Monero (; Abbreviation: XMR) is a cryptocurrency which uses a blockchain with privacy-enhancing technologies to obfuscate transactions to achieve anonymity and fungibility. Observers cannot decipher addresses trading Monero, transaction amounts, address balances, or transaction histories.
The protocol is open source and based on CryptoNote v2, a concept described in a 2013 white paper authored by Nicolas van Saberhagen. Developers used this concept to design Monero, and deployed its mainnet in 2014. The Monero protocol includes various methods to obfuscate transaction details, though users can optionally share view keys for third-party auditing. Transactions are validated through a miner network running RandomX, a proof-of-work algorithm. The algorithm issues new coins to miners and was designed to be resistant against application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining.
Monero's privacy features have attracted cypherpunks and users desiring privacy measures not provided in other cryptocurrencies. A Dutch-Italian study published in 2022 decisively concluded "For now, Monero is untraceable. However, it is probably only a matter of time and effort before it changes."
Due to its perceived untraceablity Monero is gaining increased use in illicit activities such as money laundering, darknet markets, ransomware, cryptojacking, and other organized crime. The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has posted bounties for contractors that can develop Monero-tracing technologies.
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