According to the official website, Monero is a “safe, confidential, untraceable currency.” Some may think that such a definition applies to bitcoin, but in terms of privacy and the impossibility of tracking it is not. Monero is a digital currency that utilizes cryptography of another type, to provide these characteristics. This guide will help those who are only acquainted with Monero, to figure out what this crypto currency differs from bitcoin.

Comparison

There is a common misconception that bitcoin is untraceable digital money. However, the idea of bitcoin is that all transactions can be seen in a public registry called bacchanal. This is helpful because it allows anyone to check whether this transaction occurred, it is especially important for operations that should be completely transparent (e.g. non-commercial state costs).

Monero is different from bitcoin that focuses on the aspect of privacy. This cryptocurrency uses the technology of a different type to make the transaction notracking and bills hidden. If your bitcoin address is publicly available, anyone can view your balance and all other addresses with whom you ever interacted. Despite the fact that the blockchain does not specify the names of all previous and future activities associated with the address, if you wish to associate with the identity of the owner. You don’t even have to publicly share their address, to give anybody to understand that you possess them. In fact, it is enough to make one translation at a known address, to make it clear: the account belongs to you. For example, below you see transactions — donations to public and widely-known address associated with WikiLeaks, and the balance in money.

While some organizations need and want to be completely transparent, many commercial companies (and individuals) is not covered. Imagine that everyone can see a breakdown of your Bank account with a current balance and a list of all transfers. You probably don’t want the whole world to know your salary and the nature of the expenses. Financial privacy has become a particularly relevant topic after a series of leaks credit card data. Surely you don’t want all the shops and sites where you make purchases, store the information about it. Monero protects personal information and making transactions closed from the outside world.

Technology

Without diving too deep into the technical details note that Monero makes the transaction untraceable because of a technique called ring signature (ring signature). In fact, it mixes some individual transactions with others, so public it is unclear who owns the address. It also hides the balance due to locations-stealth (stealth addresses) is a random, one-time addresses that cannot be associated with specific individuals.

From Monero also has a so called key to spending (spend key), and key view (key view). Maintaining the first secret, the second user can share if they want to disclose their transaction to a specific circle of persons. Such transparency can be useful, for example, when someone needs or wants the audit report to the tax authorities. Two different keys allow you to provide third party access to account information, but not the actual account. Drawing an analogy with the existing financial system, we can say that spend key gives access to Internet banking, and view key — the statement of account.

Team

For Monero is a strong team of developers consisting of seven people, five of them use psevdonimami, and two known to the public: this is Riccardo’s Spanyi and Francisco cabanas. Also the project has many enthusiasts. Updates that add Monero new features and security enhancements occur every six months. Such a schedule makes Monero constantly evolve.

Monero is an impressive digital currency, backed by interesting technology.

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