introduction
The cryptocurrencies have been around for almost a decade. With over thousands of different cryptocurrencies, each with its own set of unique features, only a few cryptocurrencies focus on user privacy. Monero is such a cryptocurrency.
The idea for Monero appeared very well in 2012, when user privacy issues across multiple social media platforms were a major concern. Furthermore, Monero was actually the result of Bytecoin's failure.
Monero could be a completely untraceable cryptocurrency, however, there is one way that you can share the details of your portfolio. So, Monero does not go against the rules set by any government.
Moreover, Monero also breaks down centralization when it comes to extracting other cryptocurrencies.
Monero is resistant to ASIC. This means that mining power is not concentrated with a few rich people. Instead, anyone with a CPU and a GPU can immediately start Monero's extraction.
Read also: how to undermine Monero?
It is not possible for a particular Monero transaction to be linked to a particular portfolio or a specific person.
This is the main reason why many people prefer Monero for their daily activities.
Because Monero is largely privacy-oriented, the applications of this project do not go beyond a payment system. Currently, in the tenth position in the cryptographic market, Monero is a cryptocurrency that is widely used as a payment system.
Let us now try to deepen and understand what makes this cryptocurrency so unique.
The Team Behind Monero project
The core team of Monero is made up of only seven people. Just as nobody knows the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the developer of Bitcoin, only two of Monero's five main developers have opened up to the world. The remaining five have decided to remain anonymous and work from the shadows.
The two developers who have revealed their identity to the world are Riccardo Spagni and Franciscon Cabañas who are better known by their aliases, fluffypony and arcticmine.
The entire Monero project is open source which means that anyone can view and suggest updates for the current operation of the network. Monero is a cryptocurrency that is centered on privacy, so it makes perfect sense that five of the seven developers prefer to remain anonymous.
The aliases of all the main developers of the Monero project are:
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Fluffypony
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Arcticmine
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Or the
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Smooth
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BinaryFate
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Luigi1111
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NoodleDoodle
It is this anonymity that gives developers the freedom to develop and support the Monero project. So, now we can see Monero as one of the top ten cryptocurrencies out there.
Read also: The best cryptocurrency to invest in 2018 with detailed analysis
Start with Monero
In the year 2012, user privacy was the main point of discussion on the Internet. Social media platforms such as Facebook have been heavily criticized for the misuse of the privacy control offered at the time. While everyone thought that your privacy was protected if you use cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, it turned out that a particular transaction could actually date back to its origin on the Bitcoin network.
Thus, the need for a new privacy-oriented currency was needed. This gave rise to Bytecoin, which was released in 2012. However, a large bug was exploited on this platform which led to 80% of Bytecoin's total supply being available immediately after the release of the network.
To keep the project alive, Bytecoin has been bifurcated to form Bytemonero. This was later renamed with what we have today, Monero. In order to provide users with privacy features, Monero uses a technology called Cryptonote.
Almost all privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies use cryptography technology. To guarantee the privacy of the user, the public keys are grouped together and each time a transaction is made, the transaction is signed by a group of public keys. This makes it completely impossible for anyone to track the transaction on a particular portfolio.
There is no maximum limit for the maximum number of Monero coins. In addition, the cost of the miner is very low and the transaction is verified quickly on the Monero network. All of these spells on any other blockchain network as it could attract a lot of spam transactions. However, this is not the case for the Monero network.
To avoid any spam transactions, there is a default mechanism in which miners can host only a certain number of transactions on a single block. Something more than this size would have an impact on mining premiums given to the miner. Thus, miners would ignore all spam transactions that have an extremely low mining commission and thus continue the normal operation of the Monero chain.
How does Monero work?
Monero is one of the few cryptocurrencies with which a user can have complete control over his privacy. You can choose to share the details of your transaction with only a few people or the whole world. This is possible thanks to the way a Monero portfolio is designed.
A Monero portfolio consists of four addresses.
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A public address – Used to receive Monero from other users.
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A private key – Used to access the details of any transaction involving your portfolio.
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A key to public spending – Used to verify a particular signature of the transaction.
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A key to private spending – Used to spend the funds that are present in your Monero wallet.
In order to increase transparency, users can share their private display keys with authorities such as the IT department while filing taxes. This not only makes the whole process simpler, but is also one of the reasons why Monero has not been banned from any country.
The strengths of Monero
Monero is one of the few cryptocurrencies that has strengths in many different aspects.
Although Monero does not have a maximum limit for the total supply, the limit imposed by the size of the dynamic block and the reward penalty system ensures that there are no spam transactions in the network or not. Therefore, any transaction on the Monero network usually requires a much lower cost for miners and is also quickly confirmed.
