The Monero Moon (Issue 39)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.
The Monero Moon is here to stay! The Monero Moon’s CCS proposal for funding has been approved. Thank you to all the people who have supported and donated to The Monero Moon. The Monero Moon is 100% independent and does not take money in the form of sponsorship to ensure we can provide an unbiased representation of all the happenings with the Monero community. We will continue our endeavor to be the most comprehensive and engaging Monero news source each week. Buckle up, because this issue is a big one!
Development, Releases, and Technology
Monero is scheduled to undergo a network upgrade (hard-fork) on the 16th of July 2022, at block 2,668,888. This is a consensual upgrade agreed upon by the Monero community in order to improve Monero’s privacy and performance, and will require all users to update their software. The new software is v0.18 "Fluorine Fermi", and will be released one month before the network upgrade around the 16th of June. The network upgrade will include a variety of new features such as:
Ring-size increase from 11 to 16 to increase privacy
Viewtags to reduce wallet-sync times by up to 40%
Bulletproofs+ to reduce transaction sizes by ~7%, and improve verification performance by ~7%.
A complete list of upgrades and improvements will soon be released along with the new software. If you want to learn more about Monero’s upcoming network upgrade, please check out this post on the official Monero website. You can even read chat logs from the Monero Dev Meeting on April 16th discussing the upcoming network upgrade.
If you can help with Monero’s upgrade, be it simply notifying wallet or exchange providers, please check out this ‘upgrade checklist’ to ensure all parties appropriately update their software and make the necessary changes.
Monero’s tail-emission is not far off, and will begin at block 2641623 on approximately the 8th of June.
Wondering what the tail-emission is, and why it’s important for Monero’s future success? Check out the screenshot below, and read here and here.
Aki Mayumi has released Shruum, which is described as being a fork of popular android wallet Monerujo, but without the bloat. Shruum makes TOR usage mandatory, and includes other design features to help maintain strong privacy. It is still in its alpha stage so is only recommended for advanced users at the moment. You can learn more about Shruum here.
selsta has posted a monthly progress report for the month of April 2022 as a part-time developer of Monero.
Haveno a non-custodial, decentralized exchange currently being built on Tor and Monero have implemented a Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct to ensure their community remains a harassment-free experience for everyone involved, regardless of peoples’ differences.
Monero featured heavily in recent whitepaper published by academics from the University of Vienna and the Vienna University of Technology. The whitepaper is titled User-perceived privacy in blockchain and provides a great study into users’ privacy perceptions of UTXO-based blockchains. It found Monero to be the most popular privacy coin. An excerpt and graph from the whitepaper are below:
If you want to read one of the many whitepapers about or relevant to Monero, please check out MoneroResearch.info.
Community members have been exploring ways in which cryptocurrency exchanges can provide proof of reserves. “Proof of reserves protocols enable cryptocurrency exchanges to prove solvency, i.e. prove that they have enough reserves to meet their liabilities towards their customers”. You can join the community discussion here.
sech1 claimed the $3000 bounty offered by a New Jersey non-profit for creating a Monero vanity address generator. The Monero vanity address generator is something you can use yourself. You can read more about the endeavor and find relevant links here.
If you like Minecraft, then you’re in luck because _XxFedexX_ has created the first Minecraft Monero server! Check it out here.
_imike has provided a remote public node as hidden TOR service hosted in a high speed location if it’s something you’d find beneficial. More information can be found here.
VS41Shamrock made a proposal to create a transparent non-profit organization dedicated to marketing Monero. You can read more about it here.
Harry Halpin, CEO of the Nym Project hinted at they’re looking into Monero integration.
MoneroTopia @monerotopia
Join us on MONDAY 18th @ 6PM-EDT to celebrate the 8th birthday of true digital cash #Monero! Price 📈 w/ afungible & special guest, @thebogdanoff who started #Monerun. Withdraw your #XMR from exchanges on April 18th! 👀➡️: https://t.co/NYOacDxuRa Join➡️: https://t.co/4RLx0aY8StRBM Crypto shared a video showing how to setup a Ledger Nano X with the official Monero GUI wallet. Watch it here or below.
The Monero Observer have again put out a new Dev Report to provide a big picture view of Monero development activity throughout the past week. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty, check it out here.
It is highly recommended you run a node or mine to help secure the network. You can solo mine via the official Monero GUI wallet which can be found here, or partake in pool mining and join the decentralized and permissionless P2Pool. If you just want to run a node, Monero OG gingeropolous provided insight in how you can even sync an old laptop to run a node if you’re patient.
General News
Monero celebrated its 8th birthday on the 18th of April! Wataru_Watanabe made this fantastic graphic to help celebrate!
reemuru provided a fantastic post on the official Monero website titled This Year in Monero - 2022 in recognition of Monero’s continued growth. Highlights from the post include:
On-chain transaction usage grew 154% year-on-year.
