Monero has the third largest community, only with Ethereum and Bitcoin leading the way. If you’re new to Monero’s features, you might be wondering why it’s so popular. The answer is simple: Monero is one of the most private cryptocurrencies ever created. In this article, we will cover the technology and mining related questions. We will also try to unravel whether it is true that Monero is better than Bitcoin. Are you intrigued? Then let’s dive into the world of the most privacy-oriented cryptocurrency. Who made Monero? The concept of the Monero protocol is rooted in CryptoNote, a cryptography protocol first described in the white paper by Nicolas van Saberhagen. Besides, this name might be just as real as Satoshi Nakamoto’s. We still don’t know who this mysterious Mr Saberhagen is. As a cryptocurrency, Monero first appeared in 2014, when a Bitcoin user nicknamed “thankful_for_today” concocted Saberhagen’s ideas into a cryptocurrency. Initially it was called Bitmonero. A few weeks after the launch of Bitmonero, the creator ignored all offers and comments about the newly minted coin and did what he actually wanted. What were the claims? The block reward was steeper than what everyone expected. The creator continued with one-minute block times, despite everyone’s concerns about the increase in orphaned blocks. The tail emission issue was not resolved in the code with subsequent updates. Therefore, the community decided to fork the currency. The newly made Monero version has a great team and a good PR campaign. This has been the reason to make thankful_for_today disappear. However, the naming is wonderful. Monero means “coin” in Esperanto. Monero = mono (money) + ero (bit) = coin (Esperanto language) How does Monero work? Monero is an open-source and privacy-focused cryptocurrency with an XMR ticker. Behind the digital currency lies an open ledger that makes the network transparent, but not in the case of Monero. The current Monero protocol is called CryptoNote. It is made to make all transaction data and the sender and recipient information untraceable. For example, Monero supports the concept of decentralization and the principles of anonymity. In this way, the network makes all people equal. The protocol is built so sophisticated that it is impossible to trace transaction details. Such features make the Monero network a safer space for its participants and eliminate the risk of being rejected or blacklisted by others. The central pillar of Monero’s technology is based on Ring Signatures. It combines the digital signature of the person making an XMR transaction with the signatures of the other ten users before recording it on the blockchain. Now eleven signatures have been added to each transaction. There’s actually more to say about Monero’s privacy improvements over the year. So let’s move on. How does Monero improve privacy? Monero developers use some tricks in their technology to make privacy an essential feature. All transaction data, such as an address, transaction amount, etc., is obfuscated. That’s why cypherpunks, crypto-anarchists and privacyists love Monero so much. Now let’s dot the i’s and dot the i’s about what features make Monero so incredibly anonymous: In 2017, the developers introduced Ring Confidential transactions. Since then, the transaction amount has been hidden. Stealth address is used in transactions to hide the parties involved in the process. It works by creating a one-time address for each transaction, even if the sender and receiver remain the same. Dandelion++ is a protocol that obscures the IP address of devices that produce the transactions. What algorithm does Monero use? Transactions in Monero are validated through mining based on the RandomX proof-of-work algorithm, which issues new coins to miners. Why should I use XMR? As we have already mentioned, XMR is an excellent coin for those concerned about privacy. However, there is another side to cryptocurrency anonymity. Monero has become one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the darknet society. Due to the specific transaction schedule, it is easy to hide the payment purpose when using XMR. So when making XMR transactions, users remain completely anonymous. That helps darknet users hide their money and buy stolen credit cards, drugs and weapons. This fact may characterize Monero as a fungible currency. Fungibility means that no one can see which transaction each coin was involved in. It is impossible to link coins to a criminal (or even legal) transaction. Mining Monero To validate transactions on the network, Monero uses a PoW algorithm called RandomX. It was introduced in November 2019 and replaced the previous one, CryptoNight. What equipment should you use to successfully mine XMR coins? The first thing to mention is that RandomX is ASIC resistant. So x86, x86-64, ARM and GPUs are suitable for Monero mining. Learn more about Monero’s mining equipment in the accompanying article. Block Reward: 1.16 XMRBlock Time: 2 minutes By the way, according to Monero’s software rules, the block reward will never drop to zero. The final halving will take place in May 2022, so block rewards will be set at 0.6 XMR. How much Monero can I mine per day? This figure is not constant, as you understand. If we consider that a block is mined every 2 minutes, about 720 blocks are mined per day. View the current hashrate of the Monero network and the block reward and fill the gaps according to this formula: n = (Network Hashrate) / (720 × Avg Block Reward) You get the hashes per second that will help you choose the right one hardware for profitable mining and measure the speed of the machine. How is Monero different from Bitcoin? Here is a comparison of Bitcoin and Monero in the table below: BitcoinMoneroYear of Creation20092014Supply Limit21,000,000UnlimitedMining AlgorithmPoWPoWHash FunctionSHA-256RandomXBlock Time10 Minutes2 MinutesBlock 6.25 BTC1.16 XMR Is Monero Better Than Bitcoin? Everyone has their own taste, so arguing whether one currency is better than another is very subjective by nature. Monero is just different from Bitcoin. Yet they have some similarities. For example, both coins can be mined using their own proof-of-work algorithms. How do I buy Monero? Monero is a cryptocurrency that offers its users enhanced privacy and anonymity. No wonder the Monero community is huge. However, you may wonder why you should buy Monero. Well, there are a number of reasons: Monero’s technology is truly cutting edge. The privacy is very strong and steadfast. If you want to remain completely anonymous, choose XMR Coins for your trades. So you’ve made a firm decision to buy some XMR. The next question is obvious: where can you buy Monero? Changelly is here to offer you an exchange option. If you don’t have crypto, you can simply buy BTC or USDT to exchange it for XMR coins. Now how to do this? Choose a cryptocurrency you want to exchange for Monero. Choose the rate structure. Here we have two options: fixed or variable interest. Due to the fixed interest, the amount remains the same throughout the transaction. The floating rate takes market changes into account, so the final amount may vary slightly. Then click on the “Exchange Now” button. Check all transaction details. On this page you can read more about the rate structure and the estimated time of arrival. Enter your XMR wallet address. Please double check before clicking “Next Step”. Double-check all the information you entered. If everything is in order, click on the “Confirm and pay” button. Now you need to send money within 36 hours; otherwise the transaction will be canceled automatically. Copy our address or use the QR code to send the EXACT amount in one transaction. It is critical that the transaction is processed. After everything is done, wait for XMR coins to ring in your wallet. On average, it takes about a few minutes. Feel free to send your pain to our support center if something goes wrong. The operator will answer you within a minute. Is Monero a good investment? You can think about whether investing in XMR coins is profitable or not. In 2021, XMR hit its all-time high at $517, which is a pretty good result for Monero. At the beginning of 2022, the entire market is in a downward trend. So you can consider this red market as a sale and get some coins. Let’s give a clear example of how profitable Monero was last year. Imagine you had $100 invested on January 1, 2021. At the time, one XMR coin was worth about $46. So you would have gotten 2 XMR (let’s spend about ten bucks on the cost). By September 5, Monero’s price had risen to $517. So if you had invested $100, you would have withdrawn more than $1,000 by September 5. Disclaimer: Please note that the content of this article does not constitute financial or investment advice. The information contained in this article is the opinion of the author only and should not be regarded as offering any trade or investment recommendations. We make no guarantees about the completeness, reliability or accuracy of this information. The cryptocurrency market suffers from high volatility and occasional random movements. Any investor, trader or regular crypto user should research multiple points of view and be familiar with all local regulations before making any investment.
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