Monero Space is an active, project-focused Monero workgroup that provides services to the Monero community. It hosts popular resources and organizes events such as Monero Meet.
Monero was launched in April 2014. It was a fair, pre-announced launch of the CryptoNote reference code. There was no premine or instamine, and no portion of the block reward goes to development. See the original Bitcointalk thread
Monero has value because people are willing to buy it. If no one is willing to buy Monero, then it will not have any value. Monero’s price increases if demand exceeds supply, and it decreases if supply exceeds demand.
Monero uses @randomx, an ASIC-resistant and CPU-friendly POW algorithm created by Monero community members, designed to make the use of mining-specific hardware unfeasible. Monero previously used CryptoNight and variations of this algorithm
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Monero, on the other hand, uses various privacy-enhancingtechnologies to ensure the anonymitprivacy of its users.
Monero uses three different privacy technologies: @ring-signatures, ring confidential transactions (@RingCT), and @stealth-addresses. These hide the sender, amount, and receiver in the @transaction, respectively. All transactions on the network are private by mandate; there is no way to accidentally send a transparent transaction. This feature is exclusive to Monero. You do not need to trust anyone else with your privacy.
Monero uses a unique hash function that transforms scalars into elliptic curve points. It is useful for creating key images, in particular. This document, authored by Shen Noether, translates its code implementation (the ge_fromfe_frombytes_vartime() function) into mathematical expressions.
Monero is not based on Bitcoin. It is based on the CryptoNote protocol. Bitcoin is a completely transparent system, where people can see exactly how much money is being sent from one user to another. Monero hides this information to protect user privacy in all transactions. It also has a dynamic @block size and dynamic fees, an ASIC-resistant proof of work (@randomx), and a @tail-emission, among several other changes.
Monero fixes this problem by being ASIC-resistant: it uses an algorithm (@randomx) that strongly reduces the efficiency of ASICs, making them not profitable to build. Miners can use common consumer hardware, which allows them to compete fairly. The Monero network is currently protected by thousands of miners using 'regular' computers. This results in a network much harder to attack, no miner having significant advantage over other miners (they all use more or less the same hardware).
Monero has made several large improvements since launch. The blockchain was migrated to a different database structure to provide greater efficiency and flexibility, minimum ring signature sizes were set so that all transactions were private by mandate, and RingCT was implemented to hide the transaction amounts. Nearly all improvements have provided improvements to security or privacy, or they have facilitated use. Monero continues to develop with goals of privacy and security first, ease of use and efficiency second.
Monero takes privacy seriously. Monero needs to be able to protect users in a court of law and, in extreme cases, from the death penalty. This level of privacy must be completely accessible to all users, whether they are technologically competent or have no idea how Monero works. A user needs to confidently trust Monero in a way that this person does not feel pressured into changing their spending habits for risk of others finding out.
Monero is committed to providing the highest degree of decentralization in both network security and code development. Its Proof of Work algorithm prevents specialized mining hardware from dominating the network and allows for fair distribution of block rewards. Additionally, Monero's development and research are conducted via global collaboration, and the project is carried out with utmost transparency. Each development decision is open to public discussion, and every major developer meeting is published online.
Monero utilizes a community crowdfunding system whereby projects are proposed for development and community-funded. Funding is held in escrow and remunerated to developers once programming milestones are achieved. Anyone may generate new proposals or fund existing ones.
Monero is a currency and can be exchanged for goods, services and other currencies, privately and with very low fees. Many entities will gladly accept XMR for payments; take a look at our 'Merchants' page.
Monero is a cryptocurrency that relies on proof-of-work mining to achieve distributed consensus. Below you'll find some information and resources on how to begin mining.
