The Monero Moon (Issue 60)
The Monero Moon (Issue 60)
The Monero Moon is a curated newsletter covering all the latest news within Monero (XMR).
Table of Contents:
Development, Releases, and Technology
Serai DEX has begun the audit of its cryptography libraries, followed by its XMR transaction libraries. The audits are being performed by Cypher Stack. Serai DEX is a forthcoming cross-chain decentralized exchange for Monero, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. It is built from the ground up in Rust and led by Monero community member Luke Parker aka kayabaNerve. Check out their webpage or socials for more information, and feel free to join their community.
UnstoppableSwap GUI v0.4.0 has been released by binarybaron. This release includes features such as adding labels to Monero and Bitcoin address text fields, adjusting the displayed minimum amount to account for network fees, and an upgrade of the Tor version to 12.0.1. More information can be found here.
binarybaron and the group of volunteers that have taken over the COMIT Atomic Swaps (XMR-BTC) project are inviting developers to join the project, and are offering bounties for some of the open issues on their Github page. If you can lend a hand please reach out to them. You can find more information here.
The Farcaster Project has released version 0.8.3 of the Farcaster cross-chain atomic swap node. Check out their GitHub for more information.
Stack Wallet v1.5.27 has been released. Stack Wallet is an open-source, non-custodial, privacy-preserving cryptocurrency wallet that supports Monero. More information can be found here.
Over the past week, there was some unusual network hashrate activity from the mining pool HashVault.pro. HashVault’s pool hashrate doubled in the lead up to new years eve but has since dropped back to usual levels. There is speculation this may have been botnet activity. You can read more about it here.
SChernykh recently released P2Pool v2.7. Version 2.7 provides a range of different updates such as high fee transactions are now added to the block template immediately to improve the average reward for mined blocks, stricter P2P protocol checks to detect misbehaving peers, and other bug fixes. Check out this post to upgrade or learn more.
PSA: 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 the decentralized and permission-less P2Pool. The official Monero website getmonero.org or sethforprivacy.com are fantastic places to find help to get started running a node or mining.
Monero Observer has released a new Monero Dev Activity Report to provide a big-picture view of Monero's development activity throughout the past week. If you’re interested in the nitty gritty, check it out here.
General News
The Monero community’s speculation that Binance and other exchanges misrepresent their XMR reserves, sell XMR that they don't actually have, and hope users will never withdraw, is continuing to gain attention from the wider cryptocurrency community. BTC PULSE published an article about the Monero community urging users to practice self-custody and withdraw their coins from exchanges in order to prevent price manipulation and ensure no one gets caught up in an FTX-like scenario.
Andy Greenberg, the senior writer at WIRED and author of Sandworm, has published a new book titled Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency. The book is an entertaining read about law enforcement agencies’ use of blockchain forensic tools to catch criminals. J.W. Verret from Coin Telegraph provided an interesting review and discussion of the book, explaining that:
“It’s important for privacy advocates to study criminal forensics, not because we want to help the bad guys but because the tools employed by the government against despicable people in this book will eventually be applied to all of us by both governments and snooping neighbors alike… After recounting Chainalysis’ many victories, the author closes by noting the dark side of its technology. A conversation with the founder of Chainalysis is recounted, during which hard questions were asked about work for authoritarian governments. When asked whether he is certain its product won’t be used to surveil ordinary citizens and oppress human rights protestors, the Chainalysis CEO’s responses seem to trail off into obfuscation.”
The Coin Telegraph article is well worth the quick read. It also mentions how an agent featured in the book disputes the claims of blockchain analytic companies and law enforcement agencies regarding their ability to trace Monero transactions.
Monero Talk celebrated New Years Eve with a Monerotopia Episode #97, one of the most enjoyable Monerotopia episodes ever! It features a Monerotopia 2023 conference update, a price report with BawdyAnarchist, a news report from Tony, and special guests Monerujo dev Anhdres, Csilla Brimer, Seth For Privacy, Stoic from Monero Magazine, Monero Core Team member ArticMine, Luke from Serai DEX, and Vik and Justin from Cake Wallet.
Monero Talk interview Monero community member and chart technician BawdyAnarchist. Doug and Bawdy discuss what happened this past year in Monero and the crypto space, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. Check out the video here.
Monero Magazine recently interviewed Juraj Bednar, entrepreneur, hacker, and co-founder of Paralelna Polis. They talk about a range of topics including the DNM’s adoption of Monero, Bitcoin privacy, and blockchain surveillance. Check it out here.
Monero Magazine also interviewed Monerujo’s lead developer Anhdres. They discuss topics such as cryptocurrency use in Argentina, CBDCs, and Monero adoption. Check out the video here.
In case you missed the announcement last week, there is now a new website that aggregates all your Monero news content and other helpful information for you! Be sure to check out MoneroDance!
The Monero Standard #34: 21 December 2022 - 28 December 2022 newsletter has been published. Check it out to keep up with Monero news!
Revuo Monero Issue #152 has been published. Check it out for a weekly dose of Monero news.
Monero Observer published Monero Observer Blitz #17 - December 2022. The Monero Observer Blitz is a recap of what happened in the Monero community this past December.
Events
A Monero Research Lab (MRL) meeting will take place on Wednesday January 4th, 2023 at 1700 UTC. You can find more information about 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.
