I've been following and writing (in German) about Darkcoin, as it was called back then, since April 2014 . As such I could not but also hear about Monero, because that`s the coin those guys in the dash-bitcointalkthread supported, who kept trolling about the instamine, a problem the Darkcoin community had solved for itself in the open and was willing to move forward.
I never quite got the tribal behavior and fierce competition in Crypto-la-la-land, so when I say I am a Dashtard, it's tongue in cheek. I'm as much of a Bitcoin- or Steemtard for that matter. A voluntarist Cryptotard.
I had looked into Monero as soon as I learned about it on the dashthread, because what I was getting out of the fierce discussions among the experts was, that its anonymity features where in fact superior and I always am willing to grant that. I just did not care, because Dash had turned its focus away from being only "Dark" and the the Dash privacy function was just one of the features and good enough for most cases normal users want privacy for (and for the Snowdens and Ross Ullbrichts, there was still...Monero).
Still, the Dash trolling did not stop and I am not aware any respected member of the XMR community ever really tried to stop that. Well, here is one person who did never really touch XMR just because of the numerous toxic elements and bad leadership (as from the perspective as an outside investor) and who now applauds you for surpassing Dash.
I now sincerely hope you succeed in being the most bad ass anon crypto ever and if I ever need something better than Dash's PrivacyProtect, I'd buy some and use it.
I also hope that the most prominent members of your community who happen to be influential Steemians, will display the same level of ardent scrutiny and idealistic fervor when watching this new thing here grow, as when you where vigilanting in the dashthread.
Seriously, really makes me much more confident in Steemit knowing that a brilliant and fair mind as @smooth is watching this. If all your vocal supporters where like him, I'd be having a nice sunday enjoying my XMR profits, so enjoy a Dashtard having "missed the boat", those who know who you are :-)