What is Monero (XMR)? Decoding this privacy crypto

Cryptocurrencies have gained immense popularity in recent years, owing to several factors with one of them being the anonymity feature. Though most of them are aimed to enhance the privacy and anonymity of transactions, whether they achieve success or not, is unpredictable. While some cryptos allow public viewing of their transactions, others do not and keep the privacy feature as their top priority.

One such privacy coin is Monero, which is mainly sought-after for its privacy-oriented features.

So, let’s take a deep dive into Monero cryptocurrency.

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Launched in 2014, Monero is an open-source, secure, untraceable, privacy-oriented crypto. Its blockchain is intentionally configured to be opaque. In other words, Monero’s platform uses a special kind of cryptography, ensuring all of its transactions remain 100% unlinkable and untraceable. Here, the identity of senders and recipients as well as the transaction amount is kept anonymous by disguising addresses used by participants.

In fact, privacy and security are Monero’s biggest priorities, followed by ease of use and efficiency. CryptoNight is a consensus mechanism used by this crypto, which is based on the proof-of-work mechanism, preventing big mining farms from becoming a dominant force.

Its blockchain ecosystem is powered by the RandomX protocol. The crypto makes use of a one-time ring signature algorithm to perform anonymous transactions. Moreover, to ensure that transactions do not get linked to one another, and used for only one time, stealth addresses are created for each transaction.

Monero’s native token is known as XMR. At the time of writing, the crypto is trading at US$149.23 with a rise of 1.40% over the previous day.

Interestingly, the crypto isn’t listed on some of the major crypto exchanges, for it is a privacy coin. However, it can be bought on Binance, Kraken, SleathEx, etc.

Is Monero used by criminals?

Owing to its distinctive anonymity feature, this privacy coin is increasingly being used by criminals to fuel their illicit activities.

According to a research in 2021, it was suggested that Bitcoin remains the criminal’s cryptocurrency of choice, majorly because it is easier to use. However, there has been a marked rise in the number of darknet markets that accept the XMR coin.

Hence, governments all around the world, particularly the US, have offered whooping sums as rewards to anyone who can crack Monero’s code.

Bottom Line

Owing to its distinctive privacy features, Monero is attracting much attention. If the crypto is able to sustain this momentum along with positive dynamics of the crypto market, it might see a rise in its prices. Nonetheless, a cautious and vigilant approach needs to be followed when investing in cryptocurrencies, for these digital assets are highly volatile and speculative.

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