They Crypto Investor’s Guide: Monero Edition

History

Monero is known as being one of the top privacy cryptocurrencies in the world. It has been around for roughly four years, and was created in the year 2014. Monero was created by forking a coin called Bytecoin. Bytecoin was the original privacy coin that was created with “cryptonote technology.”

Cryptonote technology is the underlying technology that many of the top privacy coins rely on. However, despite using this technology, Bytecoin was believed by many crypto enthusiasts to be inadequate due to a belief that roughly 80 percent of the coins were premined. So, a number of developers forked Bytecoin, creating Monero. The top developers behind Monero are Ricardo “FluffyPony” Spagni, “Smooth,” “Othe,” “NoodleDoodle,” David Latapie, “TacoTime,” and “elzh.”

Ricardo Spagni and David Latapie are the only core developers who are not anonymous. To many people, it is no surprise that the other developers of one of the world’s top privacy coins chose to remain anonymous.

Technology

The cryptonote technology that Monero relies on involves a concept called “ring signatures.” With ring signatures, the amounts of currency for each transaction are mixed with others. So it is impossible to tell exactly how much money is being sent by each wallet address. This makes Monero transactions impossible to trace essentially.

Further, unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use just a public and a private key, Monero uses four different keys, a public key, a private key, a public view key, and a private view key. This makes the cryptocurrency even more private and difficult to trace.

Another key difference between Bitcoin and Monero is that Monero can be profitably mined without the assistance of ASIC computers. This enables Monero to be even more decentralized than Bitcoin and some of the other top cryptos. Decentralization and privacy are two things valued by many cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Projections

Monero is currently priced at around $120. However, during the bull market of late 2017/early 2018, the price of one Monero coin was around $480. Whether or not Monero can return to those highs depends largely on whether or not the crypto bull market returns. The cryptocurrency market at large has been bearish for roughly seven months. However, if things turn around, then Monero could definitely go upward in price.

Monero has the competitive advantage of being one of the most private and untraceable cryptocurrencies available on the market. So, this can help to increase its demand for all those who value transaction privacy. However, despite its privacy features, Monero faces stiff competition from other top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, EOS, Dash, Ripple, Stellar Lumens, and others. But, the future does appear to be bright for Monero.