[ad_1]
Developers who keep Monero privacy conscious have launched a system update with a new version of its node software, codenamed “Oxygen Orion”. The hard fork promises substantial improvements on almost all aspects of privacy coin performance.
Monero’s XMR token has been widely adopted by cybercriminals and other villains seeking to obscure their illicit business actions in the darkweb markets by law enforcement or government tax bodies.
Monero recently found itself in Europol’s sights due to its use in online cybercrime activities. Following in the footsteps of the UK’s Revenue and Customs Department, the $ 625,000 US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued an award for anyone who can successfully track Lightning Network or Monero transactions.
This update will make these transactions faster once law enforcement agencies around the world have identified privacy-centric digital currency as one of the primary means of exchange during illegal online activities.
The highlight of the latest update is the new CLSAG ring signature construction feature. Developers bill CLSAG as an immediate replacement for MLSAG to improve efficiency. According to Monero contributor “Erciccione”, CLSAG will reduce transaction size by ~ 25% and improve verification performance by ~ 10% while maintaining transaction privacy.
The developers wrote: “Using simple but clever math, CLSAG signatures get the same functionality as MLSAG signatures, but in a much smaller size. And thanks to some optimizations of the underlying cryptography, Monero software can verify CLSAG signatures more quickly.” .
Other highlights of its release include deterministic unlock times; impose the request for the maximum coinbase amount; changes to the serialization format; remove most of the use of the Boost library; always send raw transactions via P2P, do not use the bootstrap daemon; update InProofV1, OutProofV1 and ReserveProofV1 to V2; ASM optimizations for portfolio upgrade (macOS / Linux); randomized delay in forwarding tx from i2p / tor -> ipv4 / 6; new show_qr_code wallet command for CLI; and add ZMQ / Pub support for txpool_add and chain_main events. The full list of changes in v0.17.0.0 is available on GitHub, along with the source code.
Thirty people contributed to the release of the software, posting 292 commits containing 11523 new lines of code. Like the privacy coin itself, many of the developers behind Monero keep their real identities secret to avoid the risk of having nasty conversations with the authorities about their work with the blockchain project.
Since Monero updates are hard forks, network participants must update their software. The Monero blockchain will not split, nor will a new digital token focused on anonymity be created. Token holders who store their XMR in a hardware wallet must stay up to date with the latest firmware. Over the next few days, customers may experience some instability in the network.
After the update, there was a minor bug in v0.17. Monero developers have implemented a hotfix, but some people on the network had to manually update. Monero is also indicated that it could add Atomic Swaps to its blockchain. Due to the increased government and regulatory attention Monero is receiving, a crackdown on the coin could loom around the corner as governments look for ways to “break” dubious privacy technology.
See also: Steve Shadders presentation at CoinGeek Live, titled, Bitcoin SV Technical Update: Infrastructure for the World Blockchain
New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek Bitcoin for beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin, as originally intended by Satoshi Nakamoto, and blockchain.