The next Community Workgroup Meeting is scheduled for Saturday January 7th, 2023 1600 UTC in the #monero-community IRC channel. The next Community Workgroup Meeting will discuss things such as CCS proposals and updates, community highlights and workgroup reports.
The Seraphis Wallet Workgroup recently held a meeting, and a detailed summary has been provided by Monero Observer. In addition, the raw chatlog of the meeting is available for review. For more information, check out Monero Observer’s summary and other resources on this topic.
There is also a Seraphis Wallet Workgroup meeting scheduled for Monday January 9th, 2023 18:00 UTC. More information can be found here.
A Monero and Bitcoin meetup is taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, on Friday, January 6th, 2023. More information about the meetup can be found here.
The second-ever Monerotopia conference is taking place in Mexico City on May 6-7th, 2023. Monerotopia is a conference for privacy, tech, and freedom enjoyers. They already have an amazing lineup of confirmed speakers which includes a variety of Monero developers and contributors. Head to the Monerotopia website and grab a ticket to one of the hottest Monero conferences!
After the successful return of Monero Konferenco in 2022, the ‘MoneroKon’ 2023 Conference will be held at La Fabrika in Prague, Czech Republic on the 23rd-25th of June 2023. MoneroKon is an annual meeting of privacy advocates, cypherpunks, scientists, and philosophers and is designed to disseminate scientific and technical results in privacy and financial technologies like censorship-resistant digital cash. More information can be found here in the MoneroKon 2023 CCS proposal and on the MoneroKon website.
If you would like to volunteer to help out at MoneroKon 2023 in return for a free ticket or just because you are a Monero-loving person, then apply by filling out this form here!
The next MoneroKon 2023 Planning Meeting is scheduled to take place on January 14th, 2023 at 18:00 UTC in the #monero-events IRC channel. More information can be found here.
Exchanges and Merchants
Majestic Bank is still offering 0% fee trades for the next few days until January 8th, 2023. They are KYC-free and also offer an onion website. You can check out their main website here. Check out this post for more information.
Cake Wallet released its numbers for Cake Pay Mobile in 2022. Monero made up 82% of all volume. Cake Pay allows you to buy gift cards with XMR and an email address to shop online or in person at major retailers. More information can be found here. Cake Wallet also announced their new business-focused website CakeLabs.com
In other news related to Cake Wallet, they are giving away $100 a day for the month of January 2023. More information can be found here!
MyMonero doing a promotion on Twitter where they are giving away 10 promo codes for a 50% on exchange fees. More information can be found here!
VentiSwap, a non-custodial cross-chain DEX, now offers the ability to trade XMR with ETH and USDT. More information about VentiSwap can be found in their docs here.
Cryptocurrency exchange BitMart has listed an XMR/USDT pair on their service. You can deposit, trade, and most importantly, withdraw XMR using their exchange service.
Coincards published their usage statistics for December 2022. In the USA, XMR was the most used cryptocurrency. XMR made up 65.3% of all volume, ~3x more than BTC’s 18.7%. Worldwide, XMR was the second most used cryptocurrency making up 23.6% of all volume (BTC had 33.2%).
Silent.Link reported that Monero made up for 18% of sales since it was added as a payment option.
Monero Core Team member ArticMine pointed out that there is evidence of the retail use of Monero in the lead-up to Christmas. Monero transaction numbers were seen to increase by ~100% in early December (orange line in the chart below) before tapering off closer to Christmas day, while the number of Bitcoin transactions (blue line in the chart below) remained somewhat steady. Read more about it here.
Monerochan.io has been released from the people behind the Monerochan themed Monero Community Art Fund. You can share anything Monerochan related that you’ve made and earn tips in XMR for it. You can find more information here and here.
Want to help increase merchant adoption of Monero? MDZ has made a fact sheet you can use to promote Monero to businesses in your local area. More information can be found 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.
CCS Projects requiring funding or have been recently funded:
There are no CCS Projects that require funding at the moment, however you can still support the Monero Project by donating to the Monero General Fund.
mj-xmr has announced they are raising funds for the continued development of SolOptXMR through 2023. SolOptXMR aims to be open-source software that aids people mining Monero with excess solar power in the most profitable way. Learn more about SolOptXMR and the fundraiser here and here, with the donation page here.
Trading & Speculation
On the XMR/BTC weekly chart, Monero is now attempting to break out from its Adam and Eve double-bottom pattern. Confirmation of breakout is the peak between the two bottoms at ~0.0091 (which was the May 2021 high during the bull market).
Check out BawdyAnarchist’s price report from the latest Monerotopia episode on new years eve.
Popular crypto-Twitter personality DonAlt offered analysis on XMR/BTC and XMR/USD.
Performance
Total Monero in Circulation — 18,222,417 XMR
Monero Total Marketcap — $2,743,021,366
Coinmarketcap Ranking — #23
XMR/USD Price — $150 USD
XMR/BTC Price — 0.008919 BTC
LocalMonero.co Peer to Peer Street Price — $153USD
Average Transaction Fee — 0.0003 XMR ($0.046)
Monero Network Hashrate —2.761 Ghash/s
Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —
Entertainment
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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. Reach out to the Monero community on Reddit, IRC, GitHub, Twitter, or Telegram. The official Monero website is GetMonero.org.
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DISCLAIMER: This publication contains opinions for informational and entertainment 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 or 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 without verifying their credibility.
