summary: Monero is a digital currency that provides a high degree of anonymity for users and their transactions and it was launched in 2014.
content: Monero (XMR) is an open-source, peer-to-peer, and privacy-oriented cryptocurrency that provides a high degree of anonymity for users and their transactions and it was launched in 2014. Monero's blockchain is designed to be opaque, obscuring the identity of senders and recipients, as well as the amount of each transaction, through the use of disguised addresses. History Monero is a cryptocurrency that originated from Bytecoin, an application layer protocol created to address issues with Bitcoin, such as traceability, mining centralization, and irregular coin emission. Bytecoin was launched in March 2014 and subsequently forked by a Bitcointalk forum user known as thankful\_for\_today, resulting in the new project BitMonero (coined from Bitcoin and Monero) with Monero meaning "coin" in Esperanto. The release of BitMonero was met with substantial criticism from the initial community backing it, resulting in a fork of the project to create Monero. Seven community members, led by Fluffypony (Riccardo Spagni), formed the first Monero Core team and launched the project in April 2014 without any premine. In December 2019, Riccardo Spagni, Monero's lead maintainer stepped down from the project in an effort to further decentralize the project. "I'm stepping back as lead maintainer, but continuing on as a maintainer, to further decentralise the project. I've been talking about doing this for two years, since I stepped back as lead maintainer on the Monero website and Monero GUI projects, so it should come as no surprise." - Riccardo Spagni told DeCrypt Technology The Monero network has three basic mechanisms implemented to ensure complete anonymity when using its network: Ring Signatures This is a digital signature that can be signed by any member of a specific group of people with private keys. Monero uses Ring Signatures to mix the digital signature of the individual making an XMR transaction with other users' signatures before recording it on the blockchain. To anyone observing, it’s impossible to tell whose key was used to sign, making the transaction anonymous. Stealth addresses Stealth addresses require the sender to form a random, one-time address for every transaction so that different payments cannot be traced to the same payee. The use of these stealth addresses enables concealing the actual destination address of a transaction, and it hides the identity of the receiving participant. Ring confidential transactions (Ring CT) Most cryptocurrencies transmit transaction amounts in plain text, visible to any observer. Monero networks, however, employ cryptographic obligations that allow users to prove sufficient funds to send a certain amount without disclosing it. This makes it difficult to determine a "richest list" of users. Tokenomics Monero uses a proof-of-work consensus mechanism – miners deploy their computer hardware to solve resource-intensive problems and receive a reward in the form of XMR when they successfully add a new block to the Monero blockchain. Monero block times are 2 minutes on average. There is no maximum limit set on how many XMR coins can exist. However, the XMR inflation is designed to slow down over time. Mining on Monero Monero uses a PoW algorithm, RandomX, to validate transactions. The method was introduced in November 2019 to replace the former algorithm CryptoNightR. Both were designed to be ASIC-resistant. Monero can be mined somewhat efficiently on consumer-grade hardware, such as x86, x86-64, ARM, and GPUs, a design decision that was based on Monero's opposition to mining centralization that ASIC mining creates. However, it has also resulted in Monero's popularity among malware-based non-consensual miners. In October 2021, the Monero project introduced P2Pool, a mining pool running on a sidechain that gives participants full control of their node as with solo mining configurations. Illicit Use Darknet markets Monero is a common medium of exchange on darknet markets. In August 2016, dark market AlphaBay permitted its vendors to start accepting Monero as an alternative to bitcoin. The site was taken offline by law enforcement in 2017, but it was relaunched in 2021 with Monero as the sole permitted currency. Mining malware Hackers embedded malware into websites and applications that hijack victim CPUs to mine Monero (sometimes called cryptojacking). In late 2017, Coinhive, a JavaScript implementation of a Monero miner embedded in websites and apps, was blocked by malware and antivirus service providers, in some cases due to hackers. Coinhive was introduced as an alternative to advertisements, enabling websites or apps to embed a script that allows for the website visitor's CPU to mine the cryptocurrency while consuming the content of the webpage, with the site or app owner receiving a percentage of the mined coins. In some instances, this activity was conducted without informing visitors or using all available system resources. As a result, the script was subsequently blocked by companies providing ad-blocking subscription lists, antivirus services, and antimalware services. Coinhive had previously been found hidden in Showtime-owned streaming platforms and Starbucks Wi-Fi hotspots in Argentina. Researchers in 2018 identified similar malware that mined Monero and sent it to Kim Il-sung University in North Korea. Ransomware Monero is sometimes used by ransomware groups. According to CNBC, in the first half of 2018, Monero was used in 44% of cryptocurrency ransomware attacks. One group behind the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, the Shadow Brokers, attempted to exchange the ransom they collected in bitcoin to Monero. Ars Technica and Fast Company reported that the exchange was successful, but BBC News reported that the service the criminal attempted to use, ShapeShift, denied any such transfer. The Shadow Brokers began accepting Monero as payment later in 2017. In 2021, CNBC, the Financial Times, and Newsweek reported that demand for Monero was increasing following the recovery of a bitcoin ransom paid in the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack. The May 2021 hack forced the pipeline to pay a $4.4M ransom in bitcoin, though a large portion was recovered by the United States federal government the following month. The group behind the attack, DarkSide, normally requested payment in either bitcoin or Monero, but charge a 10–20% premium for payments made in bitcoin due to its increased traceability risk. Ransomware group REvil removed the option of paying ransom in bitcoin in 2021, demanding only Monero. 