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If you are researching for the best altcoins to invest in, you would have surely come across Monero. Monero was launched in 2014. A lot of the cryptocurrencies allow public viewing of all transactions, while Monero keeps a high level of privacy. This high level of privacy makes Monero a popular coin, and a coin worth investing in.
DISCLAIMER: I want to warn you –I am not a legal financial advisor. Before investing into any of the cryptocurrencies you should do some additional research and talk to a legal financial advisor. I am a crypto enthusiast and my posts regarding the cryptocurrencies are simply educational and informative.
What is Monero?
Monero is a open-source, privacy oriented cryptocurrency that is built and operates on the blockchain concept. Monero’s blockchain is intentionally configured to be opaque. The transaction details, the identity of the senders and recipients, and the amount of the transaction is anonymous. Along with anonymity, the mining process for Monero is based on a principle that all people are equal and deserve equal opportunities. In our case all units, coins are equal regarding their past history what were they used for. Monero supports a mining process where individuals get rewarded for their activities by joining mining pools, or they can mine Monero’s individually. Monero mining can be performed on a standard computer, and does not need any specific hardware such as the application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
How is Monero Different from Bitcoin?
Bitcoin works on a protocol that attempts to shield the participant’s identity using pseudo name addresses. These pseudo addresses are randomly generated combinations of alphabets and numbers. This approach offers limited privacy as both the Bitcoin addresses and the transactions are registered on the blockchain, which opens them to public access. Even the pseudonymous addresses are not fully private.
Another advantage of Monero over Bitcoin is fungibility, meaning that each individual unit of a currency can be substituted for another. That means that every coin has equal value. The transaction history of individual Bitcoins is recorded on the blockchain and coins that have been associated with certain events, like theft, fraud, gambling could be avoided by merchants and exchanges. Monero with its non-traceable transaction history, offers participants a much safer network and also no two coins are distinguishable from one another, and they are both equal in the eyes of the merchants. Without a level of fungibility, a vendor that accepts cryptocurrency might refuse a unit or a coin because of his past history.
Because of this privacy, Monero has enjoyed a steady increase in adoption since its release. Dark web marketplaces like AlphaBay and Oasis have embraced the cryptocurrency due to popular demand. After adopting the cryptocurrency, these two dark markets provoked a big media coverage.
How does Monero’s market works?
Monero’s market operates like the other cryptocurrencies. The people interested in investing in the cryptocurrency can purchase it through some of the popular exchanges like Poloniex, Bitfinex and Kraken. Poloniex was the first of these exchanges to offer the currency in July 2014. Bitfinex followed in November 2016, listing XMR/USD and XMR/BTC trading pairs and allowing deposits and withdrawals of Monero. Kraken offered Monero trading in January 2017 listing pairs XMR/USD, XMR/EUR. Kraken praised Monero at the time, writing on its blog that the currency ‘’Trades with high volume and liquidity’’.
Monero uses a proof-of-work algorithm. The cryptocurrency’s block time is approximately two minutes. Monero offers miners a ‘permanent block reward’ of 0.3 XMR.
Because of its privacy Monero has been related with drugs, gambling and other disreputable purposes. Recent reports by CNBC are saying that hackers are creating malicious software that infects computers to mine Monero and send it to North Korea. Also reports indicate that Android phones and TV’s were hacked to facilitate Monero mining.
The Bottom Line
All of the cryptocurrencies are very speculative. Monero is one of them, especially because of its privacy and its been related with illegal activities. Although the privacy attributes that Monero has, helped Monero to become the 13th largest cryptocurrency in the world, based on its market capitalization as of February 2018, according to CoinMarketCap. Monero is being traded on some of the leading cryptocurrencies like Kraken, Poloniex and Bitfinex. Monero’s price will be a function of supply and demand. The current price of Monero is $94.76. This makes Monero not very expensive coin for investing. Again, consult with a financial advisor, before taking any steps towards investing in Monero or any other coin.
Until the next post…..DON’T RUSH!
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