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Our article on privacy coins looked at three popular coins designed to provide users with privacy and anonymity. This article will go further into Monero, focusing on how it works and, more importantly, why privacy coins matter.
Monero XMR is a popular privacy coin released in 2014. The creators are unknown, preferring to use pseudonyms in their interactions. Monero uses Ring Signatures, Stealth Addresses, and Ring Confidential Transactions to keep transactions hidden.
Any previous Monero transactions can hide a transaction initiated from a Monero wallet, making it impossible to know which address is involved in the transaction.
Monero obscures transaction data (sender, recipient, and the amount) by using ring signatures. Past blockchain transactions act as decoys for the new transaction. Monero users Stealth addresses for every transaction that the wallet can only use once.
Bitcoin, since its release in 2009, has been said to be anonymous. Many believe this because of bitcoin’s use of cryptography. While the amount of bitcoin sent is viewable on the blockchain, including the public wallet addresses of the senders and receivers, the data does not give up the identity of the users.
But if, for example, the address is from an exchange (Coinbase, Binance, KuCoin, for example), law enforcement agencies wanting to know to whom the address belonged can go to the exchange, provide the bitcoin address, which can then reveal the individual’s identity.
Privacy coins like Monero are popular because they do not reveal the identity of the user by default. While this has made Monero a popular option on the Dark Web, Monero is also popular amongst privacy-minded individuals who prefer prying eyes not to see what they are doing.
It’s easy to point out the use of privacy coins on the dark web. An often-overlooked reason to use privacy coins lay in a person or group operating inside an oppressive regime may not benefit from a blockchain that allows for transactions to be viewed and potentially traced back to a person or group’s identity.
Privacy coins matter because they add that extra level of security and privacy required for standing up to power in an age of ever-increasing surveillance.
Many wallets support Monero. Some popular wallets for Monero include Cake Wallet, Exodus, Edge Wallet, Trezor, and Ledger Nano S, and Ledger Nano X.
Check Monero XMR token price and circulating supply on CoinGecko
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