The flexibility offered by Monero in terms of user privacy is absolutely unmatched. Using Cryptonote technology, no transaction can be traced back to its origin. However, due to the way this platform is designed, users can choose to share with some authorities if they wish. Thus, giving them full control over their privacy.
Although all the major cryptocurrencies steal the show by saying that they are a decentralized network, we can see that an important part of the network is controlled and extracted from some mining pools. This is due to the development of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that are able to extract cryptocurrencies at a much faster rate. Therefore, people with PCs and graphics cards have no chance against this.
Monero, on the other hand, is completely useless for my use of ASIC miners. Cryptonote technology is more efficient when it is extracted using a graphics card and a processor. Thus, helping to bring the decentralized network back to the platform.
How to buy and store Monero (XMR)?
XMR is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies at the moment. This is why it is available on several major cryptocurrant exchanges. In addition, it is available on a wide range of trading pairs such as BTC, ETH, LTC, USDT, USD, ZEC, etc. You can go to any popular encryption exchange like Binance, Bitthumb, Polonix and exchange it with other cryptocurrencies or you can even control Bitfinex to buy Monero using the fiat currency.
Read also: Ultimate Cryptocurrency Exchange Guide
Once you have bought your first Monero coins, your next mission is to keep them in a safe and secure place. The portfolio provided by an exchange is not very secure and you should use it to store much lower cryptocurrencies to be used for quick exchanges in the future. The best wallet to store your Monero is the Ledger Nano S.
If you have invested a lot of money in Monero, you should keep it in your wallet. If you can not afford to spend more money to buy a hardware wallet, you can always use the official Monero wallet. Alternatively, you can use the Moneroju wallet to store Monero as it offers great security and has an extremely user-friendly user interface for navigation.
Future of Monero Coin
Nobody can be sure of the future of any cryptocurrency. Things can go any way for any currency in the near future. Monero does exactly what you can do using Bitcoin, except that you can make transactions without anyone knowing that you were on the Monero blockchain.
Privacy plays a vital role in all our lives. Thus, a privacy-centric cryptocurrency like Monero has a very promising future ahead of it. Furthermore, it is extremely easy for users to share the details of their transactions.
Sharing the details of transactions with governments gives them the certainty that a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency is not used to fuel illegal activities.
Using robust ASIC algorithms, Monero is also looking for a more decentralized ecosystem. So, bringing back the trust of people in this network. By distributing power, the network is more secure than other cryptocurrencies.
In addition, the core team of Monero is an extremely active developer. All this combined with a large community that follows, Monero seems to climb the ladder very quickly.
How is Monero (XMR) better than other cryptocurrencies?
Almost all the most popular cryptocurrencies are controlled by the few mining pools that have managed to acquire a large share of mining power. This was possible thanks to the introduction of the ASIC miners. Although these miners seem small, they are extremely powerful and at the same time very expensive.
Since only a few rich can afford them, they hold most of the hash power of the network. This completely destroys the idea of decentralization in cryptocurrencies.
Monero has the perfect solution to this problem. Using an ASIC-resistant mining algorithm, Monero returns the power of mining to the general public. As more and more people begin to extract Monero using their CPUs and GPUs, the network becomes more decentralized. Therefore, Monero uses a method that is better than any other cryptocurrency.
Should you invest in Monero (XMR)?
Currently, the entire cryptocurrency market is going through a bear market. The prices of all cryptographic resources are falling. This is the right time to buy some of the promising cryptocurrencies. However, you should be extremely careful as some of the cryptocurrencies that do not have a good project may not actually come out of this bear market.
Users' privacy will play an important role throughout our future. Since Monero is one of the very few privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, it will surely flourish in the bull race that will come very soon. So, now it would be the perfect time to invest in Monero and store it for a longer period of time.
Frequently asked questions about Monero
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How long does it take to confirm a transaction on the Monero network?
The blocking time of the Monero blockchain is 1 minute. So, it will take a minute before the transaction appears on the blockchain. However, exchanges require 18 confirmations for the transaction to appear on their platform.
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How can a private currency like Monero be transparent?
By default, Monero is a completely private currency. However, users have the ability to share their visualization key to make transactions transparent to those who want to share them.
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Can Monero become the ultimate payment cryptocurrency and dethrone Bitcoin?
Monero is still in its early stages and is not able to deal with Bitcoin like now. However, privacy is a major concern for people all over the world. So, Monero could be the cryptocurrency to dethrone Bitcoin in the future.
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Does Monero have an official GUI portfolio?
Although initially the wallet did not exist, it was developed later and can be downloaded from their official website.
Conclusion
Privacy has become a very important part of our daily life. Not many payment methods respect the privacy of the user. Monero is one of the first cryptocurrencies that allows users to have full control over their privacy. Thus, it will surely come out of this bear market and will thrive in the bull race that is just around the corner.
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