In terms of software that genuinely fascinates me Monero would have to be up there (along with Postgres, ZFS and OpenBSD). It's in my opinion one of the only (but probably the only) cryptos that has actually held true in terms of its principles of privacy (which was a perceived principle of crypto by users) and mass ability to mine and not be dominated by ASICs.

I've since taken to running a non-public Monero node, which will become public when I can ensure my network security as it's being run from my home.

In saying that, there is a lot of concern around the new Carrot changes. To preface, I don't understand it enough to have an opinion either way, but a good chunk of the vocal user base seems to be worried that making “optional” view keys show both incoming and outgoing transactions will force the hand of the remaining exchanges, and be a condition of adoption of new exchanges to support Monero.

I haven't really seen a dumbed down explanation from the core Monero team as to exactly what the change looks like, and what the theoretical implications could be. It would be nice if Monero had more accessible PR for non-technical users to encourage adoption and squash FUD when it arises or at least acknowledge it from a top level in a blog post or something so that the already hyper-paranoid user base doesn't unnecessarily drive a mass anti-Monero campaign.