Monero is often compared to the most popular cryptocurrency - Bitcoin. But they have a number of significant differences. So, Monero has much more confidentiality, all operations are completely classified, and the information is disclosed only to the owner of the wallet. Compared to the same Bitcoin, all information about transactions is public. Although they do not contain direct data, they can be easy to find, because now large stores and service resources offer their customers to pay for services using digital currency.

Despite this, in some cases it is still possible to find the owner of the Monero wallet: the user can inadvertently publish the address of his coin vault somewhere on the network. Based on this, the team of currency creators strives to protect their users as much as possible and to protect network participants by hiding information about transactions. This design led to the need to resort to ring signature technology.

About the Monero project

The first release of the XMR cryptocurrency was held in the spring of 2014. Then Monero forked bitcoin. But after some time, Ricardo Spagni, the creator of the currency, said that it was necessary to carry out a complete restoration of the project to zero. Then the modern name was introduced, and also a little later they introduced unique software for mining coins, which is based on the power of the GPU.

The publics reaction to the new development was very ambiguous: both fans of the project and critics appeared. The latter appealed to the fact that such user confidentiality could be the reason that it would be used to pay for illegal trades, for example, on the black market for drugs, weapons and others. Others have criticized this confidentiality, which, in their opinion, is actually far from complete. In their opinion, such a cryptocurrency cannot become a technical breakthrough, but is just another amateur development.

Confirmation of the negative towards Ricardos idea was a hacker attack that took place in the fall of the same year, but, fortunately, it was not crowned with full success. Further investigation showed that the team of attackers had a good understanding of the currency code and its mechanisms.

This event significantly influenced the companys plans: they did not have time to design a ready-made interface for interacting with currency, so all transactions could be made only through the command line, which was accepted quite categorically. But by the end of the year, Spagni and his team released the MyMonero wallet, which made it much easier for users to work with the system.

Over the next period, programmers have improved the development in many directions:

increased the speed of block chain synchronization;
added support for many languages;
improved domain performance;
moved chains from blocks to LMBD;
provided interaction with I2P.
After these innovations, there were no significant improvements, the project began only two years later, but even now this activity has not been completely completed: the cryptocurrency continues to develop.

The first months after the introduction of Monero made it possible to use the system only from the command line, so many users actively advocated the formation of a graphical interface. The developers heard the requests and got down to work, but the resource was attacked, so the teams priorities shifted to the vector of defense mechanisms.

Already at the end of 2014, the MyMonero wallet was released, but criticism from the cryptocurrency community did not drain away, because some users believed that the project did not survive any significant changes. But in fact, the creators made revolutionary processes, for example, they transferred blocks to the LMDB, which made it possible to use the currency on computers with a small amount of RAM.

In addition, Ricardo has been able to incorporate support for a large number of languages into the technology for backing up private keys. After some time, the programmers resumed work on the interface.

Monero features

Monero is a cryptocurrency based on CryptoNote (special digital ring signatures). That is why the principle of data processing differs from the traditional ones used in most currencies. This technique assumes that all signatures are processed by one of the ring users (a group of people). At the same time, it is impossible to trace who exactly is performing the transaction at the moment, since all operations are mixed with each other.

In the event that it is necessary to carry out an operation, the sender signs with his key on all relevant outputs with a suitable amount, and confirmation from the rest of the participants is not required. In addition, you can prepare a transaction without an Internet connection, and only later confirm the final version of the payment information.

Because of this principle of action, some network users expressed their concerns about the possibility of creating double transfers, that is, repeated erroneous spending. But the company of creators took this factor into account: during the formation of the transaction, a separate key is also created - a key image, which is a confirmation of the withdrawal. This is why accidental double payments are not possible, as the identification key will prevent a repeated transaction. All account information can be checked at a single disposable address, so it is simply impossible to deprive a user of privacy.

In addition to the identification key, the Monero cryptocurrency algorithm includes others:

spend key - key for spending funds;
view key - a key for viewing funds.
Both of these mechanisms allow you to open access to the transaction to third parties, since initially, by default, only the owner has the key. This is why many criticize Monero for becoming a means of transferring funds in illegal transactions and financing illegal activities.

