Written by Nic Turnbull & Harry Satoshi
Monero is often hailed as the ‘champion of privacy in the world of cryptocurrency’. It is renowned for its strong emphasis on anonymity, security, and untraceability, making it a top choice for kiwis seeking financial privacy and confidentiality in their transactions.
This comprehensive guide will equip you with all the Monero basics, exploring its history and defining features, such as its use of the stealth addresses and ring signatures.
What is Monero (XMR) in NZ?
Monero is a cryptocurrency that prides itself on offering robust security, strong privacy protections, and complete transaction anonymity. It leverages advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure that every transaction conducted with Monero remains untraceable.
Created by a group of anonymous developers, Monero aimed to address the limitations of Bitcoin, particularly in terms of transaction privacy. It offers enhanced privacy features, including ring signatures, stealth addresses, and confidential transactions, which make it difficult to trace and link transactions to specific individuals such as darknet users.
Like Bitcoin and other POW tokens, Monero also utilizes a proof-of-work (POW) consensus algorithm, which involves miners verifying and adding transactions to the blockchain.
In the crypto revolution, from a regulatory point of view, if Bitcoin is the axe, Monero is the blade. Monero – behind Bitcoin and Ethereum, has the third-largest community of developers in the crypto space, and is one of the most underestimated coins in the world.
History of Monero
Originally launched in 2014, Monero was known as “BitMonero”, a name that combined “bit”, as a reference to Bitcoin, with “Monero”, which is the Esperanto word for coin.
Interesting fact: 5 days later, the ‘bit’ was dropped in favor of its current name.
One of the key moments in Monero’s history was how it experienced significant growth in 2016 primarily driven by its adoption on darknet markets, where users utilized the anonymous cryptocurrency for buying and selling illicit goods like drugs and firearms.
However, this led to concerns over its use on darknet markets, and XMR was subsequently delisted from several crypto exchanges in 2020 due to regulatory compliance issues.
Today, it is difficult to acquire Monero on exchanges such as Easy Crypto NZ without having to prove your source of funds, due to regulatory pressure from the NZ government.
Despite these challenges, Monero has continued to evolve and improve. In 2017, it implemented a hard fork to increase the maximum ring size From 5 to 7, making it more secure. Unlike Bitcoin, a public blockchain, it is impossible to view transaction records.
Another significant moment in Monero’s history was the RandomX mining algorithm update in 2019, which discouraged the use of ASIC miners to mine Monero, making the Monero network more decentralized, egalitarian and accessible to the average miner.
The United States Internal Revenue Service also once offered a bounty of up to $625,000 USD to anyone who could crack Monero’s code, after failing to do so themselves.
How does Monero Work in NZ?
Monero's Blockchain
The Monero blockchain is powered by an open-source, proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm, similar to Bitcoin – but instead with the addition of privacy focused features.
However, the downside to this lack of transparency is that it is impossible to know exactly how much Monero is out there in circulation, whereas with Bitcoin we know it’s 21m BTC.
Mining Monero
Monero operates exclusively on the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism.
Monero utilizes the RandomX algorithm which can be effectively mined on billions of devices, including modern x86 CPUs. It’s worth noting that Monero has also introduced a feature called “smart mining,” allowing users to mine Monero on their computers’ CPUs.
This approach aims to decentralize mining and move away from the centralized mining farms, aligning with Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision of a genuine peer-to-peer currency.
Monero's Stealth Addresses
The use of stealth addresses in XMR ensures the privacy of both the sender and receiver by making it hard for any third party to determine the destination address of a transaction.
This anonymity of the receiver is guaranteed by the sender, which is automatically created.
A stealth address is a unique address generated for each transaction on behalf of the recipient, which ensures the privacy and anonymity of both the sender and receiver.
Even though the recipient can share their wallet address publicly, all incoming transactions will be automatically forwarded to a distinct stealth address on the Monero blockchain.
Monero's Ring Signature
Unlike many other blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum that use EDSA signatures, Monero utilizes a more intricate digital signature scheme called ‘ring signatures’.
These signatures are composed of the public keys of several individuals, including one authentic signature and several other signatures from Monero users, known as ‘mixins’.
