Tag: Monero (XMR)

Categories
Crypto News

Monero (XMR) Network Fees Reduced By About 97% Thanks To The Latest Bulletproofs Update

The announced upgrade of the Monero (XMR) network, called Bulletproofs, managed to reduce network fees by 97% after successfully implementing its hard fork on October 18th. The average transaction size was minimized by 83%, going from 18.5 kb to 3 kb, which caused the average transaction fee to go from 60 cents to 0.1 cents.

The purpose of the update was to cover these two aspects without sacrificing the privacy that characterizes the Monero (XMR). During the last six months, the commissions revolved between 0.52 cents and $2.3, with a peak of almost $4 in May of this year.

As for the recent Monero (XMR) hard fork, Bulletproofs replaced Borromean to achieve these reductions in transaction size and network fees. However, the update also included adjustments to the Monero (XMR) PoW to deal with ASIC crypto mining equipment and maintain its current resilience.

Monero (XMR) update reduced the network fees by 97%

“Bulletproof will replace the current mathematical method of hiding the transactions amounts. The method currently used is the reason why the Monero (XMR) blockchain is huge, as a normal transaction occupies 13 kB. With Bulletproof, a transaction size is reduced by about 80%, by lowering the network fees, making the blockchain grow slower, and I think it will make it have higher network speed,” said Flenst, a Reddit user.

Once the update completed, Monero (XMR) news portals reported that it occurred in block 1685555 and software version 9 was executed in block 1686275 with Bulletproofs. One of the cornerstones of this project is to maintain the privacy of those involved in Monero (XMR) network transactions, from start to finish.

In this regard, Monero (XMR) supporters praise the coin for being the best privacy coin in the market, while others suggest that this type of cryptocurrency paves the way to illegal operations. At the time of writing, Monero (XMR), trades at $108.11, surging by about 4% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

Categories
Crypto News

Monero (XMR) To Adopt Kovri Project For Boosting Privacy

An ambitious project called Kovri has been launched in its alpha version by the Monero (XMR) development team for boosting privacy.

Kovri is a project that places Monero network at a much higher level in terms of anonymity of the distributed platforms. This implementation allows that any interaction or transaction of any cryptocurrency cannot be related to any geographical location, by means of routing via I2P.

The Kovri project will become available in the Monero (XMR) network next year.

The risk of linking a geographic location to a cryptocurrency transaction is that if enough data is collected, such as IP address and time of day of the transaction, this information could be verified by authoritarian governments or third parties with malicious intent to determine the final identity of the user. That’s something entirely undesirable for many cryptocurrencies which respect their decentralized nature, including Monero (XMR).

Monero (XMR) adopts Kovri to increase the privacy of its users

The origins of Kovri go back to 2015, when the original author of the I2PD implementation, an alternative version to I2P, whose name is not specified, pretended to be the only contributor to this proposal in GitHub, which generated a deep discontent among other developers and the project lost momentum.

However, months later, a developer, known as Anonimal, rescued the project and started working on it, while recruiting more interested collaborators. Thus, meetings were held in which it was decided to bifurcate the I2PD implementation code base and turn it into what is now known as the Kovri project.

In an episode of OpenHours, the developer explains that this Kovri project will provide much more anonymity to Monero (XMR) transactions, even beyond what this platform is capable of doing since it works with another layer of Internet connection and not with implementations made directly in the Monero blockchain.

Categories
Crypto News

Monero (XMR): MyMonero Desktop Wallet Version 1.0.0 Launched

The team behind MyMonero, a popular web-based wallet for storing Monero (XMR), announced the 1.0.0 version of its implementation, which will be available for desktop use, too. Until now, the wallet has only worked in the web version.

This new version is a lightweight variant, so users of MyMonero desktop version should not download the entire blockchain, and can use the wallet immediately. The application is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Users using this version will be able to access the application using the same password.

The release contains fixes to the contact log, updates for connectivity via Firefox, the ability for the software to update automatically, and some other minor changes to the user interface.

As one of the developers of the application explained through Reddit, those who are concerned about automatic software updates and how repository corruption and the specification of the client protocol works with could compromise the handling of Monero (XMR) can just disable this option.

The developer also pointed out that many of the features of this version can still be improved, so he urged users to be patient and to test the new MyMonero desktop wallet for reporting bugs and malfunctions.

The new MyMonero desktop wallet to safely store Monero (XMR), welcomed by the crypto community

The Reddit users were extremely pleased with the announcement and welcomed the decision of launching a desktop wallet version for MyMonero.

