"Either way governments are not going down without a fight. Fiat dominance is an existential crisis for them and they'll do every dirty and violent thing they can to maintain it."

Unfortunately I agree with you. I feel like a crazy person... but I think it's clear at this point that government does not want to lose control of their ultimate power - the money supply. A free, independent, international money separate from state power and manipulation (for example the money printer and interest rates) is a really BIG idea. It's a HUGE idea and in my opinion it's desperately needed.

I respect some of what I read about Monero... but here is my issue with it. I was looking at the 'marketplaces' and 'places to spend' Monero - not black market but gray market mostly... and there are still way way fewer places overall than with Bitcoin.

Monero from what I can tell has maybe 1/20th the total number of places to actually spend it - whether it's gift cards, VPNs, software, food, other peer-to-peer items... the Monero market appears really really small compared to Bitcoin's. I don't really care about the black-market stuff I do not use drugs. I'm interested in lawful commerce, just regular goods and services and Bitcoin has way more of that, although it's still uncommon day-to-day. Basically if you want people to trade with and buy and sell - Bitcoin is by far the biggest crypto market nothing else comes close.

In that sense Monero is just so small. If relatively few people know what Bitcoin is much less how to transact in it... way way fewer know anything about Monero. This is part of the discussion going on with Proton Wallet right now - XMR may be more private (maybe) but the network effects pale in comparison with Bitcoin's and most people will never have the skillset or curiosity to even acquire Monero since it was delisted.

I agree that governments are not 'playing fair'... I believe that Bitcoin transcends governments - Bitcoin is not 'underneath' the fiat system. It is its own separate system maybe above Fiat in some ways it really is the 'ultimate' money.

Something I slightly disagree with... is the idea that custodians don't matter. Businesses and institutions cannot legally custody their own coins - at least for right now. To custody them they really need institutions... no it's not self-custody obviously. But it gets them into the game and this is not a black-and-white issue. Some people and organizations need others that are regulated and audited to hold their coins for them so that they can benefit from Bitcoin financially. And impact the Bitcoin market as well.