- Fresh Codebase: Unlike many cryptocurrencies, Monero was written from the ground up to prioritize privacy and anonymity, avoiding the pitfalls of being just another Bitcoin clone.
- No Premine: Monero did not have a pre-mine or instant mine, promoting a fair launch where coins were distributed equitably from day one.
- Layer One Privacy: Monero integrates privacy at the protocal layer, meaning all transactions are private by default, not merely an opt-in feature or dependent upon a second layer.
- Fungibility: All Monero coins are indistinguishable from one another, ensuring true fungibility. This means you don't have to worry about the "taint" from previous transactions, as each coin carries no history.
- Confidential Amounts: Transaction amounts are obfuscated to thwart tracing by amount.
- Dynamic Blocksize: Transaction volume is not restriced by an arbitrary cap, ensuring your transactions are processed quickly and inexpensively.
- User Experience: Monero offers an intuitive user experience where privacy features are automatic, requiring no extra configurations or knowledge.
- Wide Acceptance: It's accepted by many online vendors due to its privacy and fungibility, offering users a practical option for transactions where privacy is paramount.
- Cost-Effective Transactions: Monero's transaction fees are typically lower than many alternatives, making it appealing for users mindful of costs.
- Stealth Addresses: Monero employs stealth addresses to cloak the transaction's destination, ensuring that the receiver's wallet address remains private.
- Ring Signatures: Each Monero transaction is obscured within a group of others, making it nearly impossible to trace the true source or destination of funds. Because this is a weak point in Moneros default privacy, this is being improved to include every transaction that has ever occurred rather than just hiding in a crowd of 16.
- ASIC-Resistant PoW: By using Cryptonight, Monero's Proof of Work is designed to be resistant to ASICs, encouraging mining with general-purpose hardware and supporting decentralization.
- Open-Source Development: Monero benefits from over 240 developer contributions, funded by community donations, ensuring transparency and community involvement.
- Future-Proof Privacy: Monero's development roadmap includes enhancements for quantum resistance to stay ahead of potential future threats to privacy.
- Network Invisibility: Monero's Kovri project encrypts and routes transactions through the I2P Invisible Internet Project nodes to protect your from network monitoring.
- High Security Encryption: Monero uses the Ed25519 elliptic curve, providing robust protection against theft with cutting-edge cryptography.
- Store of Value: While not as widely recognized for its value retention as Bitcoin, Monero's focus on privacy means users gain genuine utility rather than speculative value.
I probably had my toddler screaming in the background as I wrote this. If you enjoy the post, throw a few sats to help this dissatisfied employee of the rat race.
You forgot the important piece: MONERO IS TRACEABLE
https://v.nostr.build/D4Nzp22vRF35IRnz.mp4
and is run by gov agents come on, go on, downzap this comment with your sats if you dare! That means you will have less sats...
You obviously didnt even watch the video.
"I'm going to explain why I think Monero is super cool. It really is the frontline of the arms race between cryptographers and investigators like us...Monero has an incredible developer team they are always looking for weaknesses in their privacy protocols, and so they're really proactive in making their protocol the most secure and private that it can be. So theres just really interesting things happning here cryptographically and so that means we also have to do interesting things to >>>try<<< and track it."
"I'm not feeling super confident about this"
"It appears"
"We believe"
They basically only managed to trace it because the target used a chainalaysis node to broadcast their transaction + coordinated with centralized swap services + user didn't hide their IP address. Who would've thought? 🤷♂️
Remove any one of those 3 and they wouldn't have been able to.
See #879654
Thanks. More good quotes from the video.
It's so funny when Bitcoin maxis bring up this video because most of them obviously have never watched it. This was highly targeted and the user made many mistakes.
Imagine instead of Bitcoin the user had been transacting with Bitcoin. It wouldn't have required even half these mistakes to trace it lmao. FCMP upgrade will make even this attack impossible soon.
As for run by gov agents, look in your own family, many bitcoiners are feds... Obviously... And the core devs have no desire for base layer privacy. Transparent blockchain has always been as selling point as it helps with being "regulatory compliance" and "number go up".
Come to the dark side Darth. Bitcoin is fine. I love it and use it, but stop pissing on monero just for the sake of your ego. It's clearly != as XRP or SOL or some memecoin
Why would I downzap?
You paid to post in a territory you have muted. That I own. So you just gave me your sats. Winning.
