What is Monero?

Monero is electronic cash and it is the leading cryptocurrency focused on privacy. 

Some will argue that Monero is what Bitcoin should have been (A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System).

Please watch the videos below to learn more about Monero.

Video transcript:

To most people, financial privacy is very important, but banks, big corporations and even governments are having their records compromised. The undeniable conclusion is there's no safe place to conduct private transactions.

Well, there wasn't one until now. Meet Monero. Monero is a secure, private, an untraceable currency. With Monero you are your own bank. Only you control and are responsible for your funds.

Monero is private. This means businesses can keep their suppliers in secret, as well as citizens escape government repressions and nosy neighbors or crooks.

Monero can also be selectively transparent. And you can choose who you want to see the transactions.

Monero is dynamically scalable, which makes it very different from a Bitcoin. Also the block reward will never drop below 0.3 XMR and the nominal inflation will stay at 0.3 XMR per minute. Monero is decentralized. It has an active development community with more than 30 contributors.

Take back control over your finances and start using Monero today.

How Monero Works

Video transcript:

Monero is a secure private untraceable currency. Monero seeks to be electronic, private cash. It is open source, decentralized and freely accessible to all. In this video we will explain the basics of how Monero works, but first here's why people who already know about it, like it so much.

Monero transactions are always private. With Monero others can't tell where you've received Monero from, where you've sent it to, or the amount involved. Not only does Monero's inherent untraceability help preserve your privacy, it also provides peace of mind since you don't need to worry about how your Monero was used prior to it coming into your possession.

Monero's privacy and fungibility make it true electronic cash. Monero uses a blockchain to securely record transactions. A blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions to which entries can only be added. In a blockchain transactions are grouped into blocks, which are linked together to compose a chain. 

A copy of the blockchain is simultaneously maintained by the majority of Monero network members, the blockchain secures transactions without the need for a central authority. But how does it achieve this?

A block is a collection of payments submitted around the same time. Members of the Monero network called miners  record payments into blocks for a new block to be accepted by the network. It must follow a set of rules and come with a solution to a challenge determined by the previous block. That's where miners come in by using their processing power to solve blocks. By design it takes roughly two minutes to solve a block, regardless of how many miners are attempting. When a new block is added, the network rewards the winning miner with the scheduled amount of Monero. Any attempt to change a past block requires recomputing all subsequent blocks, which waste the energy of anyone attempting it.

This is how blockchain technology and the mining process ensure security of the network and control the mission of the currency.

Now, let's explore how transactions work. Transactions are comprised of what are called inputs and outputs. The sum of a transaction's inputs will always equal the sum of its outputs. New outputs are created whenever someone sends Monero. Old outputs are consumed in the process by using them as inputs in the new transaction. In other words, a transaction is a transformation of Monero outputs belonging to one wallet into outputs, belonging to another. For example, let's say Alice received a 10 Monero output and a five Monero output in the past. And she now wants to send 15 Monero to Bob. Alice's wallet will combine the 10 and five Monero outputs and send them to Bob who will receive a 15 Monero output. Alice's wallet used her two outputs as inputs in the transaction, which consumed them, and Bob's wallet received a brand new 15 Monero output

With the transaction Alice also paid a small fee for miners to include her transaction in a block. Monero outputs are created in such a way that only the intended recipients are able to recognize and spend them. Your Monero wallet keeps track of the outputs on the blockchain that are owned by you and only your wallet knows, which are yours. You may however, share a watch only version of your wallet with whom you choose, which means they can view your balance, but not spend your Monero. Your wallet is otherwise just like a bank account, reflecting the entire transaction history of deposits to it and payments from it.

Let's discuss how you receive and control your Monero. All the Monero that is directed to your public address will be reflected in your wallet in the form of spendable outputs.

All the unspent outputs in your wallet comprised your current balance. In our example, Alice sent Monero to Bob. Alice was able to send Monero from her wallet to Bob's wallet because Bob provided his wallet's public address to Alice. The public address can be thought of as a blueprint because it allows the sender to create outputs, which only the intended recipient will be able to recognize as his and spend . Bob's wallet allows only Bob to detect and spend his Monero. When he chooses. The wallet address itself never appears on the blockchain, so Bob's Monero are kept private.

Now let's review and tie these concepts together. Monero is an electronic currency that allows you to safely and privately transact with whom you choose. The balance in your wallet is made up of on unspent outputs. Inputs and outputs comprise a transaction. Transactions are grouped into blocks. Miners ensure that the blockchain can't be changed retroactively. The Monero blockchain is a secure, global digital history of financial records shared by everyone on the network. While the blockchain is shared and open, there are mechanisms in place that obscure transaction information. Ring signatures obscure the true sender. Stealth addresses hide the receiver. Ring confidential transactions hide the amounts. We'll discuss these privacy features in greater detail in other videos. If you are interested in what makes Monero the privacy centric cryptocurrency, please check out the later videos or visit getmonero.org.