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A Brief History of Monero Explained

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StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |Monero|A Brief History of Monero ExplainedAmong the top cryptocurrencies in the world, Monero (XMR) made a name for itself as one of the best digital currencies for anonymous transactions. Its focus on privacy and security attracted a large number of users from all sides of the legal spectrum. While Monero is one of the most well-known coins in the realm of crypto, it may be surprising to some people that the famous privacy-oriented currency started as a humble grassroots movement in 2014.

Learning more about Monero’s history can shed some light on its background and the values that govern its direction. As such, new users and traders can determine for themselves whether Monero, with all of its features and complex history, should be a part of their portfolio or not. Before even considering Monero as a crypto investment option, people should press pause in their search for the best XMR wallet and take a look first at a quick rundown of Monero’s history below.

What Is a Fork?

Before talking about Monero, users need to learn about forks first. A fork in cryptocurrency is very different from the fork that the average person knows. Rather than a pointed eating utensil, a fork in crypto refers to a change in blockchain protocol.

To illustrate this, think of blockchain as an exceedingly long train track. When a fork happens, the track splits, with the original rail going one way and the fork heading to another. The fork and the original rail share the same background and history, but they are heading in different directions.

Forks happen for a variety of reasons, but they can be summed up into three things:

  • To add new functions
  • To improve upon weaknesses
  • To resolve any disagreements in the community about the crypto’s direction

This is the case for many cryptocurrencies, including Monero. Many altcoins are forks of preceding cryptocurrencies, which develop over time to form their own identities.

The Long, Winding History of Monero

The history of Monero can be described as a long fork story. To get to Monero, users need to learn about two other leading characters first: CryptoNote and Bytecoin.

CryptoNote is not a cryptocurrency. It is more accurate to define it as a new protocol or technology which powers up a new line of cryptocurrencies. CryptoNote was first described in a whitepaper written by Nicholas van Saberhagen (which is a presumed pseudonym) in October 2013. The new protocol addresses some of the key issues surrounding Bitcoin about privacy by providing a way to keep users completely anonymous in the blockchain.

Bytecoin then enters the stage. Bytecoin is the flagship coin of CryptoNote, but it ran into a critical problem. Developers realized that 80 percent of the coins that could be mined for Bytecoin already existed, which severely limits its mining potential. A Bitcointalk forum user who went by ‘thankful_for_today’ decided to fork from Bytecoin and encoded a fresh set of ideas into a new coin called BitMonero.

While thankful_for_today presented interesting ideas for the new coin, the community disagreed with its direction. Hence, other open-source developers decided to fork it in 2014, which ultimately led to the birth of Monero.

The term “monero” means “coin” in Esperanto and quite aptly so. Esperanto is a widely-known artificial language developed back in 1887 with the aims of becoming a universal second language, mirroring accurately what Monero–and crypto in general–hopes to achieve in terms of currency.

Who Created Monero?

In its inception, Monero had a core team of developers with five members. Three of them were anonymous, and the other two were publicly known. Today, there are seven members, which, similar two the previous group, only have two members known in public. Riccardo Scagni, well-known by his username “Fluffypony”, was one of the first five and still serves as Monero’s main developer today.

Controversies Around Monero

The story of Monero is not complete without its controversies.

Monero gained an incredible amount of traction in 2016 when it captured the interest of the dark web. Alphabay, one of the biggest darknet market sites, along with a smaller darknet store called Oasis, integrated Monero as a payment option that summer. The following year in July, when authorities shut Alphabay down, they discovered that a significant portion of the store’s revenue came through Monero.

Aside from these, there are also multiple reports of coinjacking and ransomware, which, unfortunately, take advantage of the anonymous properties of Monero.

Based on these reports, it becomes clear that while Monero offers users well-deserved privacy and security in their finances, there are ill-intentioned individuals who use it for illegal means. One of the biggest topics of debate in the crypto world is striking a balance between the good and the bad because, while Monero is known for the latter, it still has a lot of potential for the former.

Overall, Monero’s history has a lot of ups and downs, and it is difficult to predict how it could change and improve over time. For that, users, traders, and developers alike all need to keep a watchful eye and see for themselves where it could go next.

What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world?

