The Monero Moon (Issue 52)
The Monero Moon is a curated weekly newsletter covering all the latest news within Monero (XMR).
Table of Contents:
Development, Releases, and Technology
Monero is scheduled to undergo a network upgrade (hard-fork) on the 13th of August 2022, at block 2,688,888. The software you must implement to ensure compatibility with the network upgrade has now been released (v0.18 Flourine Fermi) and can be downloaded from the official Monero website www.GetMonero.org. This gives everyone a couple of weeks to make the switch. If you use a mobile wallet or other third party software make sure your apps are up to date. Please reach out to members of the Monero community on r/Monero or other social platforms if you have any questions.
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.
Still wondering what exactly a network upgrade (hardfork) is, and what it means for Monero? Check out the Tweet thread below providing a brief discussion regarding hardforks, and the history Monero’s network upgrades.
RINOwallet, a new non-custodial enterprise-grade multisig wallet for Monero, have put together a variety of different resources and guides to help you prepare for Monero’s network upgrade in August. Check it out here! They also have a cool countdown clock!
PiNodeXMR v5 disk images is out now ready for the Monero network upgrade. PiNodeXMR is free software to run a full Monero node on a low power single board computer. All the information and links you need can be found here.
hinto-janaiyo has made a proposal to continue their work on monero-bash, a wrapper for Monero written in Bash. According to Hinto, “as Monero, P2Pool, and XMRig continue to add new features and configuration options, I'd like to continue maintaining monero-bash so that it supports them”. Check out this post for more information.
MyMonero have released v1.2.10 for both android and iOS mobile device users. Be sure to update and check out their Github page for more information.
CryptoMorpheus_ provided some great data from his Monero metrics website Moneroj.net. Monero had 20% of the number of transactions compared to Bitcoin on July 24th, breaking the previous all-time-high.
The monthly ratio of XMR to BTC transactions continues to increase, and is currently sitting at 12.7% after establishing a new all time high last month with 11.8%.
DangerousFreedom1984, a developer building the necessary tools in Python to prove that no money leakage (inflation) is occurring or has occurred is Monero, recently uncovered a malleability issue, however it does not impact anything (e.g. inflation). Check out the posts here and here for more information.
mjxmr, who is creating open-source software that aids people mining Monero with excess solar power, announced SolOptXMR v0.2 beta pre-release. This pre-release is one step before being able to automate the act of switching the mining on and off. Check out this post for more information.
Gingeropolous provided a progress report regarding his efforts building and maintaining high-end servers to help with Monero development and research. Check out the update here!
The longest-standing and one of the most reliable public Monero nodes will change its name. The guys behind Melo are also behind RINO, so they’re discontinuing the old node.melo.tools and mainnet.melo.tools addresses in favor of nodes.community.rino.io. Be sure to update your wallets, scripts and shortcuts, and check out the RINO website for more information regarding their nodes.
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.
Finally, it is highly recommended you run a node to help secure the Monero network. You can also 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. You can even mine XMR on a mobile device! The official Monero website getmonero.org is a fantastic place to get started mining with lots of helpful information.
Check out this awesome new video from Monero Guides showing you how to get mining with P2Pool!
General News
Monero Talk put out a brand new Monero News Segment episode with Tony H. You can watch the news segment video below, or as part of the extended Monerotopia episode #75 featuring Adam Friedman here!
Monero Talk also sat down for a chat with Mark Moss and Rich Checkan live from Freedom Fest in Las Vegas to discuss Monero and Bitcoin. Check it out below!
The Monero Talk team are looking to recruit an assistant to help with tasks such as manage show production (audio/video/content for shows), and assist them with conference planning, basic designing material, etc. If you are interested check out this post here and send them a message!
TickTock_Boom has created an informative Monero website called XMR.works for those from Turkey. It appears to be a great website, so check it out even if you don’t speak Turkish. Links to an XMR Turkey Telegram group and Twitter can be found here.
If Monerochan is your thing, then check out this website called the Monero Community Art Fund. It features lots of anime images of Monero girls and it appears you can commission artworks. Check it out here.
The Monero Standard #20 has been published. Check it out for a fresh dose of weekly Monero news.
Decrypt reported that Argentina, a country battered by sky-high inflation, is restricting Bitcoin traders from buying U.S. dollars at the official exchange rate in a bid to restrict money from leaving the country.