Blockchain size grew 144% faster year-on-year.
Inflation decreased 34% and is steadily approaching the tail emission of 0.6XMR per block.
The average transaction fee dropped 48%
Network hashrate increased 53%
Twitter followers of @monero and subscribers to r/monero on Reddit both increased by over 20%.
Members of the Monero community also used Monero’s birthday to participate in Monerun, wherein users withdrew their XMR from exchanges in a bid to increase improve privacy and restrict exchange held supplies of XMR, hoping to catch out any possible fractional reserve shenanigans carried out by dishonest exchanges. There was even a Telegram group of Monero community members supporting this movement. Monero community members claim dishonest exchanges routinely place XMR wallets or withdrawals into ‘maintenance’, and that this is a sign exchanges do not actually hold the XMR they claim they do. Remember, “not your keys, not your coins”, meaning that if you don’t self-custody your coins, then you don’t actually own them.
bawdyanarchist provided a great FAQ about the Monerun that is worth the read even if you have your head around it all.
The grassroots Monerun movement even captured the eyes of many news organisations.
Coindesk published an article about Monero’s network upgrade and Monerun titled Privacy Focused Monero Plans Hard Fork in July; XMR Surges 11% on ‘Monerun’.
Decrypt published an article about Monrun titled Monero Faithful Coordinate ‘Bank Run’ to Test Exchanges’ Reserves.
Bloomberg covered the Monerun event and resulting price increase in an article titled Altcoin Monero Surges as Owners Set Withdrawal From Exchanges.
Vice published an article about Monerun titled Monero Owners Are Staging a Crypto Bank Run to Test Exchanges.
Maxbit published a great and thorough article about Monerun titled Monero community set to blitz CEXs in coming ‘Monerun’.
InvestorPlace published an article titled XMR Crypto Prices Spike as Monero Bulls Coordinate Mass Withdrawals.
Gate.io live streamed a YouTube video discussing Monero’s network upgrade and Monerun event. Watch it below.
Bitcoin Magazine published an article titled Privacy-Centric Monero Plans for July Hard Fork, Plans Include Ring Signature, Bulletproof Upgrade.
The Monero Standard #9 was recently published offering a dose of weekly Monero news.
Monero Talk hosted a YouTube stream to celebrate Monero’s 8th birthday and discuss the Monerun event. Check it out here or in the video below!
Doug from Monero Talk has also made a public effort to show how easy it is to onboard users or merchants to accept XMR, somewhat reminiscient of Roger Ver’s efforts in the early Bitcoin days.
Douglas Tuman @DouglasTuman
Day 7: My best one yet!!! Got Papa Presto Pizza (516) 485-0161 https://t.co/lE8OGnh7zM to accept Monero for @sunchakr ‘s favorite — an extra crispy large pepperoni pie 😋🍕 🗽🚀!! #monerotipia everyday till tail tail emission! Join me! https://t.co/WcR1XOuEsZ https://t.co/x3epmbG4orThe Open Economy Initiative put out a new video discussing the recent Monerotopia conference and other Monero events. Watch it below.
It was reported that Edward Snowden mentioned Monero as a better privacy alternative to Bitcoin while speaking at the recent Nym launch.
Tornado Cash, a popular Ethereum privacy service, announced they use the Chainalysis oracle to block sanctioned addresses.
Cipher Trace shared a tweet touching on how ransomware groups are increasingly requesting Monero as payment, and how Monero is replacing Bitcoin as the preferred darknet market currency.
Cointelegraph also covered this story, explaining that “last year saw increasing demands for ransom payment in Monero (XMR), with attackers adding premiums for payments made in Bitcoin (BTC) ranging from 10 to 20%. At least 22 ransomware strains (from an incomplete list of more than 50) only accept Monero (XMR) payments, and at least seven of them accept both BTC and XMR”.
Events
There is a Monero Space Meeting scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 23rd 2022 at 1700 UTC in the #monero-space IRC channel. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join, even if you just want to lurk.
The Monerokon Conference is being helding on the 18-19th of June at Arroz Studios in Lisbon, Portugal. Monerokon are also accepting presentation and workshop proposals if you want to get involved. MoneroKon is going to be a celebration of all things Monero, privacy, and financial technology, and is aiming to be ‘the’ annual meeting of privacy advocates, cypherpunks, scientists, and philosophers. Tickets to MoneroKon are now available here on the MoneroKon website.
The next MoneroKon 2022 Planning Meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 23rd 2022 at 18:00 UTC in the #monero-events IRC channel.
To celebrate Monero’s birthday, spesmonerujo is giving away one Carbon Chameleon note. All you need to do to enter is donate 0.001 XMR to the general fund, and post your tx hash on the tweet below.
