Monero

Monero is a cryptocurrency focused on privacy. It offers users methods of transaction anonymity by making the underlying blockchain technology more difficult for others to analyze. Monero has grown to market capitalization of several billion since its inception in 2014, making it one of the largest cryptocurrencies.

Unlike other crypto coins such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, Monero transaction history is not fully traceable. Monero is employing cryptographic ring-signatures to obfuscate transaction participants, therefore allowing for fundamentally better privacy.

Monero was designed to be ASIC resistant, which means it is very difficult, if not impossible, to create specialized silicon chips for accelerated Monero mining. This allowed ordinary people with personal computers to participate in Monero mining, enhancing network decentralization and censorship resistance.

Due to its privacy-first design, Monero has been one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in black market commerce. Due to perceived risks of money laundering, Monero is not supported in all popular crypto exchanges.