Would it be okay if everyone was allowed to check your bank account balance? How about checking the transactions you have made? Even worse right? Yes, anyone would feel awkward and insecure about it.
Privacy in financial transactions is one of the most sought out things but the sad reality in our institutions is that we are being watched right before and after we transact. They constantly monitor our bank accounts for suspicious activities and for-profit reasons. So, what’s the solution to this?
Aren’t All Cryptocurrencies Solutions To This Problem?
You might be tempted to think a Cryptocurrency would be the solution. Well, not really. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin operate on a public ledger platform which is open for all to see. Hence if your issue is privacy, you might not be solving but fanning the problem. So that’s not a tangible solution.
The crypto space is becoming more and more diverse each day. Of the vast crypto choices available, when it comes to the privacy of users, Monero is unique and different. It promises total anonymity of users, thanks to its sophisticated cryptography.
It’s not just the users that are anonymized, the sender, receiver and amount of Monero sent are actually impossible for anyone to see. The anonymity is so good that North Korea has used it to evade international sanctions. The crypto is also being used as a payment means on the dark web.
But the crypto doesn’t exist for the illegal reasons, there are pretty good reasons to anonymize your money.
Why Monero Was Created
Monero came into existence in April 2014 as a result of a hard fork from the Bytecoin Cryptocurrency. The fact that Bytecoin, an open source crypto wasn’t as transparent in their transactions as they claimed to be, resulted in a conflict. There was evidence that 80% of coins was already pre-mined. The discrepancy ultimately resulted in the formation of the Monero.
The fork opened paths for Monero as a Cryptocurrency on its own. Privacy has been one of the fundamentals reasons for its creation alongside other benefits.
When you compare other Cryptocurrencies with Monero in terms of privacy, traceability, security, fungibility, and decentralization, they seem to fall short on one or two features. Bitcoin, for instance, has proved to be traceable, is not private or fungible and its security and decentralization is in question. However, when it comes to Monero, the altcoin scores a point on all the key features.
Original Monero Creators
The nature of Monero as an open source crypto is such that no one really owns it. However, we can only delve on its creators.
Riccardo Spagni alongside six other developers are believed to be the original creators of the Cryptocurrency. Since there are no pre-mining concepts or ICOs associated with the currency, Monero is pretty trustable as a cryptocurrency.
There is no central authority over Monero. A core team of seven people is in charge of the coin’s maintenance, research, and development. The seven crowdfund the project on their own.
Of the seven, only two have revealed their identity, the rest prefer anonymity. The two known members are David Latapie and Riccardo Spagni. Besides the core team is a research lab that comprises scientists, academics, and researchers.