Monero

Monero logo

Monero (XMR) is an open-source cryptocurrency created in April 2014 that focuses on privacy, decentralization, and scalability that runs on Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and FreeBSD. Monero uses a public ledger to record transactions while new units are created through a process called mining. Monero aims to improve on existing cryptocurrency design by obscuring sender, recipient and amount of every transaction made as well as making the mining process more egalitarian.

The focus on privacy has attracted illicit use by people interested in evading law enforcement. The egalitarian mining process made it viable to distribute the mining effort opening new funding avenues for both legitimate online publishers and malicious hackers who covertly embed the mining code into websites and apps.

Contents

Monero Review

How Monero works?

Monero – one of the types of cryptocurrency, which at the same time represents a payment system. Designed for anonymous payments between users. The main issue (the total number of coins for mining) is 18 million 400 thousand coins. Experts estimate that it will take mining Monero about 8 years. The final outcome will be known in may 2022. Initially, it should be understood that the issue of coins will not be finally completed. Each miner can get about 0.6 XMR (monero symbol) for each block.

For the first time to learn about the serious prospects of Monero turned out in 2016. Far from this, the cost of 1 unit of Monero was less than$ 1, but in 2016 the value exceeded$50.

The main value of the coin started to rise at the moment when users started to use Monero as a separate payment on the Darknet. The special perspective of Monero is also in relation to the ruble. Over the past year, the rate has not been growing very fast, but steadily. This is the first indicator that you can and should work with this cryptocurrency.

Design

Unlike many cryptocurrencies that are derivatives of Bitcoin, Monero is based on the CryptoNote protocol and possesses significant algorithmic differences relating to blockchain obfuscation. By providing a high level of privacy, Monero is fungible, meaning that every unit of the currency can be substituted by another unit. These units are indistinguishable from one another. This makes Monero different from public-ledger cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, where addresses previously associated with undesired activity can be blacklisted and refused by network members. Also the “stealth addresses” generated for each transaction make it impossible to discover actual destination by anyone else but the address owner. Finally, the “ring confidential transactions” mechanism hides the transferred amount. It can be mined somewhat efficiently on consumer grade hardware such as x86, x86-64, ARM or even consumer grade GPUs.

Monero experienced rapid growth in market capitalization and transaction volume during the year 2016, partly due to adoption in 2016 by major darknet market AlphaBay,

On January 10, 2017, the privacy of Monero transactions were further strengthened by the adoption of Bitcoin Core developer Gregory Maxwell’s algorithm Confidential Transactions, hiding the amounts being transacted, in combination with an improved version of Ring Signatures.

Privacy

Monero’s blockchain protects privacy in three ways. Ring signatures enable the sender to hide among other transaction outputs, stealth addresses hide the receiving address of the transaction and RingCT hides the amount of the transaction. As a consequence, Monero features an opaque blockchain. This is sharp contrast with transparent and traceable blockchain used by Bitcoin. Thus, Monero is said to be “private, optionally transparent”.

Monero has two sets of keys, called a “view key” and a “spend key”. View key can be separately shared to enable optional transparency. However, the system is designed to ease processing on mobile devices, as it is impossible to calculate an accurate wallet balance without a spend key.

Transaction linkability

Graphical representation of ring signature tracking.

In April 2017 research highlighted three major threats to Monero user’s privacy. The first relies on leveraging the ring signature size of zero, and ability to see the output amounts. The second, described as “Leveraging Output Merging”, involves tracking transactions where two outputs belong to the same user, such as when a user is sending the funds to himself (“churning”). Finally the third threat, “Temporal Analysis”, shows that predicting the right output in a ring signature is easier than previously thought.

Monero development team addressed the first concern in early 2017 with introduction of Ring Confidential Transactions (ringCT) as well as mandating a minimum size of ring signatures in the March 2016 protocol upgrade. Monero developers also noted that Monero Research Labs, their academic and research arm, already noted and outlined the deficiency in two public research papers in 2014 and 2015.

A user needs a client software, a so-called wallet, to interact with the Monero network. The Monero Project produces the reference implementation of a Monero wallet. This implementation is broken up into three parts. The main software daemon is called monerod and it is responsible for reading the blockchain and claiming the user’s transactions. monero-wallet-cli is responsible for managing the user’s account, also known as wallet address, and generating new transactions. Finally, Monero GUI allows the user to interact with the aforementioned components through a graphical user interface. All of the software produced by The Monero Project is open source and licensed under a broadly permissive BSD licenses[1].

Other third party implementation of Monero clients exist such as Monerujo which also make it possible to use Monero on Android. Finally, a web wallet allows users to interact with the network entirely through the browser using a third party website.

Illicit use

The feasibility of CPU mining Monero has made it viable for malicious actors to covertly distribute miners embedded in malware, utilising the victim’s hardware and electricity for the financial gain of the malware developer.