By utilizing ring signatures, an XMR transaction or statement signed with them can prove that at least one member of the group provided a private key for the digital signature, while keeping the specific individual who provided the digital signature indistinguishable.
To learn more about Monero Ring Signitures, see the official Monero guide here.
Monero's Keys
Monero employs a distinct key system that sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies.
Monero’s Keys: public view key, private view key, public spend key, and private spend key.
By utilizing public view keys, users can generate a unique stealth public address for each transaction. Private view keys are used to scan the Monero blockchain and confirm the receipt of funds. On the other hand, public spend keys are employed to verify transaction signatures, while private spend keys are used to create outgoing transactions.
This comprehensive key system ensures the security and privacy of transactions.
Monero Challenges
Monero, as a privacy-focused cryptocurrency, faces a unique set of challenges in it’s pursuit of providing secure and anonymous transactions to its users such as.
Public Perception: Despite legitimate use cases for privacy, Monero’s privacy features have also been associated with illicit activities on the web. This negative perception can create barriers to adoption and acceptance among mainstream users and businesses.
Law Enforcement: Monero’s privacy features and strong anonymity pose challenges for law enforcement agencies. They are concerned that the privacy provided by Monero could potentially enable money laundering, tax evasion, and other illegal activities.
Despite challenges, the Monero community continues to work on improving the privacy, scalability, and usability of the network. Through ongoing development and education, Monero aims to overcome obstacles and provide a secure and private cryptocurrency.
At Cryptocurrency NZ, we believe Monero is a righteous element of the crypto space, considering the conditions that many hundreds of millions of global citizens live under totalitarian regimes. With Monero, they can now transact safely, privately, and ensure financial freedom and security for themselves- where they would otherwise be restricted.
How to Store Monero in NZ
There are many ways to store XMR but the one that takes the crown is Monero GUI Wallet.
This crypto wallet is a user-friendly software application that allows you to manage and safeguard your Monero funds. By following a few simple steps, you can set up your wallet, synchronize with the Monero network, and conveniently store, send, and receive Monero.
Recommended Monero Wallets
⭐Cryptocurrency NZ Recommendation 🏆
Exodus
Exodus Wallet is a popular crypto wallet that provides a user-friendly interface and supports a wide range of digital assets. It is available for users in NZ and offers a convenient way to store, manage, and exchange cryptocurrencies.
Ledger
Ledger Wallet is a hardware wallet designed to provide a secure and offline storage solution for cryptocurrencies. It is available for users in New Zealand and offers enhanced security measures to protect digital assets.
Monero Communities in NZ
New Zealand boasts a thriving community of Monero and crypto enthusiasts, many of whom gather on popular social platforms like Facebook, Telegram, Reddit and Discord.
These online communities are an excellent source of information and ideas for locals.
Check out our comprehensive list of Monero and Crypto communities in New Zealand:
- NZ P2P Crypto Marketplace – (NZ’s Largest Cryptocurrency P2P marketplace)
- Cryptocurrency NZ Facebook Group – (Highly recommend)
- Cryptocurrency NZ Monthly Meetups – (Last Wednesday of every month)
- NZ Bitcoin / Crypto Miners Facebook Group
- Cryptocurrency NZ Discord Group
- r/NZBitcoin – (New Zealand’s Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Reddit group)
Have a community for us to list? Please reach out to us!
Is Monero a Good Investment in NZ?
At Cryptocurrency NZ we believe Monero can be an attractive proposition due to its unique use cases and strong fundamentals. Monero is renowned for its focus on privacy and anonymity, making it an appealing choice for individuals who value financial secrecy.
However, Monero isn’t traditionally known as an investment coin, but rather a utility coin.
If you look at Monero’s price history, you can see that it reached it’s ATH back in 2018, despite the price mania of 2021 – where most other coins like Bitcoin secured new ATHs.
This indicates that Monero is less reactive to speculation than other coins, likely due it’s userbase using it for genuine transactional reasons as opposed to speculative investing.
Monero’s total supply is also unknown, making it more difficult for the free market to accurately price it compared to it’s total supply. However with that said, Monero as the world’s most famous and leading privacy coin will likely be here in the years to come – enticing investors to take a long term punt on the increased adoption of privacy coins.
The cat’s out of the bag with privacy coins – it’s likely their day in the spotlight will come.