Plus saying monero is traceable is laughable when compared to bitcoins... Are you honestly going to tell me that if someone has 6,000 bitcoin or the equivalent economic value in monero, the bitcoins will be harder to trace? Mind you the capacity of the lightning chain is < 6,000 so good luck using that to hide.
The point I'm making is that the protocols are different, and ONE is obviously more privacy focused. Do you disagree?
@DarthCoin
No Premine: Monero did not have a pre-mine or instant mine, promoting a fair launch where coins were distributed equitably from day one.Layer One Privacy: Monero integrates privacy at the protocal layer, meaning all transactions are private by default, not merely an opt-in feature or dependent upon a second layer.
Fungibility: All Monero coins are indistinguishable from one another, ensuring true fungibility. This means you don't have to worry about the "taint" from previous transactions, as each coin carries no history.
Confidential Amounts: Transaction amounts are obfuscated to thwart tracing by amount.
Dynamic Blocksize: Transaction volume is not restriced by an arbitrary cap, ensuring your transactions are processed quickly and inexpensively.
User Experience: Monero offers an intuitive user experience where privacy features are automatic, requiring no extra configurations or knowledge.
Wide Acceptance: It's accepted by many online vendors due to its privacy and fungibility, offering users a practical option for transactions where privacy is paramount.
Cost-Effective Transactions: Monero's transaction fees are typically lower than many alternatives, making it appealing for users mindful of costs.
Stealth Addresses: Monero employs stealth addresses to cloak the transaction's destination, ensuring that the receiver's wallet address remains private.
Ring Signatures: Each Monero transaction is obscured within a group of others, making it nearly impossible to trace the true source or destination of funds. Because this is a weak point in Moneros default privacy, this is being improved to include every transaction that has ever occurred rather than just hiding in a crowd of 16.
ASIC-Resistant PoW: By using Cryptonight, Monero's Proof of Work is designed to be resistant to ASICs, encouraging mining with general-purpose hardware and supporting decentralization.
Open-Source Development: Monero benefits from over 240 developer contributions, funded by community donations, ensuring transparency and community involvement.
Network Invisibility: Monero's Kovri project encrypts and routes transactions through the I2P Invisible Internet Project nodes to protect your from network monitoring.
Store of Value: While not as widely recognized for its value retention as Bitcoin, Monero's focus on privacy means users gain genuine utility rather than speculative value.
Honest questions.
This comment is a classic example of someone throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Let me address the key points:
I could go on, but most of these criticisms apply equally or more severely to Bitcoin, while ignoring Monero's fundamental privacy advantages.
Thank you for your comment.
Let me speak to some of what you said... understanding that I approach this conversation in seriously good faith.
I have spent 'hours' on r/Monero reading and looking, searching, asking questions (rhetorically of course I don't have a Reddit account) and none of the issues that you've brought up are actually getting addressed.
Bitcoin transactions are not visible on chain. I use Lightning every single day, and my Lightning transactions aren't visible not to mention I can open new 'Lightning nodes' on a phone that's a brand new node pretty quickly?
It's not that 'monero is tainted'... it's that governments don't accept 'coinjoined' coins to include Monero in many cases. No it's not a technical issue it's a regulatory one. Having said that... even if a 'coin is tainted' you can still open a Lightning channel with it, and send from it with excellent privacy to an exchange and the exchange has no idea what the sending node is, or the channel-opening UTXO if you're the sender.
No this may not be "perfect" but it's faster and cheaper than on-chain anything.
When you pay with Lightning... how do they see your transaction history?
I don't agree with the 'tail emission' of Monero. Why? Because it sounds like there was little/no incentive for the miners to 'keep mining' and so the 'tail emission' was added later.... to make sure the miners continued in the absence of a dynamic fee market?
I don't deny that Monero is used in DNMs... I just have no interest in them. I'm interested in regular commerce and saving, plus buying gift cards to the extent available to pay for occasional day-to-day expenses. How many coffee shops, bars, and restaurants accept Monero in Europe? I mean I guess its some... but it's hard enough to get them to accept Bitcoin introducing them to something else would confuse them even more.
As far as an 'inflation bug' I need to do more research on this. However I have every reason to believe that Bitcoin's supply is easily verified through command-line. Monero's? Even the people on r/Monero aren't sure when they get to talking about it.
As far as hard forks are concerned... there are comments on r/Monero about how slow/uneven/uncoordinated the planned upgrades and hardforks are. When they take place... what they entail... and even who's doing them? Do i want Bitcoin which is super hard to change to store wealth... or something which is planning on 'changing' to try to onboard merchants where they have to contend with a hard fork?
