The Monero Moon (Issue 20)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.
June 16th 2021 to June 24th 2021
Development, Releases, and Technology
There has recently been drama within the Monero Project. On Reddit and IRC there has been discussion regarding Diego ‘Rehrar’ Salazar’s and the Monero Core Team’s roles and duties within the Monero Project. Salazar has since resigned from his role within the Monero Project. This is a somewhat simple but complex issue so I will not discuss it in detail, however popular Reddit posts surrounding the issue can be found here, here, and here. Community members also made a request for transparency reports of the Monero Project’s General Fund.
Monero Core Team member binaryFate provided the General Fund 2020/2021 report. The report aims to provide clarity regarding the management of the Monero project’s General Fund. The current balance in the General Fund wallets is 5637.58 XMR, and 0.09042 BTC. If you want to verify the funds, all key images have been exported, which can be used together with a view-only wallet to see what transactions were spent, and the final balance. You can even find the full list of all transactions since 2016, as well as annotated outgoing transactions for 2020/2021. Check out the entire report for a comprehensive overview.
lza_menace introduced the Monero Punks Collective, a new work-group dedicated to technical discussions and collaboration of tools and services for Monero. The work-group so far offers an online forum, aiming to accommodate a collective of “builders, developers, engineers, merchants, and entrepreneurs — cypher punks — interested in building a healthy ecosystem of tools and support for Monero”. More information can be found here.
Coin.space now support Monero wallets as another alternative method of storing your XMR. Their website claims that “private keys are created and stored on your device and are never communicated with any server or anyone” and their services are “enabled with Tor and VPN support allowing you the ability to route all transactions through an anonymous IP address”. I am not familiar with this wallet provider so please exercise caution and do your own research before using it.
lza_menace shared their website Monero.fail/map that displays XMR Nodes around the world. Please note it is not a full representation of the entire Monero network, it just a look into the peers being crawled from the source node.
Are you a Monero Miner? Celebrate 2000 blocks mined at XMRvsBEAST with 2000KH/s free hash rate via their raffle for 24hrs. Hurry, as this is only temporary. More information can be found here.
Wondering whether to mine Monero? While it is a somewhat altruistic pursuit it can still be fun! Conan4President shared a post on Reddit stating, “It’s not much but it’s honest work. Joined the network with my 5900X. 6 days straight and I barely break even on electricity but I was fun configuring RAM and undervolting CPU. To the Moon…I guess. :)”. Head over to r/MoneroMining if you want to learn how to get started.
Finally, garlicgambit shared a post titled How to increase the number of cryptographers and researchers working on Monero? Part 2. Read it here.
General News
The Financial Times published Inside monero, emerging crypto of choice for cybercriminals. The article highlights Monero’s fungibility and discusses its growing popularity for those desiring privacy. Please note the article is behind a paywall, however you can read it here as a work around.
CNBC published Bitcoin has 3 flaws — and that could set the stage for other alternatives, says Cornell economist. The article outlines a number of Bitcoin’s flaws and mentions Monero’s superior privacy.
Monero was recently mentioned in an Economist article titled Cryptocoins are proliferating wildly. What are they all for? The Economist’s only criticism of Monero is possible exchange delistings. Read a non-paywalled version of the article here.
An Ars Techinca article titled World Bank slams bitcoin, declines to help El Salvador’s cryptocurrency plan highlights the World Bank’s criticism of Bitcoin, in particular Bitcoin’s lack of privacy.
Ars Technica published another article titled Monero emerges as crypto of choice for cybercriminals, claiming that XMR rising in popularity among ransomware gangs.
Jutarnji List, a Croatian news outlet recently published an article about Monero. Read a translated version of the article here.
Monero Talk put out a new video with Monero contributor and ex-Bitmex employee Coding Jesus. The discussion revolves around the inevitable rise of Monero and fall of Bitcoin. Check it out here. Monero Talk also put out a new episode of Monerotopia #20. Check it out here to hear a panel of XMR enthusiasts and contributors discuss Monero.
Cake Wallet founder Vikrant Sharma featured on CoinDesk.tv to discuss Monero. Check out the video here. Discussion starts at 21:51.
The Currency Analytics published an article titled Why Monero (XMR) Is Receiving So Much Attention And What It Could Mean For Its Future. Read it here.
MMA fighter and Monero enthusiast mrPeon has been sponsored by Cake Wallet to help promote for an upcoming fight. Check out mrPeon’s Twitter and show him some support!
Sun Knudsen a privacy and security researcher with 22k subscribers on YouTube published a video exploring why Bitcoin is not private by design and how Monero is different. Check it out here or below.
Brokenomix Crypto Vids published Monero Explained: Why XMR’s tech will make it a top 10 Crypto. Watch it below.
Crypto Conscious published a video on YouTube that provides an overview of Monero and where it sits within the crypto-space. Watch it below.
Exchanges and Merchants
Wondering the best way for you to buy XMR to suit your needs? Check out the Monero Outreach article How To Buy Monero for an overview.
Wondering where to get your hands on XMR? swirlwalletadmin compiled a comprehensive list of exchanges you can try out or recommend to people that want to buy Monero. Check out the list here.
Seth Simmons made a request that if you’ve reached out to a merchant to start accepting Monero, please comment here or on his GitHub issue so he can track the status of XMR merchant adoption. Everyone should be reaching out to their favourite merchants and requesting they accept XMR!
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.
Trading & Speculation
My new favourite YouTuber Chad Thackray recently shared Monero logarithmic regression and risk vs reward. The video outlines the possibility of $8000 XMR.
kwadoss shared an interesting post discussing how liquidity providers, in particular Binance, may be manipulating the price of Monero. Read the post here.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 17,938,576 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $4,001,610,043 USD
Monero Coinmarketcap Ranking — #26
XMR/USD Price — $224 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00661 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $255 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00002 XMR ($0.05 USD)
Hashrate — 2.379 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
Donate
If you like the newsletter and want more of this content, then shout me a round of beers by donating some spare Monero you didn’t lose during your boating accident.
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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 19 / 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.
