# Monero (XMR) 102 Hacker News commenters recommended Monero (XMR) and 41 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended as the cryptocurrency that is private and fungible by default, with low fees and a principled community; critics cite crime use, few merchants and no smart contracts. ## Why people recommend it - Private and untraceable by default (8 comments): "The world's highest ranking agencies and billion dollar companies like chanalysis cannot break it, which means it actually works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46393181)) "monero has been exactly that and much more for more than a decade with by default fungibility, privacy and anonymity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458024)) "one of the only (but probably the only) cryptos that has actually held true in terms of its principles of privacy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48016435)) - Principled, competent community (5 comments): "Monero is the only mainstream cryptocurrency that actually still lives up to the ethos of what Satoshi had in mind." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46906787)) "The thoughtful approaches it has consistently taken over many upgrades reflect a much greater level of competence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48028680)) "Monero has consistently exceeded the rest of crypto in community, integrity to mission, and use-case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47841823)) - Low fees, quick transfers (4 comments): "A FOSS, private, uncensorable way to pay people instantly anywhere with effectively zero fees is not pointless." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594294)) "Monero transactions confirm more quickly, the first confirmation usually takes just two or three minutes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47850213)) "Monero has ~1 cent transaction fee ime so negligible compared to a comparable speed transfer with banks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49091601)) - Fungible, no tainted coins (2 comments): "Monero beats plaintext chain coins at uniformity, as BTC for example is non-fungible because there are tainted and non-tainted coins." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849317)) "monero has been exactly that and much more for more than a decade with by default fungibility, privacy and anonymity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48458024)) ## What people warn about - Enables scams and crime (4 comments): "Monero is unwilling or unable to police itself, even as it does damage that dwarfs pretty much any other computing technology." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47844182)) "massive pig butchering operations that use slave labor trafficked across multiple countries to scam people" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49031557)) "Monero and other cryptocrap so far produced Trump, enabled CSAM, enabled North Korea to bypass sanctions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025306)) - Weak real-world spending adoption (3 comments): "How many services take Monero? It also does not solve your health insurance being taken away." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49937167)) "Monero fails in practice relatively worse than similar 'weight class' crypto currency assets at actually spending 'digital cash'" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47843509)) "There is a pretty consistent survey of XMR performing weaker than similar class assets in spending at crypto accepting vendors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47849058)) - No smart contracts (2 comments): "There's no smart contracts on Monero so it doesn't really solve problem of secure and verifiable work contracts between 2 people." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46678696)) "I don't think using Monero would be a good platform because it does not have smart any contract functionality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46677899)) - Mining costly and power-hungry (2 comments): "It is definitely not worth purchasing additional equipment, with residential rates, just to mine monero" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49625063)) "I had hoped this would describe a system that did not use very large amounts of power. Sadly it does." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48012457)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Ethereum](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ethereum.md): 28 recommend - [Zcash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zcash.md): 10 recommend - [Solana](https://hackerapproved.com/p/solana.md): 7 recommend - [Base](https://hackerapproved.com/p/base.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Monero (XMR)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/monero/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).