The Monero Moon (Issue 22)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.
July 7th 2021
Development, Releases, and Technology
BTC-XMR atomic swaps are coming soon to the privacy focused Bitcoin wallet Samourai. The Samourai team “strongly believe that providing the ability to hop back and forth between the Bitcoin blockchain and the Monero blockchain without counter party risk, without KYC, without a middleman, without permission is simply adding valuable tools to our users tool-belt”. More information regarding Samourai’s implementation of BTC-XMR atomic swaps can be found here and in the videos linked in this Reddit post.
The Farcaster Group working on XMR-BTC Atomic Swaps provided a detailed community update for the month of June. The update discusses how Bitcoin’s Taproot activation benefits the development of atomic swaps, the backbone of all the microservices that make up the farcaster node are all in place (e.g. walletd, farcasterd, swap-cli), and research on tx chaining which paves the way for building extremely useful protocols on Monero, such as payment channels or more conventional atomic swaps. Check out the update here.
The Comit Network, another group responsible for the development of XMR-BTC atomic swaps, made a post to share awareness of a problem they ran into when working on the PoC for the ‘swap protocol in the other direction’. Unfortunately, with the current Monero version they were not able to integrate the swap protocol in ‘the other direction’ (i.e. sell XMR as the swap-CLI), because it is not possible to create pre-signed transactions on present-day Monero. More information about this issue can be found in this blog post. Additionally, The Comit Newtork team are currently integrating their implementation of the libp2p rendezvous protocol into the swap tool. This will essentially allow the CLI to find ASBs without the need to share connection details by the ASB provider. More information regarding the Comit Network team’s developments can be found here.
While on the topic of tx chaining, Gingeropolous recently contributed to the discussion of tx chaining. Check it out on the Monero Research Lab GitHub here.
UkoeHB shared a new concept called the Seraphis Transaction Protocol. Seraphis is a new transaction protocol in the CryptoNote tradition (analogous to RingCT, Triptych, etc.). The essential innovation compared to previous protocols lies in the membership proof requirements (demonstrating an output being spent exists on-chain). In Seraphis membership proofs you sign a commitment to zero on the output’s address, instead of proving knowledge of its private key and constructing the key image directly.
As stated by UkoeHB on GitHub, “Seraphis is a RingCT-like abstract transaction protocol that defines properties for various proofs, but does not require any specific construction. Compared to RingCT, proofs of ownership and double spend proofs are ‘outside’ of the membership proof (e.g. ring signature). — This allows the membership proof itself to be more efficient, potentially enough for arbitrarily large anonymity sets.”
Check it out on GitHub here, and you can find discussion regarding Seraphis here.
The MMGen software cryptocurrency wallet now supports offline transaction signing for Monero. For more information check out this Reddit post and their Github page.
XMR Core Team member binaryFate released Melo.tools. Melo.tools is a hub for free tools and resources available for the Monero community. It is comprised of seed nodes, explorers, faucets, and a bunch of other useful things. Check out the website here.
The Monero GUI wallet is now available as a flatpak. Check out this page on Flathub for more details.
The React Native App that uses an optimized version of XMRig to run on mobile devices has received an update. Check out the update notes here, find the app on the Google Play Store, and check out their Github page here.
Luke Smith aka mechanic41turk shared an excellent new site called landchad.net that gives a great walk-through on how easy it is to accept XMR donations. Check out the Github here.
The Monero Punks Workgroup provided an update for June. You can find out more information here. Additionally if you could help them out please reach out to the group via their website.
The second Monero Twitter Space is taking place at 1900 UTC time July 7th! Ask questions about anything Monero related live on Twitter. Join in the fun here.
The Cryptocurrency Village at Defcon 29 (2021) volunteers recently held a workgroup meeting on July 3rd. If you are able to lend them a hand reach out to them on the Monero Space GitHub. Any contributions you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
There is a Monero Community Workgroup Meeting taking place on July 10th 2021, 17:00 UTC. Among other things, the meeting will discuss community updates, CCS updates, and workgroup reports. More information check out this page on GitHub. Please comment on GitHub in advance of the meeting if you would like to propose an agenda item.
