NOT SO HIDDEN GEMS VOLUME I: MONERO XMR

By MIKEMILL | MIKEMILL | 21 Jun 2020

NOT SO HIDDEN GEMS VOLUME I:

In this series we will be looking at the best Cryptocurrencies that are right in front of our faces. Sometimes people spend a lot of time and money looking for the newest, best, next big thing. In reality, sometimes its hard to see the wood through the trees.

MONERO XMR

What is Monero?

Monero (XMR) is a Peer to Peer, Decentralized, Cryptocurrency. Digital Cash. It was forked from Bytecoin in 2015 by a group of anonymous developers. Members of the community will try and tell you that one of those people was Satoshi Nakamoto as Monero is arguably closer to what the Bitcoin Whitepaper envisions than Bitcoin itself. Monero doesnt have a public ledger, its not possible to know who holds what amount of XMR and who has sent what amount where. To achieve this Monero implements a unique "Ring Signature" protocol. All transactions are bundled in with "Dummy" transactions, its essentially impossible to decipher. Several reports have come out which say that even top level government agencies cannot crack Monero. Because of this , Monero has gained a pretty bad reputation in the press. A quick google of XMR will pull up countless articles linking it the scary "DarkWeb", Drug Dealers, Terrorists and even North Korea. Its no surprise that many ordinary people maybe be turned off by these links but it is worth noting that, aside from the fact these use cases prove the tech works, everyone is entitled to this level of security and privacy when it comes to their own money.

Lie Bitcoin, to prevent inflation, XMR has a limited supply of 18.4 Million. Monero has also implemented several updates in order to prevent the netwrok control big mining pools have over BTC and to allow for a more dispersed , decentralized mining ecosystem. To mine Monero, you dont need a to invest in big machinery or spend thousands in electricity bills. It can be done from your existing CPU, just like BTC way back when.

Why Monero?

As you can see above, XMR is private, decentralized and is very closely related to "What Bitcoin Should Of Been". Monero is a Bitcoin purists dream. The active community is constantly available to help newcomers and working hard to improve the blockchain and promote it. It has a "Bad Reputation" for sure. A normal person doesn't want to be involved in something linked to Rogue States however what it is worth remembering is that these people wouldnt use XMR if it didnt work. On top of this, it also highlights something XMR has other cryptos dont. A usage. Monero is used, daily, the usage may not always be 100% ethical but it is being used nonetheless. Out of the thousands of cryptos in the space, not many can say this.

Ethically, the idea behind Monero is something that appeals greatly to any crypto enthusiast. Its decentralised, anonymous and secure. A lot of the other privacy coins have "optional" privacy which is arguably not really privacy at all. On top of that, none of them have gone through the rigorous testing of this privacy anywhere like XMR has and if they did, there is not a lot of evidence they would survive it.

Finally, a great aspect of XMR is that it is not a "Moon Shot". There is no real speculation around Monero. If you get into XMR what you are involved in is Digital Cash, that is being used as such daily, worldwide. Its not a buy, hold and see. You can actually go straight ahead and use it. I would say its the finished project if it wasn't for the fact that it is constantly being improved.