Edit: I’m moving this link https://www.getmonero.org/ to the top so that Reddit doesn’t autogenerate a misleading preview image

What is Monero?

Monero (XMR) is a cryptocurrency launched in 2014.

Like Bitcoin, it operates on a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, but keep in mind these most significant differences from Bitcoin:

1. Monero Blockchain data is private. The wallet balances and transaction amounts are unknowable; even if you know a wallet address, there is no way to know how much Monero is held in that wallet or the transaction history (unless the owner shares this information willingly). If transacting in Bitcoin is like sending a bank transfer, then transacting in Monero is analogous to paying with cash, where only the sender and receiver have this information. For these reasons, XMR is often called a privacy coin. Moneroj (that’s the plural of Monero) are therefore all truly fungible.

2. Instead of block rewards trending toward zero and total supply having a hard limit, block rewards gradually decreased from 2014 to 2021 and will forevermore have a fixed block reward of 0.6 XMR. This is known as tail emission. Block time is currently about 2minutes, so about 1440 new XMR are created daily. This makes the annual inflation rate about 1% and trending toward zero over time. This indefinite block reward is to give incentive for miners to secure the network and maintain low transaction fees. Currently, available supply is 18.1 million XMR.

3. Instead of ASIC mining used for Bitcoin, blocks are created/verified with CPU mining. Miners therefore are not typically spending anywhere near as much money for hardware as with Bitcoin mining. More info on mining here.

Marketcap is currently $2.7B USD and ranked 26th according to CoinGecko. In 2016-2017, it was a top 5 cryptocurrency by marketcap and briefly peaked as high as 4th.

Currently there are about 25,000 daily XMR transactions. data here.

It is a leading cryptocurrency for transactions requiring anonymity.

getmonero.org offers a more comprehensive explanation on all things related to Monero.

The most active Reddit communities relating to Monero are r/Monero, r/xmrtrader, r/MoneroMining, and r/moneromarket.

Thoughts, opinions, and discussion points

Up until now I’ve tried to stick to the facts; here are some of my personal thoughts and opinions

Because it is private and anonymous by default, XMR has some strong ties to darknet markets and has been a source of controversy as an alleged tool for criminals. That criticism isn’t entirely incorrect, but using XMR doesn’t make somebody a criminal any more than buying and selling in person with cash makes somebody a criminal.

Because of the private blockchain, it’s easier for exchanges to lie about the XMR funds they have. The Monero community is very skeptical that exchanges actually have the Monero funds to back up the orders they execute. Taking self-custody of your XMR is critical to force exchanges to be (somewhat?) honest and for individuals to use XMR as intended.

The community often coordinates Monero Runs or “Moneruns” where hundreds or thousands of users select a dedicated day to withdraw XMR from exchanges. Some people are planning a Monerun on 15 December 2022. Here is a summary of April 2022 Monerun, courtesy of u/bawdyanarchist.

I’m very impressed by XMR because its conception offered something new to the world that is useful in a way that almost anybody can understand (even if you don’t understand how it works).

For the arguments that Bitcoin helps the over 50% of people on earth who live under authoritarian governments (see Alex Gladstein’s work and articles like this one), Monero fulfills that role even better as it offers better anonymity for its users than bitcoin and other currencies with public blockchains.

Combine all of these properties and XMR works very well as digital cash for transactions that do not need to be instantaneous. XMR transactions are not as fast as BTC payments on Lightning Network, ETH transactions, XNO, ALGO, etc.

I would like to promote a great podcast, Monero Talk, where I’ve learned a lot about XMR and keep up with news/the Monero community. Youtube channel and Apple Podcast links. Their hosts have taught me a wonderful truth about XMR: The only thing that can stop Monero is the false belief that it can be stopped.

Speculation time: Is Monero a good investment? I am confident that Monero should survive and hopefully thrive for many years. Everyone should consider having at least a little XMR in case you need to buy things in an untraceable way. I personally though would not choose to hold the majority of my funds in XMR as it does have a unique vulnerability: its private blockchain may be a perceived threat to many political regimes who want to easily tax, monitor, or censor the people’s money. Mass adoption of XMR is therefore hard for me to imagine, as its growth may be hampered if large governments try to declare it illegal to use XMR. This wouldn’t kill Monero, but many people like myself feel it could have a negative effect on market price. I feel comfortable holding 5-10% of my funds in XMR.