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StrategyDriven StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |Cryptocurrency|What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world?With the growing popularity of the topic of cryptocurrencies, more exchanges offering transactions using virtual coins appear on the market. Under the pressure of competition, exchanges around the world are constantly developing, improving their platforms to be faster and more user-friendly. What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world? We present three of the most popular platforms.

Binance – many years of experience

The exchange itself was established in 2017, but its founder – Changpeng Zhao – had previously worked in teams related to finance and cryptocurrencies. In 2005, he founded the company Fusion Systems, which created, among others high frequency trading systems for brokers. In 2013, Zhao joined the Blockchain.info team as a member of a group working on a portfolio dedicated to cryptocurrencies. Binance was originally based in China, but after the Chinese government banned cryptocurrency trading, the company moved to Japan. Subsequently, offices in Taiwan and Malta were opened. As early as 2018, Binance was the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion.

Binance is not only an exchange, but an entire “ecosystem”. The authors offer users, among others Binance Academy, a place where they can find free, quality materials explaining the principles of blockchain and other cryptocurrency concepts. Binance Labs is responsible for coordinating and financing projects based on blockchain technology, and Binance Research is responsible for providing high-quality analysis. The company also has its own decentralized wallet and even official Telegram channels that keep the entire community in touch. However, perhaps its most important distinguishing feature is its own cryptocurrency, Binance Coin, which enables cheaper, commission-free trading with other cryptocurrencies. The stock exchange can be operated via a web browser, a computer program, available for Windows, MacOS and Linux, and via an application for smartphones running on Android and iOS. Such an extensive structure makes Binance the best cryptocurrency exchange in the world.

More information about the Binance exchange can be found in this article: bitcoin-exchange.uk/binance

StrategyDriven StrategyDriven Editorial Perspective Article |Cryptocurrency|What are the best cryptocurrency exchanges in the world?Coinbase – safety and practicality

Coinbase was born in 2012 and its creators are Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. Initially, the team also included Ben Reeves, the co-founder of Blockchain.info, but after a few months he left the composition of the newly created project. Already in 2014, the platform was used by a million users. Currently, the number of registered and verified users is over 43 million.

As the authors noted, when creating Coinbase, they wanted everyone, regardless of place, to have easy access to cryptocurrencies. The aim was to create an open financial system that would not be under the control of any state, while allowing for quick payments and universal access to financial services. All of this is intended to help level the playing field and lift millions of people out of poverty. The strengths of Coinbase include paying special attention to safety, as well as creating an easy-to-use platform on which both beginners and professionals can operate. It is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States in terms of the volume of trading.

BitFlyer – the whole world at your fingertips

was founded in Japan in 2014 by trader Yuzo Kano. At the same time, another Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox, which handled over 70% of all bitcoin transactions in the world.

“BitFlyer is the easiest and safest way to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum and more,” the authors say about the stock exchange. The company is licensed to operate throughout Europe, the United States and Japan. You can start using the platform with a small amount of just 1 euro. You can top up your account conveniently by bank transfer or via PayPal, you can also purchase with a credit or debit card. There are seven digital currencies available on the exchange, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.

Summary

In this article, we have presented you only the 3 most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in Europe and for many. Of course, there are many more platforms for trading and exchanging encrypted electronic currencies. You can read more about the best cryptocurrency exchanges in this article.

Crucial Investing Tips for 2018

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In the early days of 2018, it’s a good time to consider what’s the same and what’s new as the new year unfolds. With investing specifically, some basic principles remain unchanged, but there are some new kids on the block to pay attention to as well.

Let’s dive right in with a few investing tips for 2018.

Crypto Currencies

Everyone is curious about crypto currencies right now. With the sudden rise in Bitcoin during 2017 and other digital currencies being discussed like Ethereum and LiteCoin, there’s certainly good speculative money to be made. The old idea of “buying on the dips” is likely to prove useful to handle the ups and downs of these internet currencies.

Just be careful about the fees involved with each purchase as small batch sizes sometimes, especially in the case of Bitcoin, become quite expensive to complete. Be aware of how you’re buying the bitcoin and where it’s being stored too.

While it’s common to use an intermediary to make the purchase, it’s possible to hold a balance in a digital wallet like Electrum which is open-source and cross-platform (they have multiple desktop client and mobile apps too). This way, it’s not tied to a digital wallet provider and not at risk from the digital currency robberies that have taken place previously; this is the way Bitcoin was originally intended and set up where an intermediate was not required.

