The Monero Moon (Issue 48)
The Monero Moon (Issue 48)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter covering all the latest news within Monero (XMR).
Table of Contents:
Development, Releases, and Technology
Developers have decided to delay Monero’s network upgrade (hard-fork) by approximately two weeks due to a delay in the multisig audit being carried out by a third party. Hopefully, the network upgrade will take place at block 2678888 instead of 2668888, ten thousand blocks later. Discussion regarding this decision took place in a recent Monero Research Lab meeting. The Monero Observer provided a great summary of the meeting which also includes links to the meeting chat logs.
In case you were unaware, Monero’s scheduled network upgrade (hard-fork) 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 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.
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.
Additionally, help test the upcoming major Monero release for bugs on the Monero Testnet. Testnet funds (tXMR) available for anyone willing to help out! Check out this post from garth_xmr for more information on how to get started and why you should help.
Seth For Privacy is also asking for people to test Monero's code. He has tried to make it as easy as possible by publishing a new Docker image, so anyone on Ubuntu can simply run the link above and be good to go. If you’re running a different operating system such as Windows, reach out to Seth and he will do his best to get you up and running.
Monero is on track for it’s second highest number of transactions in one month (second to Nov 2021) with over 890,000 txs, and it’s highest ratio of transactions of ~11.8% when compared to Bitcoin.
The Monero Community Workgroup have uploaded a number of videos from Monero Konferenco 2022 that took place almost two weeks ago in Lisbon. Videos include presentations regarding XMR-BTC Atomic-Swap development, Decentralizing Monero Mining, and Building Web3 with Monero. You can find links to the talks here.
MyMonero have announced the release of a new version, v1.2.5 of their mobile app for iOS users. This update allows users to buy XMR within the app! Check it out at MyMonero.com
pokkst has developed a Monero Decoy Scanner. You can now ‘listen’ to the Monero blockchain for transactions that use certain outputs, such as your own, as decoy ring members. Check out their Github and give it a try!
Justin Berman has posted his final Monero development progress report for his February to May 2022 CCS proposal. Justin worked well over 480 hours and spent the majority of his time reviewing code. Check out his report here!
The MAGIC Monero Fund received 50 XMR from a generous anonymous donor to improve the Monero ecosystem and support development. MAGIC Grants is a public charity that provides undergraduate scholarships for students interested in Monero and cryptocurrencies, and supports various critical cryptocurrency public payment infrastructure. They are also holding a special election for a new MAGIC Monero Fund committee member. Applications close July 25th, and you can find more information the election here. More information about MAGIC can be found here. Reach out to them if you’d like to get involved.
Parmicciano has created a ‘federated cloud’, a platform allowing to put in relation a park of server with developers. It's basically a platform that connects computing power with developers in exchange for Monero. Check out this post for more information.
Monerica.com, a directory for a Monero circular economy, have reached out to the community to contribute so users can help make edits. Check out this page for more information.
Monero Observer have 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.
xmrqrcode.com, a website that allows uses to generate a QR code of their Monero address, is a scam website as the created QR codes do not link to your input address. More information can be found here thanks to dsmlegend. Avoid this website, and exercise diligence when using QR codes to send or receive XMR.
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. Check out this cool tweet from Liv Michael below!
General News
Seth For Privacy featured as a guest on the Cake Wallet sponsored What Bitcoin Did podcast to discuss privacy, Bitcoin, and Monero. The What Bitcoin Did podcast is a ‘Bitcoin-only’ podcast so this was great to see Bitcoin advocates somewhat acknowledge the technological benefits and ease of use Monero provides. Listen to the show here on the What Bitcoin Did website, or check out the tweet below.
Monero Talk published a Monerotopia video from Porcfest 2022, an annual liberty camping event organized by Free State Project. This episode includes a price report, and discussion with Porcfest attendees. Watch it here or below!
It appears OG Bitcoiner Bruce Fenton, host of the Satoshi Round Table and candidate running for US Senate for NH, was recently interviewed by Monero Talk and appeared open-minded about Monero.
Justin Ehrenhofer spoke about Monero with Noah from Whale Coin Talk in their Telegram channel that has over 22,000 members! Check it out here.
SovrinTV published a video giving a great overview of Monero, it’s history, and where it stands today. The narration is a bit dull, but the content is great and speeding the video up to 1.5x helps with viewing.
One of the Monero community’s favourite Twitter personalities, Untraceable, recently published a great tweet thread discussing Bitcoin’s lack of fungibility. Check it out here or below.
Wondering how best to explain Monero to a friend? The tweet below may help.
The Monero Standard Issue #17 has been published to keep you up to date with happenings in and around Monero. Check it out here!
