The Monero Moon (Issue 19)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.
June 9th 2021 to June 15th 2021
Development, Releases, and Technology
The guys over at Cypher Stack provided a brief update on work related to Triptych multisignature support. Sarang is in the process of documenting a proposed protocol that supports the necessary elements of multisignature operations: generating keys, producing linking tags, and cooperatively constructing authorizing proofs. Check out the rest of the update here, and the original research proposal here.
The Monero Outreach Group announced new public nodes available for all to use. While you should endeavor to run your own node, the nodes are available for convenience and experimentation. Find them here.
semyon2105 has built a couple of Grafana dashboards displaying Monero network and Monero node metrics. The metrics are scraped from his Monero node using an exporter he wrote in Rust. The sources are on his GitHub here.
The number of miners on the Monero network has broken through the 100k barrier once again. Visit miningpoolstats.stream/monero and then zoom the page out in your browser to see the number of miners.
truthtortoise stated that they have started developing a Point of Sale app for Monero. More information can be found here.
Unkn8wn69 shared Monero Operation Security Guide v2. This is an amazing guide and is very extensive, covering topics such as choosing an operating system or wallet, and has been written to help the most non-techsavy users maintain strong levels of privacy. Check it out here.
DenshiVideo shared a YouTube video showing you how to setup a Monero Node and connect to it remotely. Watch the video below.
Finally, while we’re on the topic of tutorials, Anonymous Miner shared a YouTube video showing you how to mine Monero using XMrig in Windows 10. Watch the video here or below. If you are interested in mining Monero I suggest you head over to r/MoneroMining and for more information.
General News
Monero featured prominently on an episode of CNBC’s Worldwide Exchange. A video of the feature has been published to YouTube and is titled Why some hackers are ditching bitcoin for a cryptocurrency called monero. The video highlight’s the authorities ability to trace Bitcoin transactions and speculates that Monero may be used by criminals because of its strong privacy features.
In conjunction to this, CNBC also published an article titled Why some cyber criminals are ditching bitcoin for a cryptocurrency called monero. The article discusses Bitcoin and Monero privacy, stating that while “Bitcoin still dominates ransomware demands, more threat actors are starting to ask for Monero”, and “Monero is considered more of a privacy token and allows cyber criminals greater freedom from some of the tracking tools and mechanisms that the bitcoin blockchain offers.” Read the full article here.
Monero was mentioned by the World Economic Forum in a community paper titled Cryptocurrencies: A Guide to Getting Started. “Ring signatures leverage private spend and view keys, as well as public addresses, to facilitate transactions while making it computationally impossible to determine whose key was used to sign”. Read page 8 for the specific information related to Monero.
U.S. Senator Pat Toomey has urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to “make significant revisions” to the proposed crypto regulation by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the planned adoption of the guidance issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Toomey stated, “While I recognize that FinCEN and FATF’s proposals are seeking to address the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illicit activity, if adopted, they would have a detrimental impact on financial technology (fintech), the fundamental privacy of Americans, and efforts to combat illicit activity. I urge you to make significant revisions to them.” Read more about this at Bitcoin.com.
New York Times best selling author Doug Casey mentioned Monero as an alternative to digital survelliance fiat in countries like Sweden or China while featuring as a guest on the Stansberry Research YouTube channel which has 331k subscribers!
Monero was featured in top business Spanish newspaper el Economista. You can read a translated version of the article here however it appears to be very similar to the recent CNBC news article about Monero.
Johnnie Cosmos published The Case for Monero being used as cash. The article examines the potential of Monero as a peer to peer electronic cash system and the reasons why it is probably the best candidate for this title today. “In a world where surveillance of all aspects of our lives thrives, Monero is anticipated to play an important role as a line of resistance against this ever expanding surveillance providing public benefits, that is, protecting public goods such as the right to privacy.” — Johnnie Cosmos — The Case for Monero being used as cash.
Luke Smith, a well known privacy and FOSS advocate with over 122k YouTube subscribers recently featured on Monero Talk. Among other things, Luke and Doug discuss the importance of privacy, the flaws of bitcoin, and the benefits of Monero. Check out the episode here or below.
Spanish speaking Monero podcast El Monero published a new episode to discuss all things Monero. You can watch it on YouTube here, or below.
Monero Russian Community published a recent news update for Russian speaking Monero enthusiasts. Watch it below.
gigapants shared a Monero sticker design with a QR code that links to GetMonero.org. Check it out here.
