The Wait Is Finally Over?
Well not yet... JP is still not quite giving the green light, but things are looking promising!
So what's the deal?
Monero is probably the gold standard for on-chain privacy and integrating it natively with THORChain would allow users to swap private XMR directly for BTC, ETH, or other assets (and vice versa) without giving up custody or privacy. This is a big deal since most “private” cross-chain solutions today rely on wrappers or trusted bridges — so this aims for the real thing.
https://x.com/jpthor/status/2049105324381237323
So is this like censorship resistance on steroids? Kinda, THORChain already emphasizes permissionless, trust-minimized swaps. Adding Monero will strengthen the network’s ability to serve users who value financial privacy - yes these people still exist and they are not going away. Integrating privacy coins is of course tricky business and it's one reason why this has taken so long. But doing it the hard way will hopefully pay off and may even save crypto's core principles along the way...
Of course the other benefit is that this will shift THORchain's focus to the privacy sector. Perhaps, this could drive new volume, liquidity, and utility for RUNE which is much needed at this point in time when RUNE is still recovering from it's debt fiasco (Hive beware!). It should also make the network more seamless, sovereign and further expand cross-chain trading.
Wen? Soon...
Conclusion
I have never doubted that "true" crypto will keep on fighting for it's core principles. In a time when we have the establishment taking over large parts of crypto (and especially Bitcoin), seeing good utility being built is actually refreshing.
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