There areWith Monero, there are no wire transfer or check clearing fees, no multi-day holding periods, and no risk offraudulent chargebacks. It is safe from ‘capital controls’ - these are measures that restrict the flow of traBecause Monero is decentralized, it is not constrained by any particular legal jurisdictional currencies, sometimes to an extreme degree, in countries experiencing economic instability and provides safety from capital control.
With Monero, there are no wire transfer or check clearing fees, no multi-day holding periods, and no fraudulent chargebacks. Because Monero is decentralized, it is not constrained by any particular legal jurisdiction and provides safety from capital control.
When you download the @blockchain, you are downloading the entire history of the @transactions that happened in the Monero network since it was created. The transactions and the related data are heavy and the entire history must be kept by every node to ensure it's the same for everybody. @Pruning a blockchain allows to run a node which keeps only 1/8 of not strictly necessary blockchain data. This results in a blockchain 2/3 smaller than a full one. Convenient for people with limited disk space. Check out the Moneropedia entries @node and @remote-node for more details.
When you create your wallet for the first time, an @address will be automatically shown to you. That's your primary address. If you want, you can simply use that address to receive payments. You should be concerned about who knows about this address (since one address in different locations can be associated), but you do not need to worry about blockchain observers watching transactions to this address like with Bitcoin. A friend can send transactions to the same address without reduced privacy.