Fast-moving NASDAQ Technology Stocks

NASDAQ stocks are primarily technology based. They’re often quite expensive, but they go through periodic price adjustments where there’s often good opportunities to pick up bargains. At stateschronicle.com, they cover NASDAQ stocks that have recently fallen in price and are worth researching ahead of a possible purchase. Obviously, always perform your own due diligence before diving in.

Re-balancing a Portfolio

When setting up a portfolio, you create allocations for each planned asset class. These are based on your level of equity exposure that you’re comfortable with along with a sensible mix of non-correlated assets where some zig when others zag in the markets. Balancing a portfolio in this manner helps to mitigate steep moves upwards (or downwards) and smooths out the bumps.

For instance, in 2017 U.S. stocks had a banner year having risen over 21 percent. However, investors who put an equal amount into international stocks would have enjoyed over 27 percent return on their foreign investments. A 50/50 split would have achieved 24.5 percent return pre-costs.

 

Rebalancing a portfolio is a semi-regular action that sells down investments that have risen in price and buys more of what has been in the doldrums. While it may seem counterintuitive to sell your winners, the idea is to keep reasonably close to your planned asset allocation while avoiding any whipsaw with inflated investments coming crashing down. By rebalancing, the accepted risk levels of a portfolio are maintained too.

Investing in 2018 isn’t much different to other years except there are more opportunities for smaller investors to buy different types of alternative investments including dabbling in digital currencies. Keeping a sensible eye on maintaining a proper balance to your portfolio avoids overdoing things.

Should You Accept Cryptocurrency on Your Website?

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Bitcoin – and cryptocurrency in general – is creating many headlines in recent weeks. The staggeringly volatile market and the way Bitcoin jumped from $1,000 to over $17,000 within months garnered a lot of attention to the cryptocurrency. The popularity of Bitcoin also brought attention to other cryptocurrencies on the market, including Ethereum and Litecoin.

The big question remains the same: will cryptocurrency be the next mainstream payment method? Some businesses are in a wait-and-see pattern while others are jumping right in and accepting cryptocurrency payments. Should you accept cryptocurrency on your website?

A More Mature Market

One of the reasons why many businesses are still reluctant when it comes to accepting cryptocurrency on their websites is the volatility of the current cryptocurrencies. The way Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fluctuate massively in a matter of hours is not what businesses expect from a solid payment method.

Last week, Bitcoin jumped from $12,000 to around $17,000, before steadily correcting itself to the mid $14,000 level. Customers who paid for products or services when the cryptocurrency was trading at $12,000 will regret making the purchase as the value of Bitcoin jumped. On the other hand, businesses don’t want to accept payments at $17,000/Bitcoin, only to see the value of those payments dropping by a substantial margin.

For cryptocurrencies to become mainstream payment methods, market maturity is needed. With the high volatility we’re seeing today, accepting cryptocurrency payments may not seem like a good idea.

Forks and Alternatives

While the major cryptocurrencies are very volatile on the market, some of the forks are showing that level of maturity expected from a currency. Bitcoin Cash, for example, fluctuates at a much more manageable rate than Bitcoin. The same trend is seen in forks of other cryptocurrencies.

According to a recent report by WallStreetHedge.com, these forks and alternatives are seen as more viable payment options, especially in the eyes of businesses and the consumers who use them. In fact, many services are starting to accept Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin Gold.

Experts believe that the trend will continue, especially with news that several central banks are releasing their own cryptocurrencies. There is no doubt that cryptocurrency is the future, and businesses who get in the game early will be the ones benefitting the most from this new trend.

Easy Integration

From a technical standpoint, integrating cryptocurrency payment processing is a lot easier than anticipated. Since the currencies are already based on blockchain, processing payments on websites is straightforward and secure.

There is also the benefit of irreversible transactions, especially for businesses. There are no more chargebacks to worry about and every transaction is final. That level of security is further strengthened by the nature of blockchain itself.

To make cryptocurrency payments more attractive, there are stakeholders who invest in improving the blockchain concept altogether, promising faster transaction processing and better features for business users.

So, should you accept cryptocurrency on your website? If you stick with less volatile cryptocurrencies and you implement the payment system securely, there is no reason why you shouldn’t accept this type of payment today.