What type of smart contracts sidechains would most benefit from the privacy that Monero provides by default?
Assuming that many types of smart contracts sidechains were operational today, which would be most helped by using Monero as a base layer compared with a transparent blockchain base layer such as Bitcoin?
If you think about all the reasons why privacy matters for a crypto currency, almost all the same cases apply to any side-chain or smart-contract.
It occurs to me that investing, speculative and gambling activities benefit from the obscuring of transaction amounts and participants.
Will side-chains be built that will facilitate gambling or speculating, or perhaps an investing platform?
The benefits of Monero would be at the settlement layer only of course. If I recall correctly I've often seen arguments that sidechains themselves can potentially be detrimental to privacy, if the operator of the side-chain requires identifying information.
