Mandy Williams
The cryptocurrency market has largely been dominated by Bitcoin, because of its popularity and exponential rise in 2017 that made even crypto atheists join the market.
However, despite Bitcoin’s high market value a lot of investors have found out that trading less popular coins like Monero (XMR) yields more profit over time. Also, the fact that the price of such cryptos is still low leaves open the opportunity of an exponential rise as trading volumes increase.
Monero like other coins is a decentralized cryptocurrency, but with unique features which make it is a secure, private, and untraceable digital cash operated by a network of users. Unlike many coins that are founded on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain, Monero represents an innovative version of cryptocurrency because of its highly secured CryptoNote network.
At the time of writing this report, 1 Monero (XMR) is worth $173.74 and sits just outside the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap. In 12th position, the coin boasts of a market cap of $2.79b with roughly 16,095,611 XMR in circulation.
The coin arguably makes up for its low market value with a guarantee of highly secure transactions than other cryptocurrencies.
Origin
Monero was initially launched as BitMonero by a Bitcointalk forum user known only as “thankful for today” in 2014, but Nicolas van Saberhagen originally launched the CryptoNote protocol on which it operates.
The coin has significantly grown through the years with the lowest point of 0.2$ to the highest value of $470.29 in mid-December 2017.
Strengths
The coin had since gained popularity for its possession of ring signatures and stealth addresses. This obfuscates transaction details such as origins, transactions, and destinations from users on the network.
This was arguably an improvement to the Bitcoin blockchain where wallet addresses and transaction details could be viewed over the network.
The use of a ring signature simply mixes up different users input, thus making it difficult to exponentially track subsequent transactions. This ensures a very high degree of privacy.
Block time on Monero’s CryptoNote protocol is currently at two minutes, eight less than Bitcoin’s ten minutes.
Mining of Coins
Just like Bitcoin, Monero requires solving a proof-of-work to validate transactions. According to bitinfocharts, the latest mining reward per block is 4.49+0.05163 XMR (USD 788.56).
Monero vs. Bitcoin
Bitcoin, no doubt is the king of all cryptos, and it prides itself on its transparency. Bitcoin works on a public ledger which makes it possible for anyone from anywhere in the world to access all the past transactions on the blockchain without difficulty.
However, Monero opposes bitcoin’s transparency. It is designed for total privacy. Every transaction on the Monero network is completely kept secret.
How To Buy Monero
Just like many other crypto coins, you can easily exchange other cryptocurrencies for Monero on exchanges such as Binance, Bitfinex, and OKex.
Moneroforcash is a popular choice for exchanging fiat for the Monero (XMR) coin.
How to Store Your Monero
There are many ways to store Monero, but the simplest of them all is using mymonero.com.
Advantages
Monero has many benefits which include
- It is one of the most private and secure cryptocurrencies.
- The transactions are untraceable
- The transactions are not linkable
- The blockchain behind this crypto is highly scalable
- Monero has a solid team behind the scene.
Concerns
Although this cryptocurrency comes with sophisticated privacy features which have led to its rapid adoption, they have also given rise to some concerns. Monero’s untraceable and privacy features will no doubt enhance illicit activities and crime financing like purchases in dark web, money laundering, drug, and gambling, etc.
Conclusion
Monero is currently the 12th most traded cryptocurrency in the world, thanks to its privacy-rich features. This crypto currently sales at USD 173.74 with a trading volume of USD 47,491,500 within the last 24 hours and can be traded on exchanges like Kraken, Bitfinex, and Poloniex. However, its privacy attributes have become questionable regarding its use in crime related activities.
