Monero Cryptocurrency Explained By Basement Dwelling Tech
Monero Cryptocurrency Explained By Basement Dwelling Tech
Monero (/məˈnɛroʊ/; XMR) is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency released in 2014. It is an open-source protocol based on CryptoNote. It uses an obfuscated public ledger, meaning anyone can send or broadcast transactions, but no outside observer can tell the source, amount, or destination.[1] A proof of work mechanism is used to issue new coins and incentivize miners to secure the network and validate transactions.
Monero uses different privacy-enhancing technologies to achieve anonymity and fungibility. It has attracted users desiring privacy measures that are not provided in more popular cryptocurrencies. However, it has also gained publicity for illicit use in darknet markets
History
In 2014, Bitcointalk forum user thankful_for_today forked the codebase of Bytecoin into the name BitMonero, which is a compound of bit (as in Bitcoin) and monero (literally meaning "coin" in Esperanto).[4] The release of BitMonero was poorly received by the community that initially backed it. Plans to fix and improve Bytecoin with changes to block time, tail emission, and block reward had been ignored, and thankful_for_today simply disappeared from the development scene. A group of users led by Johnny Mnemonic decided that the community should take over the project, and five days later they did while also changing the name to Monero.
Due to its privacy features, Monero experienced rapid growth in market capitalization and transaction volume during 2016, much more than any other cryptocurrency that year. This growth was driven by its uptake in the darknet market, where people used it to buy stolen credit cards, guns, and drugs.[4] Two major darknet markets were shut down in July 2017 by law enforcement.[5] From the beginning, Monero has been used by people holding other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to break the link between transactions, with the other cryptocoins first converted to Monero, then after some delay converted back and sent to an address unrelated to those used before.
On 10 January 2017, the privacy of Monero transactions was 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.[6]
After many online payment platforms shut down access for white nationalists following the Unite the Right rally in 2017, some of them, including Christopher Cantwell and Andrew Auernheimer ("weev"), started using and promoting Monero.[7][8]
The operators behind the May 2017 global ransomware incident WannaCry converted their proceeds into Monero.[9] In June 2017, The Shadow Brokers, the group that leaked the code used in WannaCry, started accepting payments in Monero.[9]
Malicious hackers have previously embedded Monero mining code into websites and apps seeking profit for themselves.[10] In late 2017, malware and antivirus service providers blocked a JavaScript implementation of Monero miner Coinhive that was embedded in websites and apps, in some cases by hackers. Coinhive generated the script as an alternative to advertisements; a website or app could embed it, and use website visitor's CPU to mine the cryptocurrency while the visitor is consuming the content of the webpage, with the site or app owner getting a percentage of the mined coins.[11] Some websites and apps did this without informing visitors, and some hackers implemented it in way that drained visitors' CPUs. As a result, the script was blocked by companies offering ad blocking subscription lists, antivirus services, and antimalware services.[12][10]
In January 2018, Bloomberg suggested the hackers who stole approximately 500 million NEM tokens ($530 million) from Coincheck would find it challenging to launder them by selling them for Monero since at least one exchange, ShapeShift, had blocked NEM addresses associated with the theft.
In the first half of 2018, Monero was used in 44% of cryptocurrency ransomware attacks.[13]
In November 2018, Bail Bloc released a mobile app that mines Monero to raise funds for low-income defendants who cannot otherwise cover their own bail.[14][15]
Privacy features
Monero GUI 0.12.3.0 on Windows 10
Monero enforces privacy by default. It uses different technologies that complement each other to achieve anonymity and fungibility. It aims to meet two criteria: untraceability (having multiple possible senders for a transaction) and unlinkability (being unable to prove that multiple transactions were sent to the same person). Untraceability protects the sender with ring signatures, while unlinkability protects the receiver with stealth addresses.[16]
#monerocryptocurrency #monero #moneroxmr #xmrcoin #xmrcryptocurrency #moneroreview #cryptoreview