It appears ransomware groups are offering a discount for ransoms being paid in XMR instead of BTC. According to Ars Technica, it is rumored authorities encouraged the recent Colonial Pipeline ransom to be paid in BTC because then there is the potential of recourse, via the ability to trace the payment and determine the receiver — something that is not possible with XMR. Stated on the DoJ website: “As alleged in the supporting affidavit, by reviewing the Bitcoin public ledger, law enforcement was able to track multiple transfers of bitcoin and identify that approximately 63.7 bitcoins, representing the proceeds of the victim’s ransom payment, had been transferred to a specific address”.
Check out the video below from Seytonic for a commentary of the most recent Colonial Pipeline ransom payment. Discussion starts at 5:03.
Cryptocurrency Village (previously Monero Village) at DEFCON 29 is calling for event submissions. Fill out this form and submit your talk proposal if you want to particpate. More information about Cryptocurrency Village can be found here.
Exchanges and Merchants
It was announced that XMR is being delisted by Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Newton.co. The news was shared on the r/xmrtrader subreddit, and surprising the CEO of Newton positively responded to the news, explaining that:
“We had to stop supporting XMR for now — our custodian is dropping support and our MPC wallet provider doesn’t support it even if we wanted to self-custody. I’d welcome recommendations on a wallet provider/custodian that supports XMR and carries insurance (we need it for regulatory reasons). We’re huge believers in the importance of privacy coins like XMR, and this is not a fight we’re going to give up on that easily.”
In the meantime, check out this blog post for further information if you use Newton.co.
MarketplaceGOLD shared an amazing resource outlining where Monero is accepted around the world. There are over 1000 merchants accepting Monero. Check it out here.
A Bity ATM was recently spotted in Geneva, Switzerland. Bity’s ATM network offers anyone, of any experience level, the ability to instantly and securely buy Monero, with Swiss Francs (CHF) and Euro (EUR) at physical terminals in Switzerland. Their website claims to offer low transaction fees and real time pricing updated every 5 seconds. Find your nearest Bity ATM here.
You can now support QubesOS by making donations in Monero!
In case you missed it, Travala accept XMR as payment for you to book your hotels anywhere in the world.
Community Crowdfunding System
There are a number of other Community Crowdfunding System proposals awaiting feedback and discussion. This includes proposals for mj’s Q3 part-time coding and an offshore banking server. The proposals can be viewed here and feedback is encouraged.
Additionally, listen to Diego ‘Rehrar’ Salazar on Monero TV discuss the issues that arise when being funded via the Community Crowdfunding System to contribute to Monero. Check out the video here.
Trading & Speculation
XMR/USD is flirting with a breakout back above the 20 week simple moving average. A breakout above with retest confirmation would signal bullish price continuation.
XMR/USD has found support on the 200 day simple moving average. Price action will be bullish if the 20 day SMA can cross back above the 50 and 100 day SMA.
Don Yakka shared a possible long term XMR price prediction. Check it out here.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 17,932,330 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $5,054,668,545 USD
Monero Coinmarketcap Ranking — #27
XMR/USD Price — $281 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00695 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $294 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00002 XMR ($0.05 USD)
Hashrate — 2.668 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
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Support Monero
Want to help contribute to the Monero Project? Developers, marketers, event coordinators, translators, Instagram personalities, meme creators, public speakers — whatever your skills may be, it is extremely likely there is something you can do to assist. I urge you to reach out to the Monero community on Reddit, IRC (double check this as the Monero channels are currently migrating to Libera.Chat), GitHub, Twitter, or Telegram.
Past Issues
Past issues can be found here: Issue 18 / Issue 17 / Issue 16 / Issue 15 / Issue 14 / Issue 13 / Issue 12 / Issue 11 / Issue 10 / Issue 9 / Issue 8 / Issue 7 / Issue 6 / Issue 5 / Issue 4 / Issue 3 / Issue 2 / Issue 1
If you have any suggestions, corrections, or feedback, please contact me on Twitter @johnfoss69 or on Reddit u/johnfoss68.
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DISCLAIMER: This publication contains opinion for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Information may contain errors and omissions. Use solely at your own risk. The author of this publication and/or the authors of articles linked to from this site may have financial investments that may bias their opinions, including ownership of Monero currency. Always do your own research, form your own opinions, and never take risks with money or trust third parties with out verifying their credibility.