The JavaScript implementation of Monero miner Coinhive has made it possible to embed the miner into a website in such a way to utilise website visitor’s CPU to mine the cryptocurrency while the visitor is consuming the content of the webpage. While this can be done with user’s consent in an effort to provide an alternative funding model to serving ads, some websites have done this without informed consent which has prompted the in-browser miners to be blocked by browser extensions and ad blocking subscription lists.

Monero is sometimes employed by Bitcoin users to break link between transactions, with bitcoins first converted to Monero, then after some delay, converted back and sent to an address unrelated to those used before Researchers have reported that the operators behind the global ransomware incident WannaCry have converted their proceeds into Monero. It is also the preferred payment method of choice for The Shadow Brokers.

Technological characteristics

Mining of Monero is based on the principle of PoW (Proof-of-work): the miners receive a reward for solving cryptographic problems, as a result of which a new block is added to the blockchain every two minutes.

In this case, unlike many other crypto currencies, Monero emission is not limited. After it reaches 18.4 million Monero, the subsequent mining will bring 0.6 new coins for each block added to the chain.

The main difference between Monero and other crypto-currencies is the use of CryptoNote protocol for encrypting of transactions. This protocol works on the principle of ring signature, in which any member of any closed group can leave the electronic signature – but the person who did it will never be known. Also, the protocol provides passive mixing of the transactions themselves so that they are all anonymous[2].

However, anonymity requires large resources, primarily memory: Monero transactions take up on average 8 times as much space as Bitcoin’s transactions take.

Monero Price

The latest price of Monero (XMR) crypto currency is available on the BitcoinWiki by COIN360 widget.

Monero Mining

Mining Monero (XMR/USD) is as easy as mining Zcash and Ethereum (ETH/USD). This network uses CryptoNight hash algorithm, which is CPU and GPU friendly, so you can use even your old laptops[3]. In this guide we will take a closer look at the installation process for the Minergate and Claymore miners (its version for the CPU, called CryptoNote). For AMD cardholders, Ethereum mining is the most profitable, however Monero stands out for a number of unique characteristics – above all, the level of confidentiality. It has many fans and periodically there are strong price increases. The entire process of downloading, installing and configuring the mining software takes less than 20 minutes. Here are a few reasons to mine Monero: Bitcoins are easy to exchange for fiat money.

Thus, mining Monero allows you to replenish your bank account. Monero can also be traded on exchanges. Experienced and lucky traders can make good money on price jumps, given Monero’s high volatility. Since Monero received recognition in darknet in 2016, it remains one of the most expensive altcoins in the market. Mining Monero, based on the CryptoNote algorithm, is associated with less power consumption than Ethash / Dagger Hashimoto (Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, UBQ) and Equihash-basedcoins (Zcash, Zencash, Hush). This allows you to lower the temperature of the equipment and extend its service life. At last, the creation of a large Monero position using mining allows us to gain from the growth in the price of cryptocurrency in the future – with less risk than with a normal purchase. The mining and storage of cryptocurrency is similar to the concept of “Buy cheap – sell expensive.” The only problem is that most buyers do not understand the technical analysis and do it at the most inopportune time.

Cryptocurrency mining turns your computer equipment into an asset that generates profit. In addition, its value in the secondary market is kept at a high level and even grows. The graphics cards purchased for mining in 2015 and 2016 were often sold at a higher price than the purchase price because of the high demand in the market in 2017. In other words, you can earn good money by mining cryptocurrency on your equipment and selling it when the target is reached. In this case, the sale on the secondary market allows you to compensate for the original value, and the coins produced are a pleasant bonus[4].

Team

The Monero project has a strong team of seven developers. Five of them work under pseudonyms, and two, Riccardo Spagni and Francisco cabanas, are known to the General public. Monero is regularly updated: currently the updates are planned every six months, there will be new features and security enhancements. Thanks to this work plan Monero continues to develop, because everyone knows when you are expected a gradual upgrade of the system.

The prospects

Immediately after the appearance of Monero, it was criticized for its anonymity, as weapons, drugs and other prohibited goods could be paid by crypto-currency. In part, the criticism turned out to be fair: in 2016, the rapid growth of Monero’s market capitalization was due to its use for transactions on the large AlphaBay darknet market, closed by law enforcement agencies in the summer of 2017.

Mid-October 2017, the Monero exchange rate was $ 95.14. The market capitalization in the amount of $ 1.447 billion approximates the cryptocurrency closely to the top ten in terms of this indication. The price peaked $494.16 Jan 07, 2018; market capitalization reached about $7,696,000,000 [5] and currently, mid 2019 the price is ~$90-100 as in 2017.

See Also on BitcoinWiki

External links

References

  1. ↑ CoinGecko – Monero
  2. ↑ What is Monero (XMR)? In Depth Review
  3. ↑ What is Monero
  4. ↑ How to Mine Monero: A Step-by-step Guide – Insider.pro
  5. ↑ https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/monero/