Monero-review 2018: what we did in the underground

the Privacy Coin Monero has a successful year 2018. Basic enough to summarize the most important events and milestones.

By Alex Roos
On the 25. December 2018ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInxingemail

The year 2018 is almost over and we look back. For many of the dramatic fall in the price of stands in the foreground, but now I would like to throw some light on a matter which is, unfortunately, often too short: the technology.

In 2018, I learned a lot about crypto-currencies. Through my work as an editor, I get the pleasure, in my career with my passion and in the cryptic world of digital money. A project has compelled me since: Monero. To look at 2018 in the rear-view mirror, illustrates my fascination.

What is Monero?

Again refreshed for all of you who do not know so well: Monero is a pure proof-of-work based crypto-currency, similar to Bitcoin. However, Monero is based on a White Paper, namely Cryptonote. It is also not Satoshi Nakamoto is, but here is the Unknown Nicolas van Saberhagen. The focus of Monero is to privacy. In the Watch my Block: Monero, I presented at the beginning of the year, the anonymizing mechanisms. Also, I had the middle of the year the honor to hold on to the BTCM2018 a short presentation about the fungible cryptocurrency:

Monero, private crypto currency – Alex Roos, BTC-ECHO @ BTCM2018

watch This Video on YouTube.

at the Time, there were two major flaws in Monero. On the one hand, the poor scalability, because transactions were solid. On the other hand, the lack of support of Hardware Wallets. The Roadmap for 2018, to meet those challenges. Is it a success?

Hard Fork: Lithium Luna

The project to fluffy pony runs approximately all six months of a Hard Fork. In April it was that time again, and Lithium, Luna went to the Start.

the Protocol has received some new Features, like a Fluffy block, Sub-addresses, support for Hardware Wallets and Multi-Signature addresses. On the other hand you changed the Proof-of-Work algorithm easily to a supposed ASICs to get rid of. In fact, the Hashrate dropped to the Fork dramatically, what is the hidden-ASIC-confirmed assumption.

Because of the ASICs that dug the old Chain, there was some confusion. At first it looked like there were five different Moneros. However, it turned out that there were only two block chains: the official, new Monero block Chain and the old Chain after the Fork under four different names.

in Addition to these freeloaders, also made MoneroV for some time the round. The alleged value is that there is a fixed amount of money. MoneroV should be regarded with skepticism and prefer not to pay claim. Because the Software behind MoneroV could well steal the Seed-Phrase to the actual Moneroj. Since the excitement at the beginning of the year it is, however, still to MoneroV.

Hardware Wallets for Monero

In February, iOS received with Cake Wallet, a Monero Mobile Wallet. Thus, the two Smartphone, at least, was already supplied operating systems, iOS and Android. However, the Hardware Wallets could have to wait.

Because as an unpleasant aftertaste in Open Source projects is no fixed Deadline for Updates. I got also complicated by the fact that Monero is based on a completely custom code base. So here is a pioneer work had to be done and you could not copy, as in the case of Bitcoin Forks, the implementation. In the Community as an answer to the question, when Feature XY would be, the answer is “Soon™” as a Running Gag established.

The Foundation stone for the Hardware Wallets was prepared with Lithium Luna. In fact, Ledger was finally first on the target and you could store the Private Keys for his XMR on the popular Hardware Wallet. Even the Android Mobile Wallet Monerujo support the use of the Ledger Hardware Wallet.

a Little later the competitor to Trezor could follow suit and its Integration for Monero to complete.

Hard Fork: Beryllium Bullet

The second Hard Fork took place this year in October and wore the name Beryllium Bullet based on the bullet proof that have been included in the Monero Protocol.

As already mentioned, was one of the biggest problems is the scaling with a massive transaction size. The bullet proofs the contracted Larger transactions by 80 to 90 percent. Consequently, the transaction costs to a Minimum. Happily, this was not only for Full Node operators and miners, but also for users. Since Beryllium Bullet is a transaction cost just half a Cent. The bullet proof can be regarded without doubt as the greatest Innovation in the year 2018.

the Hard Fork of October brought with it a standard ring size of 11, and changed as a prevention against ASICs is again the Mining-algorithm.

crypto-jacking, and illegal Mining

So much for the positive, technical innovations in Monero. Anyone who has followed actively the crypto-messages will always have re-read the headlines of the crypto-jacking. This is Malware, the cut on the victim's Computer hidden Monero.

The attackers, there has been also 2018 of creativity. Whether via a Chrome Extension, using Word document on Linux, or even at a North Korean University – hackers have no boundaries. In the process, they develop their methods further and further; from the Ghost miner to the king miner. Especially popular CoinHive, a Javascript-based Mining Software for Monero was as a method. It is estimated that five percent of all the mined Moneroj take from illegal activities for their origin.

But even here, not everything is bad. The Torrent site ThePirateBay is using Monero Mining for the financing. Users have an additional support means.

The watchful eye of the States

have pulled the activities of The Privacy Coins also attracted the attention of governments and intelligence services. The FBI has already expressed itself suspicious, and the Japanese stock exchange Coincheck had temporarily taken the Privacy Coins like Monero, Zcash and Dash out of the range.

For me, it is not very important to stress that crypto-currencies are the Problem, and privacy is not a crime.

developed As the legal position further, it will show, probably in the next few years.

2018 else is happening p> For the Monero Community was 2018, an eventful year. Besides all the new Features and the headlines, has – more than Witz – the Chruch of Monero founded.

all kidding aside, Ricardo “fluffy pony” Spagni announced his next project: Tari. With this Protocol, the digital Assets can be managed on a Blockchain. Tari is to run as a Merged Mined Sidechain, parallel to Monero and the security of the Privacy tokens to inherit. However, it is still looming in the distant future. Before 2020, there will be no working product.

For a short Upset the Burn Bug caused in September. It was a burn due to an error in the Protocol, the XMR organization“”. The Bug is not related to the Protocol directly, and could also create new XMR. He was relatively resolved quickly and discreetly. Alone Monero Forks, as a member of the Protocol, the not took the necessary steps were affected.

The Obfuscation of the network traffic could also achieve success. The I2P Protocol Kovri went this year with the Alpha at the Start. Maybe it will be used in the year 2019 already active in Monero, in order to disguise the IP addresses of the users.

The Hidden Champion Monero

all in All, 2018 was a good year for Monero: Mobile and Hardware Wallets, the users improved ease of transactions are now cheaper than ever before and the Blockchain scaled better with time.

compared to most of the other projects, works Monero as a Hidden Champion to me. Hidden not only because it is a Privacy Coin, but also because the project without any Marketing. The resolutions and the Roadmap are the wet dreams of precocious developers, but realistic goals from defenders of privacy. The two biggest problems, the scaling and the lack of Hardware Wallets have been addressed successfully this year.

let's not Forget that this is in contrast to most of the other Krypotwährungen to a pure Open Source project. Monero, it creates solely by donations from the Community and voluntarily invested time to develop. In addition to the technical development of a lot of value is placed on the education of the users. So 2018 has the Monero-Outreach-Team found, and the Community has co-authored the book “Mastering Monero”.

Monero's heart is in the right spot and was able to prove to 2018 with action Potential. I'm curious to see what will happen in 2019.

BTC - ECHO