To all the people leaving, I have to wonder, why were you here to begin with?
I'm here because I am in need a means of sending value over long distances quickly, cheaply, and privately as well as a means of storing value privately. Maybe i will leave monero when some better alternative exists for accomplishing these same ends but until such an alternative exists i will continue to need monero. Just as a person who has nails sticking up needs a hammer.
So the question: What I just described is what this project represents, and you sold. So did you used to need that value proposition but dont any longer? Or some other project you have discovered has a similar value proposition? Or does monero no longer represent that value proposition to you? Or did you never need it and just wanted to make a quick buck by gambling?
I can explain that somewhat. These coins have almost no current utility so everyone buying them is doing one of two things: 1. Long term speculation on future utility, 2. Short term speculation on swings. Both tend to be trend-followers, though the latter more so.
When we came up from 0.0009 to about 0.0015 or 0.002, it was quite striking how many new people started posting their interest and support both here and on the main thread. I think I made comment at the time that those were likely to be fair-weather friends, and I don't mean that as an insult, just an observation about time horizon and attention span. Those same folks are likely off getting interested in whatever is hot right now. When we start an uptrend again, they'll back, or others like them.
I guess. Its just sort of strange to me. I guess im speculating on future utility if you want to be technical about it but I need something like monero because the chances are very good that i will need something like monero in the future.
If I ever actually manage to become wealthy I will be so fucked. The government will take so much of it. They take a lot now but its not just about how much they take now its about the trend. If the trend holds, people justify it now, but it will be almost incontrovertibly criminal in the future if the trend holds and we have to prepare for the future. Monero offers some amount of protection from this. What else does? People should be clamoring to this project just for self defense reasons.
I dont mean to say monero specifically, just something that offers the same value proposition. It could be zerocoin or some other cryptonote or something no one has imagined. But right now monero is the frontrunner.