General News
The Monero Outreach Group published an article titled Vaporware: How to Spot Bogus Claims. The article discusses blockchain analysis companies’ ability to trace Monero. Read it here.
Bitcoin developer and privacy advocate Jameson Lopp recently stated on the Bitrefill To The Moon podcast that he is a fan of Monero because it is more user friendly than Bitcoin for privacy, and he is disappointed Monero hasn’t been more widely adopted. Discussion starts at 6:13.
Monero recently featured in the new Opt Out podcast hosted by Monero contributor Seth Simmons. Episode 3 features Max Tannahill as a guest to chat about mobile OSs, surveillance, and the need for more Monero merchants. Links to the show can be found here, search for it in your favourite podcast app, or listen on YouTube below.
The Why Monero podcast put out episode 7. According to Why Monero, this episode is a primer on how and why Monero stands alone against Bitcoin as a truly private, decentralized digital money. Listen to it here.
Fuzzy_Ad1782 aka Next Past recently published Monero XMR — The Ultimate Hope on their Substack. According to the author, the text is a summary of all the reasons why XMR is the one. Read it here.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb mentioned Monero in a blog criticizing Bitcoin. Taleb states, “bitcoin is way too transparent for a real fraudster to escape end-point busting. And, indeed, other cryptocurrencies such as monero may do a better job”.
Monero appears to be following in Bitcoin’s footsteps in the sense that it is being adopted and used by those conducting illicit activities. Wired published an article titled A New Kind of Ransomware Tsunami Hits Hundreds of Companies. An apparent supply chain attack exploited Kaseya’s IT management software to encrypt a “monumental” number of victims all at once. Wired reported that “the notorious REvil criminal group successfully encrypted the files of hundreds of businesses in one swoop, apparently thanks to compromised IT management software”, and requested payment in XMR. The ransomware attack resulted in 400+ Swedish grocery stores being temporarily closed. Further details regarding the ransomware attack can be found from Sophos and on this blog post.
Bleeping Computer also published an article about the reported Kaseya supply-chain attack. Read it here. The BBC’s coverage can be found here.
It has been reported that blockchain analytics and compliance company Coinfirm has recently conducted an investigation into the sale of fraudulent Covid vaccines, vaccine certificates, and fraudulent health system database entries. The investigation found the scammers to be receiving payment in a variety of cryptocurrencies, Monero included.
Bitcoin maximalist Tone Vays held a live stream to discuss why he thinks Monero is a scam. You can watch the video here. In response to the stream, Monero Talk held stream to refute Tone’s and his guest’s opinions. You can watch that video below.
Exchanges and Merchants
Cake Wallet are held a promotion to celebrate the 4th of July. You could earn 10% Monero when you trade in Cake Wallet from July 4th to July 5th. More information can be found here.
There is a new Monero themed store called ClubMonero.com. They offer unique Monero focused T-shirt designs, stickers, and more. They will be adding new designs regularly. Crypto accepted and they offer free US shipping on orders over $35USD.
You can also now buy Monero merchandise from Monero UK. Check out their website here.
Community Crowdfunding System
There are a number of other Community Crowdfunding System proposals awaiting feedback and discussion. This includes proposals for website development, open-sourcing Monero Ocean, GUI/UX development, Monero video creation and text translation, a Monero meme website, mj’s Q3 part-time coding, and an offshore banking server. The proposals can be viewed here and feedback is encouraged.
Trading & Speculation
XMR has formed an ascending triangle on the 4hr XMR/USD chart. An ascending triangle is perceived to be a bullish chart pattern.
CryptoMorpheus shared a new chart. It shows the current price cycle (as a multiple from the previous top) adjusted for its given inflation at the moment against the past price cycle. Check it out below.
ForecastCity_World shared the below XMR/USD price prediction. Check it out on TradingView here.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 17,947,639 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $4,022,873,476 USD
Monero Coinmarketcap Ranking — #27
XMR/USD Price — $224 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00642 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $257 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00002 XMR ($0.05 USD)
Hashrate — 2.595 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
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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
Issue 21 / Issue 20 / 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
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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.