This development comes shortly after the recent integration of Monero (XMR) into Ledger’s cold purse, Nano S, with the goal to make XMR a part of the primary interface.

Monero (XMR) is still developing, and just a couple of weeks ago the implementation of the Bulletproof protocol in Monero (XMR) network took place to reduce the size of transactions, the fees, and to streamline the network, without compromising privacy, one of the focal points of the Monero (XMR) crypto project.

At the moment of this writing, Monero (XMR) trades at $121.84 and is the 12th crypto coin in the market with a market capitalization of approximately $1,98 billion.

Categories
Crypto News

Cryptojacking, Hidden Cryptocurrency Mining Malware, Outperforms Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware threatened billions of computers during 2017, hijacking the functionality of the infected computer until the user paid a certain amount, usually in Bitcoin (BTC), to restore system performance. This type of attack is a business model for cybercriminals, who amassed large quantities of BTC with this kind of extortions. However, over the past year, the profitability of malicious ransomware attacks has been outperformed by hidden cryptocurrency mining malware (cryptojacking), says Kaspersky Lab.

According to the report “Ransomware and Malicious Cryptojacking 2016-2018”, recently released by cyber security company Kaspersky Lab, cybercriminals are migrating to cryptojacking for “being a more sustainable business model over time” than a malicious attack with ransomware can be.

The report notes that Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan were the three countries most targeted by cryptocurrency mining malware between 2017-2018, accounting for 31%, 29%, and 24%, respectively, of the total number of countries targeted by cryptojacking during the before-mentioned period.

The increase in the number of attacks with mining malware almost doubles the figures recorded in 2016, to over 1.87 million, as Kaspersky Lab estimates that there were 2.7 million cryptocurrency mining malware attacks on computers in 2017 alone.

Bitcoin (BTC) is commonly used by ransomware attacks, while hidden cryptocurrency mining malware uses Monero (XMR) more

It should be noted that malicious cryptojacking attacks on mobile devices maintained a different geographical concentration than attacks on computers. As for mobile cryptocurrency mining malware, the country with the highest percentage of people affected was Venezuela.

The growth in attacks on mobile devices was 168% for Venezuela, 90% for Nepal, and 215% for Turkmenistan, which ranks as one of the countries most attacked by malicious miners on both computers and mobile phones. Also, the increase in the mobile threat in China increased by 1,287% in the last year, an alarming figure, especially considering the number of potential victims from the world’s most populous country.

In the case of ransomware, Bitcoin (BTC) is the most used digital currency, while Monero (XMR) is the one that attracts cryptojacking because it is much easier to mine. In fact, all hidden cryptocurrency mining malware based on the Coinhive code process Monero (XMR) transactions, occupying the processing capacity of the device in which they are hosted.

Categories
Crypto

Monero (XMR) CEO, Riccardo Spagni, Announced Tari Project, A Decentralized Ecosystem For Cryptocurrency

This week, Monero (XMR)’s Tari project, written and running on Monero (XMR) blockchain, that will focus on creating a new decentralized ecosystem for cryptocurrency has been released. Recently, Riccardo Spagni, CEO of Monero, posted on Reddit more details regarding the operation of the Tari project.

The founders of the Tari project, namely, Riccardo Spagni, Naveen Jain (Sparkart), and Dan Teere (ex-leader of Ticketfly), believe that “due to the many concessions involved, it is more difficult to build a protocol focused on decentralized and scalable applications than a protocol that focuses only on digital assets.”

The needed funds for the Tari project, according to Spagni, will be obtained from venture capital firms such as Trinity Ventures, Redpoint, Slow Ventures, Aspect Ventures, and Canaan Partners.

No Initial Currency Offering (ICO) will be made to finance Tari

For this program to develop, the Tari Labs will also be developed and will be headquartered in South Africa. Tari Labs will function “on a Lightning Network implementation that is compatible with Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR), allowing XMR to benefit from privacy outside the aggregated chain provided by the Lightning Network”.

Tari project has been designed as a Monero (XMR) extra blockchain, therefore, Merged Mining could be applied which, according to the developers, will help the project be extra scalable since it won’t utilize an integrated consensus system.

Tari coin can be earned by mining XMR

Once it’s generated, Tari coin can be obtained through mining Monero (XMR). This system, applied for Monero (XMR) and Tari coin, would apply a hash generated in Monero mining to solve out a block in the Tari blockchain.

Tari Labs and the Tari Organization, of which Spagni is a member, are intended to work together for the administration and development of the project. For this reason, Riccardo Spagni will resign as CEO of MyMonero, leaving Paul Shapiro in charge.

Exit mobile version