I personally believe that privacy is more nuanced... and when and if Monero gets the 'hard fork' plus something like Lightning I'll be interested. However those things don't exist yet.
After all, just from a practical standpoint, how am i to send 5 sats worth or the equivalent with Monero instantly like I can on Stacker News?
FYI - https://www.moneroinflation.com/
Lightning transactions may be private, but they're anchored to Bitcoin's transparent blockchain. Every channel opening and closing transaction is permanently visible, creating immutable fingerprints that can be analyzed. With Monero, privacy exists at the protocol level - there's no transparent base layer to compromise your privacy.
You mention creating new Lightning nodes on phones, but this glosses over the technical complexity required to do this securely. Most people use KYC versions of the LN or custiodial due to UX issues with the LN. Monero's privacy works automatically without requiring expert knowledge of channel management, routing, and proper node configuration.
The distinction between exchanges rejecting Monero for "regulatory reasons" rather than "technical issues" actually proves Monero's effectiveness. Regulators pressure exchanges precisely because Monero's privacy works too well to be easily surveilled.
When you pay with Lightning, your channel opening/closing transactions are visible on-chain. Chain analysis can link these to your identity, especially if you've ever used KYC services. With enough data points, your Lightning privacy can be compromised. Not to mention that if LN was a perfect privacy solution, I think it would be getting attacked more like Monero getting the boot from a lot of exchanges (the bounty to crack it) and the Samourai Wallet devs and Tornado devs. When it REALLY works, they come for you.
This wasn't "added later" - it was part of Monero's original design to ensure long-term security. Bitcoin faces a potential security cliff when block rewards diminish and must rely solely on transaction fees. And Monero is STILL deflationary because even with a tail supply, the percentage that that tail represents compared to the total will keep declining. And it helps to replace coins that were lost due to entropy such as people losing access... I've heard really fascinating arguments about the tail of Monero vs Bitcoins hard stop. I'd argue a hard stop is actually not going to be great for bitcoin, but that's down the road.
Monero's supply is verifiable through mathematical proofs. It's just a little more complex of a process than verifying the supply of bitcoin.
5 sat payments aren't that interesting IMO... But Lightning's capacity for micropayments is a separate innovation that could theoretically be built on any base layer.
The fundamental difference remains: Bitcoin bolts privacy features onto a transparent system, while Monero builds privacy into its foundation. This architectural difference creates entirely different security and privacy models.I respectfully believe... that these things aren't that complicated. There isn't much... 'node configuration' involved? People just want decent money that isn't confiscated, censored, or inflated away by a central bank. In other words, privacy for better or worse for most people is an afterthought...
And while I agree that the 'opening transaction' is public... what happens within the Lightning channel isn't published anywhere. For example... opening a channel, swapping out through to on-chain (depleting the outbound liquidity) then closing the channel and discarding/donating the UTXO to a developer (LOL). Anyone tracking that UTXO... has nothing to go by? Your 'new' UTXO has no previous on-chain record right?
I'm not an expert on this stuff but there a lot of sophisticated tools that essentially accomplish the same things.
"Not to mention that if LN was a perfect privacy solution, I think it would be getting attacked more like Monero getting the boot from a lot of exchanges (the bounty to crack it) and the Samourai Wallet devs and Tornado devs."
I'm not sure that Samourai Wallet's privacy was necessarily that great... I think if those guys had not 'poked the bear' the governments wouldn't have come after them. They were really outspoken about just how much they wanted criminals to use their services.
I mean talk about post a target on one's back... what were those guys thinking?
I could absolutely be wrong (we all could be) but I am very skeptical that the declining block reward will be an issue for Bitcoin for a very long time. With ongoing adoption, large institutions, individuals, and even countries (imo) there will always be on-chain demand even if most of it right now is speculation/jpegs.
Eventually most of the on-chain demand IMO will be opening and closing Lightning channels in order to spend (or splicing channels to make them bigger or smaller) and the demand for this will be more than enough.
"5 sat payments aren't that interesting IMO... But Lightning's capacity for micropayments is a separate innovation that could theoretically be built on any base layer." I respectfully disagree... Lightning is doing something traditional payment methods absolutely cannot do and that's instant micropayments. Even other 'cryptos' can't because they are not proof-of-work so their tokens don't really count (my opinion).
This.
Yes? Lot's of comments it seems.