It is practically common knowledge that Bitcoin is the biggest and most popular cryptocurrency in the world. With its price ballooning over 20,000 dollars a coin and its subsequent loss of over 75 percent of its value, news outlets, social media sites, and bloggers have been covering the topic. However, even though Bitcoin was the original, there are currently over 1500 cryptocurrencies available in the market today. As the first, Bitcoin has a set of flaws that others corrected when launching their versions. One of these is Monero (XMR), which based its coin on complete privacy and anonymity. However, before addressing the topic on how to trade XMR, you should be aware of the benefits and reasons to pick this coin over the other cryptocurrencies.
What is Monero?
Also known as XMR, Monero is an open-source and privately-owned cryptocurrency built on blockchain technology. As an open-source resource, everyone can inspect, modify, and contribute to the source code of the project. The blockchain is a public ledger where transaction history is recorded. However, unlike other digital coins, Monero keeps this obscure and private where although participants can see the movement, a person’s privacy throughout the blockchain is maintained. Although this feature is generally attractive to many, it also raises questions of mass adoption and regulation because of concerns that individuals can use the digital coin for illicit purposes and avoid detection. Hence, governments and regulators may increase restrictions on such transaction networks. Nevertheless, the privacy has placed the coin as the 13th largest, and users can trade it on multiple platforms.
Why Trade Monero?
As with other cryptocurrencies, Monero is decentralized, thus avoiding banks or transaction networks that would involve fees or the process of clearing checks. One of the major differences between Bitcoin and this currency is in the way that the technology manages privacy. Bitcoin shields a person’s identity by using pseudonyms that are randomly generated. Nevertheless, the address and the transaction are recorded in the public ledger, which opens the possibility of linking transactions to a single user address. If the identity is uncovered, the privacy of the person will be violated.
Another concept that provides Monero with an advantage is the idea of fungibility. What this means is that each unit of digital currency is the same and lacks distinguishing features. Bitcoin and other coins do not have this feature. Therefore, a specific coin may be linked to illicit activity and flagged or banned. This type of traceability creates a problem in receiving payments and may lead to losses as receivers may not be aware and may not have time to trace its history. Monero avoids this by having each piece be of equal value and without any specific traceable features, creating a safer network.
How to Trade Monero
To trade this coin, users will need to look for cryptocurrency exchanges. Most of the exchanges that handle other digital currencies like Litecoin and Ethereum also handle XMR. However, make sure to review the Monero price before engaging in transactions to ensure that you receive the best price. Experts recommend using the Kraken exchange to buy and sell the coin, but other popular choices include Chanelly, ShapeShift, Poloniex, Coinbase, and Binance. Once a participant purchases any digital currency, storage safety should be addressed. It is critical to find a digital wallet that is safe to hold the coin. One example of a desktop option is the Moreno GUI Wallet that programmers explicitly developed for using Monero. However, for more flexible options, MyMonero and Monerujo are also available. MyMoreno is web-based while the latter is a mobile platform.
