Dash is the main competitor to Monero but it is going down as I lowered my bids on Dash.
Dash is not even remotely competitive. It is simply and purely a scam to steal money from the foolish and ignorant. The market cap of dash is an illusion created by temporarily removing most of the supply into masternodes which monitor all the transactions and insure that 90% of the network traffic goes through NSA controlled routers. When the scam bubble pops all of those masternodes will get liquidated in a huge rush to the exits, crushing all the innocent holders. The only reason why a masternode holder (other than a "national security" unit) is willing to take that risk is the illusion of yield. Let me give you a hint: Hard money has no yield. If it has a yield, it is a scam, and eventually that illusion will blow away. It took 46 years for the soveriegn fiat illusion of yield to disappear. I can assure you with confidence that it won't take that long for the dash masternode rentiers to get their come-uppance. They lack armies and nuclear missiles, for one thing.
Another example of a moral crime against humanity is zcash, which taxes it's foolish users 20% for the priviledge of being subjected to infinite surprise dilution, and using gee whiz math that 99.999% of the buyers don't understand. I would not want to face that Nuremburg justice when it comes.
Ignorant and foolish people think they are clever because they are making money. Well, a rising tide lifts all boats. It is only when the tide goes out that we discover who was swimming naked. I will be covering my private parts with Monero when that happens, simply because I think it provides the best cover * liquidity value in known space.
You can call me arrongant or insensitive, trollish, or book talking, or whatever you like, but if one person is saved from embezzlement and poverty by my warnings, I will consider the reputation burn well spent.
That said, yes, there will always be the possibility of some future deanonymizing innovation as long as we rely on computational asymmetries. That is why defense in depth is so crucial. Your contributions to Kovri now may be late to the party, but will nonetheless be welcomed (after thorough peer review). Eventually we may incorporate a decoherence layer into peer communications to prevent information leakage, but the technology is not yet widely available. Eventually q.c. will destroy even zksnarks, but by then we will have new quantum-ready tech in place, at least if I have anything to say about it.
And I would not be alone, I am sure, in being willing to cowboy-fork if necessary, when that time comes. Although, I do not believe it will be necessary, given the prudential responsibility demonstrated by the core team to date. (Also, I do think any new quantum ready PRs would be very premature at this point. We won't want them until we expect to actually need them. Until then they would just be valueless added risk.)
Anyhow, cheap coins, yo. When the facts change, so do my opinions: I am buying anything under $52 these days. I think in the very worst case they might be under water until August, but I still say the June/July scenario ranks are skewed positive, so I am willing to take that much duration risk. All it takes to prove me wrong is one large persistent seller in size, but so far all the evidence has been that transactions in size are overwhelmingly biased towards long term holds. Hence, the intermittent level-up jumps, each time the float supply gets drained off into reserve demand. Even a growing economy can't prevent some profit taking by speculators, after a big jump, so you have to expect some dips to follow the jumps. That, my friends, is our great opportunity, as patient and prudent buyers. The FUD storms help us, as much as I hate to admit it. I much, much prefer gains by honest value-add and legitimate, well-reasoned and soundly founded "risk-taking".
