Monero, a fork of Bytecoin, is a popular secure, private, and untraceable currency, built on the Cryptonote protocol using Ring Signatures. Proof of Work mechanism called CryptoNight issues new coins which incentivize miners to secure the network and validate transactions.
Market Demand:
Monero is the cryptocurrency answer to Bitcoin‘s lack of privacy.
Because cryptocurrency prices fluctuate, many treat the purchase of cryptocurrencies as an investment. By purchasing these coins, buyers hope to later sell them at a higher price. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is currently facing struggles because many people do not include revenue from cryptocurrencies in their income reports. In response to these concerns, IRS issued a notice that people must apply general tax principles to cryptocurrency and treat the purchase of it as an investment or stock. IRS has enacted that if people fail to report their income from cryptocurrency, they could be subject to civil penalties and fines.
Monero is permission-less open-source blockchain. The platform is able to remain private because of its ability to continually update its technology. Interestingly, Monero’s software updates every six months. In this way, developers can introduce cryptographic advances.
Monero utilises advanced cryptographic functions to ensure that no one can link you to a Monero cryptocurrency transaction. Interestingly, this technology enables the Monero blockchain to send and receive transactions in a manner that doesn’t reveal the data directly to onlookers. Remember, Monero’s blockchain is also subject to real-time monitoring similar to Bitcoin via block explorers.
The Team
Riccardo Spagni, also known by his internet handle “fluffypony,” was the lead maintainer of Monero. Spagni is an entrepreneur who started his career in software development, and upon discovering the Monero project in 2014, dedicated his professional work to the community. He stepped down as its lead maintainer in December 2019. Spagni will continue as a backup maintainer.
Although Monero has been a very steady and innovative player, this growth has not come without great struggles. The recent discovery of secret ASIC manufacturing of Monero miners has prompted the coin to be broken into 6 different forks. This has not only divided the communities but raised concerns of what true decentralization means.
Despite these looming threats, the dedication of the team to building a robust and secure project continues. Privacy protocols like Kovri and hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S continuously improving the ecosystem bodes well for the project. Additionally, the team continues to achieve development milestones.
The Monero Project has had well over 500 contributors over the life of the project.
Monero uses a Proof of Work mechanism to issue new coins and incentivize miners to secure the network and validate transactions.
Price Analysis for Monero (XMR)
Monero has Rank #19 with Market Cap of $1,513,510,677
Circulating supply is 17,693,702 XMR (1 BTC = 120.98 XMR) and a max supply of ∞ coins. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, there is no pre-set total supply of Monero. Instead, developers chose to increase the total amount of coins by .87% the first year. Each following year this percentage lowers. At this current rate, it will take another 115 years before Monero doubles its current supply.
All-Time High was $542.33 over two years ago and is down -84% compared to the current price of $83.61. All-Time Low was $0.216177 5 years ago and is up 39386% compared to the current price. 24-hour Trading Volume is $182,799,058.
Based on the 30-Day chart, we can notice the descending triangle pattern which is a clear bear indicator.
More promising is a 1-year chart. The price is constantly in a positive trend. The resistance level is around $90. In the last 2 years, this level is retested several times but without success. If the price breakout over $100 we can expect for sure $150 level.
HitBTC is the current most active market trading it. Other exchanges where you can find Monero are EXMO and Bitfinex and is paired with Bitcoin (BTC) and US Dollar (USD). Monero Futures can be traded on Dubai-Based Crypto Exchange BTSE.
Upcoming Events
- Onion address for Getmonero.org
- Wallet scanning speedups (support for supercop ASM)
- Concise linkable spontaneous anonymous group (CLSAG) signatures
- Triptych: logarithmic-sized linkable ring signatures with applications
- Kastelo: open source hardware wallet
- Return addresses
Should I buy Monero (XMR)?
The core use case behind Monero is how transactions are not linkable or traceable because of stealth addresses. Monero is the most popular private coin on the market. This protects sender and receivers while also allowing selective observation of transactions through a public/private view key construct in addition to normal private/public keys.
Should you buy into this private coin? Investing is a personal choice and investors should consult with experts when making financial decisions. It's important to note cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, unregulated and have the potential to go to zero. If this doesn't discourage you and would like to know if Monero made it to our shortlist, check out our weekly Altcoin Reports.
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Disclaimer:
The information in this review has been independently sourced and even though we have made the best attempts to report accurately, we do not provide assurances on any of this information. This analysis is provided "as is" and it is up to the reader to do their own due diligence and research. Altcoin Investor is not associated or affiliated with any firm and the opinions are strictly that of the author. This information should not be relied nor is it to be treated as financial advice.