It is reported that Chinese officials have used the Covid health code system to restrict citizens from withdrawing their funds and traveling between cities. “When they tried to withdraw their savings, their health codes spontaneously turned red. It came after three local banks in the central province froze as much as $1.5 billion worth of deposits, causing hundreds of clients to travel to the city of Zhegzhou to try to retrieve their money. They found that when they tried to scan their health QR code at the city’s shops and public transport stations, their code turned red — indicating they had been infected with the virus. Some were then forced into quarantine or detained by local authorities.” Read more about it here.
A user on Twitter claims Coinbase now wants to know the name and address of the recipient, along with the purpose for withdrawing funds, before they allow you to withdraw your crypto. So far it appears this only applies to users from The Netherlands. An article from BeInCrypto also covered this story if you want to learn more.
Events
There is a Monero meetup taking place tonight, Thursday June 30th, in London! The meetup is being held at the Dickens Inn pub from 6pm to 9pm. Check out this post for more information.
A Monero Research lab meeting will take place on Wednesday July 6th. It is planned to include discussion regarding such as decoy algorithms and analysis of transaction volume anomalies. You can find links to and more information regarding the meeting here thanks to the Monero Observer. The MRL meeting will take place at 1700 UTC in the #monero-research-lab channel on IRC if you want to lurk in real time.
A Monero Development Workgroup meeting will take place today, Thursday June 30th. The meeting will take place at 1700 UTC in the #monero-dev channel on IRC if you want to lurk in real time. Check out this post for more information.
Here are all the videos that have been published from Monero Konferenco 2022 so far! Enjoy!
Exchanges and Merchants
ShopInBit reported that for the months of May-June, XMR was the second most used crypto with 27% of total volume. This is up from 7% earlier in the year, and a trend similar to what CoinCards has seen.
Bitrequest, an application for accepting cryptocurrencies which can be used as a point of sale or e-commerce checkout, now supports Monero. Check it out here.
Poloniex have again halted XMR withdraws after being closed for roughly five months, open for a week, and now closed again!
A Reddit user reported that Kraken, one of the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges that support XMR, closed down their account after they purchased XMR and told them to issue a charge back. Many Monero community members were skeptical whether this actually occurred, and while Kraken is one of the most trusted exchanges who have publicly supported Monero in the past, this is a good reminder that if you don’t self custody your Monero, then all you have is essentially an IOU from the exchange to provide you with XMR. Not your keys, not your coins.
Want to buy or sell some of your own stuff for XMR? Check out the Friday Monero Market Thread on Reddit. Every Friday on the Monero subreddit people post buy/sell ads ready to transact with Monero. Check it out every Friday here.
MoneroMerch.com, a website that sell Monero swag such as T-shirts, hoodies, laptop cases, phone cases, mugs, socks, etc, are looking to sell Monero stickers for only $1-$2 each. They ship worldwide, and are offering $5 off if you spend more than $50. 30% of profits go towards Monero CCS projects. More information can be found here.
Ziga Studio, a website that is selling posters, shirts, and objects, now accepts Monero. The website is clunky to use, but the XMR payment service appears to work ok.
Want to win some Monero? Check out Monero Pot if you fancy a punt. It uses the first block hash of the month to select winner. Your entry id is hashed like sha(hash+id). The hash of your entry is from previous month. The hashes with most matching character wins.
Another way you can win some Monero is if you follow afungible on Twitter and take part in one of his XMR giveaways. His latest one is linked below, but there were previously a few fun puzzles for participants to solve and win XMR.
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.
CCS Projects requiring funding or have been recently funded:
Trading & Speculation
XMR/BTC monthly chart Monero has continued to put in 4 monthly candles with higher lows since bottoming out in early 2022.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,141,334 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $2,103,095,350
Coinmarketcap Ranking — #28
XMR/USD Price — ~$115 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.00596 BTC
LocalMonero.co Street Price — $119 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.00011 XMR ($0.013)
Hashrate —2.905 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
rbrunner7 has written "The Treasurer", a short fictional story about Monero. It is #17 in their Monero-themed short stories. You can read it here. The complete list of short stories can be found here.
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.
49koJtBLRCjcfqVD93fosJGKLYFPZuBUz1iRvqJdMz9yBXV93UgKdSyDSbwUkdsytdSRvwKZhRTPp3de4fXzcioQGAFzWUU
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. wwwThe official Monero website is GetMonero.org.
Past Issues
Issue 47 / Issue 46 / Issue 45 / Issue 44 / Issue 43 / Issue 42 / Issue 41 / Issue 40 / Issue 39 / 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.