Exchanges and Merchants
Privacy focused exchange service Majestic Bank showed support for the recent Monerun event. Majestic Bank donated all fees earned from their operations on 18th April to the Monero Project. They collected $8000 in total and are donating the funds to a number of different Monero community initiatives and developments. More information can be found here. Majestic Bank also offers a TOR version of their website.
Want to try win some XMR? Check out MoneroPot.org and send some XMR through to participate in the next draw.
Numerous cryptocurrency exchanges that offer XMR trading pairs experienced withdrawal problems leading up to and during the recent Monerun event. Community members noted that Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex all restricted withdrawals at some point. There have even been requests for coin ranking website Coingecko to exclude certain exchanges when calculating XMR metrics.
Monero sticker suppliers MoneroSupplies.com are offering discounted shipping rates for international orders. More information can be found here.
CAN-USA is developing MoneroPost.com, a website that aims to allow users to purchase postage and shipping labels using Monero for USPS, UPS, Canada Post, FedEx, DHL, and Deutsche Post. Check it out here.
Community Crowdfunding
Several crowdfunding proposals are awaiting community feedback before they can start accepting funds through the Community Crowdfunding System (CCS). For now they are just proposals, but if they receive some positive feedback from the community they will be moved to a “Funding Required” stage so that they can accept Monero donations through the CCS.
selsta has made a proposal to work part-time monero development. Check out their proposal here.
moneroist has made a proposal for Patronero - Open Source project for donating by mining. Read more about the proposal here.
CryptoGrampy submitted a CCS proposal for building out a browser-based, ephemeral, no-server Point of Sale webapp for Monero. Check out his proposal here.
willk has put forward a CCS proposal titled Multi-scene monero solutions.
Donald A. Iljazi has made a proposal to translate Monero applications, websites, and content into Greek. Check out the proposal here.
The Monero Moon’s CCS proposal has been moved to funding required! If you enjoy reading the Monero Moon please show us some support.
mj’s proposal to create a new project called SolOptXMR - Solar Optimal mining of XMR is still seeking funding.
savandra’s proposal to create New Animated Videos for Monero is currently open for funding.
Trading & Speculation
After 4 years of Monero down-trending against Bitcoin, XMR has finally broken out upwards. This is a rare and unprecedented event for any cryptocurrency to break out from such a long downtrend on the BTC pair, and as far as I’m aware has never happened before. The last time XMR broke out of a long-term downtrend against BTC was Feb 2016, before rallying 2600% against Bitcoin.
Twitter crypto influencer Don Yakka provides his own take on the future levels of XMR/USD.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,110,450 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $5,003,708,931
Coinmarketcap Ranking — #33
XMR/USD Price — $276 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00660 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $258 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00014 XMR ($0.03)
Hashrate — 3.063 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
Monero investor barely escapes with his life after boating accident!
Finally, check out Monero Observer’s Artistic Saturday for a cool collection of Monero images and artwork!
Donate
If you like the newsletter and want more of this content, then shout me a round of beers by donating some spare Monero you didn’t lose during your boating accident.
88u3PpQH3zNDTWnrYgLVyiYihLL7aFT2GLRXCACezG3Q2jcoiEzW7UqZWV5Uov9iBc6DqdbjVuLxfgptdPGbm3wJTGvq8mT
Support Monero
Want to help contribute to the Monero Project? Developers, marketers, event coordinators, translators, Instagram personalities, meme creators, public speakers — whatever your skills may be, it is extremely likely there is something you can do to assist. I urge you to reach out to the Monero community on Reddit, IRC, GitHub, Twitter, or Telegram. The official Monero website is GetMonero.org.
Past Issues
Issue 38 / Issue 37 / Issue 36 / Issue 35 / Issue 34 / Issue 33 / Issue 32 / Issue 31 / Issue 30 / Issue 29 / Issue 28 / Issue 27 / Issue 26 / Issue 25 / Issue 24 / Issue 23 / Issue 22 / Issue 21 / Issue 20 / Issue 19 / Issue 18 / Issue 17 / Issue 16 / Issue 15 / Issue 14 / Issue 13 / Issue 12 / Issue 11 / Issue 10 / Issue 9 / Issue 8 / Issue 7 / Issue 6 / Issue 5 / Issue 4 / Issue 3 / Issue 2 / Issue 1
Socials
If you have any suggestions, corrections, or feedback, please contact me on Twitter @johnfoss69 or on Reddit u/johnfoss68.
DISCLAIMER: This publication contains opinion for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Information may contain errors and omissions. Use solely at your own risk. The author of this publication and/or the authors of articles linked to from this site may have financial investments that may bias their opinions, including ownership of Monero currency. Always do your own research, form your own opinions, and never take risks with money or trust third parties with out verifying their credibility.
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