Of course, the XMR cryptocurrency is a revolutionary project, but at the moment it has a number of shortcomings, which the creators plan to fix in the planned improvements:

a small number of users, which is why large transactions will clearly stand out among the list of all transactions, and this is beneficial for those who are engaged in tracking transactions;
a large volume of transactions that require much more space, unlike, for example, Bitcoin;
mining on outdated and insufficiently powerful equipment is impossible;
low speed of operations;
rather large hardware requirements, since it is recommended to use ASIC processors;
the confidentiality of transactions may be subject to increased scrutiny from various regulatory authorities.
But despite these shortcomings, the project is quite popular among users and makes experts closely follow the development of Monero.

How is Monero created?

Since from the very beginning the creators did not plan to create a cryptocurrency that could be perceived as a complete alternative to the sensational Bitcoin, the Monero project has advanced functionality and more features:

Proof-of-work. The technology creates additional protection against hacks and fraud. That is, every action of the earners is recorded in the system, so there is no need to worry that the work will not be paid.
Unlimited emission.
Simplified mining. Compared to most cryptocurrencies, in order to mine Monero, there is no need to install expensive and energy-consuming equipment. Coins can be mined on a regular computer with an x86 processor.
CryproNote. This technology works to improve the privacy of visitors. For this, ring signatures are used, which are assigned to each participant and allow transactions.
Stealth addresses. They can be transferred to others in several ways: with the preservation of confidentiality and with the transfer of information about transactions and the state of the balance. These are the already named spend key and view key.
Returning to the topic of creating coins, a special protocol does not allow the video card to overheat, with which Monero is mined. No special equipment is provided, but the success of the process, of course, depends on the power of the video card. And it is possible to reduce energy costs if mining is carried out on the main processor.

For this, a special program is used, which can be downloaded from the official website. As for trading coins, you can sell and buy them on any resource where the currency is presented. It is worth giving preference to proven resources that ensure the fulfillment of transaction conditions and security.

Is Monero endless?

One of the features of the cryptocurrency is its unlimited emission. Before the company announced the restart, about 18 million coins were issued. Now the developers have provided for a simple scheme: during the mining process, 0.6 coins are created in each block of tasks.

Strengths of Monero

Of course, such a revolutionary project could not ignore the attention of cryptocurrency critics, who noted the main advantages of the Monero cryptocurrency:

it is not allowed to monitor the operations performed on the network;
the technology implies the use of special ring signature algorithms instead of the usual "public / private" keys;
security and data protection of the system using Kovri;
high speed of transactions.
The main disadvantage of the digital currency is that it is not perceived as a stable and reliable asset; they do not make such big bets on it, as, for example, on bitcoin, which has firmly established itself in the arena of cryptocurrencies.

Monero in TOP currencies

Of course, comparing Monero with many other cryptocurrencies, it is worth noting that it is constantly growing and developing, and in comparison with Bitcoin, its capitalization is more than one hundredth. Such indicators indicate the prospects of the currency, that the development trend is moving according to a clearly outlined strategy, does not intend to stop.

All the shortcomings of the system are now explained by the small number of users, so the company aims to attract new customers as much as possible. Since the effective performance of the ring signature algorithm depends on the number of participants.

Since the company is interested in promoting and popularizing the digital currency, experts predict an increase in the value of the monero rate. For example, the integration with the AppStore has brought great results for the team, because users have perfectly accepted the idea of paying with electronic money. The second round of this development may happen when a number of large companies decide to use XMR as their daily means of payment.

Now that there is more and more evidence that cryptocurrency is confidential and confidential, users are increasingly choosing Monero. XMR is a profitable and convenient investment, so the transition to this asset may happen very soon. But in the context of potentially large demand, difficulties arise with the distribution of the total number of coins issued, because in the event that there is not enough, the value of the coin will fall. It is not yet possible to predict this, but optimistic forecasts and the growing number of those users who choose Monero are increasing every day.

Summing up, it is worth noting that Monero, by its nature, is a completely new and necessary development that allows you to hide information about the sender of funds, their recipient and other data about the transaction. In the modern cryptocurrency market, XMR offers leading algorithms for creating privacy and user privacy. This approach gives complete freedom to all network participants and excludes the possibility of centralizing power.