The Monero Moon (Issue 25)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.
We are back after a five month hiatus :-)
December 23rd 2021
Development, Releases, and Technology
GUI v0.17.3.0 ‘Oxygen Orion’ has been released! More information can be found here on the official Monero website.
The Monero atomic swap implementation funded by the Monero community, Farcaster, has now released a testnet stress-test, the first public release of Farcaster! Give it a try yourself! More information can be found here and here.
Monero-Ethereum atomic swaps are currently being developed and are making great progress as they have already taken place on Ethereum’s low cost layer 2 Arbitrum. Check the tweet below for more information.
Monero Core Team member BinaryFate released a statement disclosing that some vulnerabilities have been identified in the implementation of
Monero multisignature wallets. These vulnerabilities do not affect the theory supporting multisigs, but affect the current wallet code implementing them. As far as I know a fix is in the works.
Cake Wallet asked Inference to audit Thorchain’s implementation of Monero multisig, and the results are good. Thorchain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that closely mimics the user experience of a centralized instant exchanger. Users can issue a command (eg: trade XMR for BTC to this address), then send the XMR, and the nodes will take care of the rest of the trade. What’s especially interesting is that users will be able to provide XMR liquidity without having to use a wrapped asset. Of course, Monero needs to fix its own multisig implementation before Thorchain can use Monero multisig, but the specific code changes that Thorchain made have now been reviewed.
Seraphis, a ‘transaction protocol abstraction’ that Koe has been working on is looking to improve Monero’s keys. Seraphis defines rules about how you can design a real (privacy-focused) transaction protocol without specifying concrete algorithms. This development can allow for a unified address format, provide greater plausible deniability and allow the option to share full wallet history (full viewing key).
In case you’ve been living under a rock like me for the past few months you may not know that SChernykh has developed a decentralized mining pool for Monero called P2Pool. P2Pool combines the advantages of pool and solo mining. You still fully control your Monero node and what it mines, but you get frequent payouts like on a regular pool. No one can use your miner rigs for a 51% attack. If you want to join in with testing the software check out the Github page here, and easy to understand information regarding P2Pool can be found here.
e-mess was happy to announce that they’ve just released the version 0.99 of moner0-python, which is a comprehensive Python library for handling Monero. Download it and give it a try. More information can be found here.
Monerujo mobile wallet recently added support for onion nodes — a first for XMR mobile wallets! It’s available in the latest stable release so download it and get your cypherpunk on! The Monerujo team offer a great free mobile wallet that also supports hardware wallets so give them a try!
As Cake Wallet, a wallet for mobile users, continues to grow, they will be creating a new app that is Monero only. This will allow them to keep integrating additional cryptocurrencies into the wallet app, while also meeting the needs of Monero enthusiasts.
The Haveno DEX team have released some images of their graphical user-interface. Check out their website here. Additionally, Haveno is still looking for a frontend lead developer (ReactJS, typescript) or a small frontend team to build Haveno’s user interface so reach out to them here if you can help out.
The number of Monero transactions in November were at an all time high. A whopping 916,084 private by default Monero transactions were performed!
RogueMaven revealed the Monero Ilaro project. Monero Ilaro is a bootable Linux OS and toolkit designed for rapid Monero adoption by new users that runs entirely from a USB stick. More information can be found here.
General News
Monero featured ‘heavily’ in an older YouTube video from Naomi 'SexyCyborg' Wu that’s been doing the rounds again. Naomi has 1.5 million YouTube subscribers. Watch the video here.
Monero contributor Justin Ehrenhofer outlined in a Twitter post that the FCA has NOT issued Monero-specific guidance to Kraken or any other firm.
Monero Talk recently interviewed Sri Aravinda Krishnan, an applied cryptography post doc at CMU who has co-authored various papers that are laying the groundwork for developing a second layer on Monero, aka payment channels, akin to the lighting network on bitcoin. Watch the video below.
Seth Simmons published “Dispelling Monero FUD”, a blog post that walks through common FUD points and provides responses and resources for each one. This is a great article to read and share with any Monero skeptics.
Monero featured in a recent Techcrunch article titled Massive wants to rent your spare compute power to pay for apps. ‘Massive mines from a basket of ASIC-resistant cryptocurrencies like Monero, based on what’s most profitable at a given time’ to pay for apps instead of using hard earned money. Read the article here.
Monero featured in a recent Slate article titled The Bitcoin Competitor Beloved by the Alt-Right and Criminals. The article frowns upon Monero and attempts to link it to criminal and extremist groups, while failing to highlight the positive aspects Monero, or the fact that just because someone desires privacy does not mean they are a criminal.
Want to gift Monero to someone special this Christmas? Feel free to use this printable seed template from phloating_man.
Exchanges and Merchants
Cross-chain DeFi protocol Sienna Network has enabled Monero trading pairs on its decentralized exchange, giving users the ability to transact privately in two of the world’s most recognizable cryptocurrencies. Check out this article here for more information.
Cake Wallet released a video showing how to trade BTC for XMR in their mobile app. Watch it here. Additionally, congratulations to Cake Wallet for reaching the 200,000 installs on mobile devices!
You can now upgrade your secure Tutanota mailbox privately and anonymously by paying with Monero! More information can be found here.
Mullvad VPN is looking to add support for Monero in 2022.
Community Crowdfunding System
There are a number of proposals open for discussion on the Monero CCS page. These include XMR-ETH atomic swaps and the MoneroKon 2022 conference.You can find proposals here.
Trading & Speculation
BackDownBear provided speculation in the form of a fractal regarding XMR’s possible journey to $4000USD. Check out their post here.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,051,278 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap —$3,778,307,145
XMR/USD Price — $208 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00409 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $237 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00013 XMR ($0.027)
Hashrate — 2.952 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
Apologies for the delayed issue if you have been waiting! Life gets in the way sometimes, but I endeavour to publish The Monero Moon on a regular basis throughout 2022!
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
Issue 24 / Issue 23 / Issue 22 / 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.