Gizmodo reported 200TB SSDs could soon be coming your way (at a huge cost for now) as memory and data storage producer Micron have begun production and shipment of the world’s first 232-layer NAND in Singapore. This marks the first time a NAND manufacturer has surpassed 200 layers. According to Monero Core Team member ArticMine,
“Monero, with its adaptive blocksize and tail emission, is very well placed to take advantage of this kind of technological change unlike fixed blocksize maximum supply coins.”
Events
A Monero Research Lab (MRL) meeting will take place on Wednesday August 3rd at 1700 UTC. You can find links to and more information regarding the meeting here thanks to the Monero Observer. The MRL meeting will take place in the #monero-research-lab channel on IRC if you want to lurk in real time.
There is a Monero Meetup in Cape Town, South Africa, at 5:00pm on the 4th of August 2022 at La Prada. More information can be found here. Rumour has it Monero Core Team member Fluffypony will be attending so get down there to say hello!
Cake Wallet and Monerotopia will be hosting a Monero Meetup in NYC on August 9th. Kayaba aka Luke Parker will give a presentation on the Monero focused Serai DEX, and will be open to questions and discussion. More details will be available soon, however you can follow Cake Wallet on Twitter to stay up to date with any additional information.
There is a Monero Meetup in Berlin, Germany, at 7:00pm on the 11th of August 2022. More information can be found here. Make sure you join the group in order to see all the meetup information.
dsmlegend ran a cool challenge on Reddit involving a Ledger seed and a Monero bounty. Check out this post for more information! As explained by one Reddit user,
“Being computationally expensive is the whole key in crypto” and the competition was a “very good way to illustrate this and loved the intro to monero.”
Exchanges and Merchants
Majestic Bank is donating all of the fees it collects from its exchange service this week to help fund the hosting costs of GetMonero.org, the development of Haveno DEX, and Monero developers and researchers from the Monero Research Lab. Majestic Bank explained that proof of donation to the General Fund and Haveno will be shared publicly, however amounts donated to developers will likely remain private. If you want to trade some crypto to XMR and support Monero at the same time then check out MajesticBank.sc. They offer clearnet and Tor websites.
MoneroMarket, a website that will allow you to buy and sell legal items with escrow will be released next week. More information can be found here.
Haveno DEX announced the Beldex project as new sponsor. According to the Beldex website:
“Founded in 2018 by a team of crypto enthusiasts, the Beldex project aims to restore privacy on the internet by building an ecosystem of decentralized privacy-first applications.”
PicoDeNero is selling Monero Themed QR Keychains to those in the USA only. The keychains themselves are made of anodized aluminum, a very durable but lightweight material. Each one is a bit over 1.25 inches (32mm+) in diameter. Check out this post for more information.
Community Crowdfunding
Justin Ehrenhofer aka SamsungGalaxyPlayer informed the Monero community that as an alternative to opening a CCS proposal, they can consider applying for a grant from the MAGIC Monero Fund. The MAGIC Monero Fund has a formal process for submitting research grant applications, but you can email them to discuss grants for Monero development, Monero educational materials, community tools, security audits, and more! Check out this post for more information and a list of reasons why a MAGIC grant may be better (e.g. proper contract, no price volatility, etc).
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
CryptoMorpheus_ published a blog post titled ‘A deep dive into Monero metrics’. The blog post aims to illustrate what he has been observing in relation to what the data may be indicating. This is well worth the read. Check it out here!
The Monero Talk team put out a special price report video featuring aFungible! Check it out below!
FibFanTomas shared a bullish XMR chart calling for a 2x in price against BTC.
The XMR/BTC 20 week SMA (purple line) has just crossed over the 100 week SMA (blue line)! The last time Monero's 20 week SMA crossed over the 100 week SMA was May 2016, sparking the beginning of the biggest bullrun XMR has ever seen!
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,153,445 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $2,878,766,968
Coinmarketcap Ranking — #27 (last week #28)
XMR/USD Price — $159 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.006939 BTC
LocalMonero.co Peer to Peer Street Price — $162 USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.000076 XMR ($0.012)
Monero Network Hashrate —2.503 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
Donate
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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 51 / Issue 50 / Issue 49 / Issue 48 / 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
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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.
Fun and informative as always! Thanks for contributing to the community :)