Monero (XMR)

What Monero is

Monero is a cryptocurrency in which privacy is mandatory rather than optional. Its documentation states that "the sender, receiver, and amount of every single transaction are hidden through the use of three important technologies: Stealth Addresses, Ring Signatures, and RingCT," and describes Monero as the only major cryptocurrency where every user is anonymous by default (source: getmonero.org).

That default is the design's whole point. Because no transaction reveals its participants or amounts, the project argues that Monero is "a true, fungible currency," and that "merchants and individuals accepting Monero do not need to worry about blacklisted or tainted coins."

Monero is not a fork of Bitcoin. Its FAQ traces it to the CryptoNote protocol, a separate codebase and cryptographic lineage.

For where to buy Monero in your country or state, see the availability tables on this page and the venue list at Exchanges.

How it works

Three mechanisms work together, and each hides a different piece of a transaction.

Stealth addresses hide the receiver. The sender derives a one-time address for each payment, so the recipient's published address never appears on the chain. Two payments to the same person are unlinkable from the outside.

Ring signatures hide the sender. A spend is signed on behalf of a group of possible signers rather than one identified key, so an observer can see that a valid signature exists but cannot tell which member produced it.

RingCT hides the amount. Transaction values are committed cryptographically and proved to balance without being disclosed, so the network can confirm that no coins were created while remaining unable to read the sums.

Because all three are on by default, there is no shielded pool to opt into and no transparent side of the chain that leaks a comparison set. Getmonero.org states that "all transactions on the network are private by mandate."

Mining is proof of work with a deliberate hardware policy. The FAQ states that "Monero uses an algorithm (randomx) that strongly reduces the efficiency of ASICs, making them not profitable to build," which keeps ordinary consumer hardware competitive and the mining base wider than on chains dominated by specialist equipment.

Two more design choices are worth knowing. Blocks arrive roughly every two minutes. Block size has no hard limit and adjusts to demand within controlled growth rates, and fees are dynamic rather than fixed, so the network expands capacity under load instead of pricing users out with a fixed cap.

Supply and tokenomics

Monero has no maximum supply, and that is intentional. After the main emission curve was exhausted, the protocol switched to a permanent tail emission. Moneropedia, the project's reference glossary, describes the same change as commencing at the end of May 2022 and states that "rewards will stay fixed at 0.6 XMR or less per block," noting the amount can be reduced by block size penalties.

The economics of a fixed absolute reward are worth working through. Because the reward per block is constant while total supply grows, the percentage inflation rate falls continuously. The FAQ puts it at roughly 1% initially and approaching 0% over time. Supply rises forever in absolute terms and asymptotically stops rising in relative terms.

The stated reason is miner incentive. Moneropedia frames tail emission as maintaining a reliable reward so that block production does not depend entirely on a volatile fee market. This is the opposite bet from a hard-capped currency, and Monero made it deliberately.

There was no premine and no founder allocation. The FAQ states that coins are obtained through mining or by buying them, and that the project is funded through the Community Crowdfunding System, in which contributors fund specific proposals rather than a company treasury.

History

Monero began as Bitmonero, a name the FAQ glosses as Esperanto for "Bitcoin." After a fork away from the original maintainer, the community shortened it to Monero, Esperanto for "coin." That origin, a community takeover of a CryptoNote implementation rather than a company launch, shaped everything after it.

Development has stayed distributed. Getmonero.org credits contributions from over 500 developers, and there is no corporate sponsor equivalent to the foundations that back many other chains. Funding runs through the Community Crowdfunding System, where individual work items are proposed, funded by community contributions, and paid on delivery.

The technical history is a sequence of privacy upgrades, each closing a leak. RingCT hid amounts, which earlier CryptoNote transactions exposed. The move to RandomX put mining back within reach of general-purpose hardware after ASICs appeared for earlier algorithms. Tail emission, activated in 2022, settled the question of what pays for security once the main emission curve ran out.

The consistent pattern is a project willing to hard fork to fix privacy weaknesses, which is a different posture from chains that prioritize never changing consensus rules.

Risks and what to watch

Exchange availability is the single most practical risk for a Monero holder, and it is unlike anything on this list. Privacy assets face jurisdiction-specific restrictions, and a delisting can remove your ability to convert on a given venue with limited notice. RampAtlas tracks availability by country and US state because it changes more often for this asset than for almost any other.

That constraint also pushes activity toward venues with fewer safeguards. p2p trading and small exchanges carry counterparty and escrow risk that a large regulated venue does not, and the trade-off should be understood rather than discovered.

On the protocol side, privacy technology is an arms race. Ring signature anonymity depends on the size and quality of the decoy set, and analysis techniques improve over time. The project's history of hard forking to close weaknesses is a strength, but it also means a transaction's privacy properties are those of the protocol version in force when it was made, not permanently fixed.

Tail emission is a design choice with critics. Perpetual issuance guarantees miner income and dilutes existing holders in absolute terms, and reasonable people disagree about whether that beats a fee-only future.

Finally, mandatory privacy means there is no recovery path and no support desk. Sending to the wrong address, or losing a seed phrase, is final in a way that is harder to work around than on a transparent chain where funds can at least be traced.

Frequently asked questions

Is every Monero transaction private?

Yes. Getmonero.org states that all transactions on the network are private by mandate, using stealth addresses to hide the receiver, ring signatures to hide the sender, and RingCT to hide the amount. There is no transparent transaction type to opt into.

Does Monero have a maximum supply?

No. Monero uses a permanent tail emission that the FAQ dates to 9 June 2022, block 2,641,623, with a fixed reward of 0.6 XMR per block, or 0.3 XMR per minute. Because the absolute reward is constant, the percentage inflation rate started near 1% and falls toward zero over time.

Why does Monero resist ASIC mining?

By design. The FAQ states that RandomX "strongly reduces the efficiency of ASICs, making them not profitable to build," which keeps consumer hardware viable and the mining base broader than on algorithms dominated by specialist machines.

Who funds Monero development?

The community. Getmonero.org describes contributions from over 500 developers and funding through the Community Crowdfunding System, where specific proposals are funded by community contributions. There was no premine and no founder allocation.

Where can you buy Monero?

Availability is more restricted than for most assets and varies significantly by jurisdiction. See where to buy Monero for the venues serving your country or state, and Exchanges for the wider list of exchanges RampAtlas tracks.