in a fashion that doesn't out themselves as Monero users.

I have talked about this before, and it's not the best, but I think is worth bringing up again, hopefully someone smarter than me can improve it:

there should be a messaging protocol that makes usernames or accounts based on the same exact address format as Monero addresses. Perhaps the private key of the messaging app is based on the private or public view key of your monero wallet.

This way you can signal to people: yes, I accept monero, more than likely, but have plausible deniability that you actually do accept monero.

The Jesus Fish, Ichthys, was used to signal to other Christians at a time when they were persecuted, that they were in good company.

"It has been claimed that Christians used it to recognize churches and other believers during a time when they faced persecution in the Roman Empire"

I can see where an online shop might have something like this:

Contact us on Ichthys: (XMR address) A buyer could then contact them: how much for this item plus shipping? Seller: "$100" (Buyer sends XMR to address) Buyer: oh, ok thank you. Can't afford that right now but I had one previously, I was wondering if I could get a free replacement? (Seller checks payment on blockchain and sees $100 was sent) Seller: in that case I am happy to send a free replacement.

(Ideally messaging app would be encrypted, but still as a seller/buyer act in such a way that the other could be an agent/Honeypot etc)

Admittedly it's kind of stupid, but the core concept makes sense to me: the one thing that reveals you are a monero user, or cryptocurrency user, is to send or display a monero address.

If we create other apps that also use monero addresses, then it's not strictly true. Maybe you only use the messaging app.

This arguably improves privacy of monero users outside of the protocol.

Would love others to put thoughts to this. Perhaps a scheme could be devised that looks entirely different than a monero address but a buyer could derive the XMR address from it that the seller has the private spend key to. That way it doesn't even seem monero-y