The cryptocurrency market continues to develop as its user base increases throughout the years. As such, the usage of these digital currencies grows increasingly more prominent all around the world. With more vendors and services accepting crypto payments, more groups also try to take a share in the successes of the market by developing their own altcoins.
The problem is that there are already thousands of altcoins, with most of them just seem to build off of one another without truly contributing anything significant to the cryptocurrency community at large. It is difficult, therefore, to find coins as unique as the top players like XMR anymore—which can be stored in a secure Monero wallet. Cryptocurrencies like these all have a defining characteristic that makes them stand out from the rest, and in Monero’s case, its focus on privacy makes it unique above all other altcoins out there.
To learn about how Monero sets itself apart, you’ll want to read on and find out why others choose it over the rest.
Unrivaled Privacy
From the onset of its inception, Monero set itself apart as a privacy coin built from the ground up. The team behind did not opt to copy the codebase of even the most popular coins on the market. They wanted Monero to be private and untraceable even on its own. That is why today, XMR continues to remain this way without relying on any additional programs on top.
It does not need a wallet to provide the unparalleled security that it’s known for, nor does it need a third-party application to do so. Instead, Monero makes use of ring-signatures to obfuscate your account key in a transaction with other public keys to ensure that the output transaction is virtually untraceable. That way, nobody trying to interfere can come close to determining the true recipient or sender.
Aside from that, XMR also makes use of stealth addresses. Through this feature, transactions are recorded on the blockchain with their own generated address. It leaves no trace or information leading to any users who have used Monero. These are only two of many more privacy-focused capabilities that continue to improve as more people join the Monero community.
Clean Money, Total Fungibility
Monero has been developed extensively to guarantee that its users cannot be traced nor identified. Furthermore, each coin does not leave any history of how it has been used. This means that every coin remains clean. This gives users the assurance that their coins cannot be rejected for any unjust reasons.
This is not to say that Monero does not allow users to declare their expenses with XMR coins. But at least, users are given the choice rather than allowing a constant vulnerability with their transactions. They are granted the right to consent in sharing their financial information when deemed necessary.
Why this matters is because this protects users from being apprehended without just cause. If other cryptocurrencies have been used for illicit activity, an innocent user who just so happens to hold the coin at the moment may be blamed anyway. Monero on the other hand assures its users of their safety and the certainty that their coins remain fungible.
Immunity from ASICs
Briefly, ASICs are devices that are specialized for the algorithms of a cryptocurrency of choice. This allows them to hash transactions onto the blockchain far more efficiently than even the best commercially available computer. This also gives an unfair advantage to any person or group that can hoard a lot of these ASICs.
This matters because a corporate entity would have the means to invest in a lot of these devices for a large-scale crypto mining operation. They could effectively centralize all mining—and consequently circulation—of all coins within a single cryptocurrency’s network. This goes against the value of decentralized finance promised by crypto technology.
Fortunately, Monero is based on a far more complex algorithm than most coins on the market. Not only does it highly discourage the development of ASIC devices, but it also runs well on even the average personal computer. This sustains the equal accessibility of XMR to all users, at least to the extent that they can commercially upgrade their mining rigs.
Overall, the reasons for choosing XMR over other coins are quite practical. The digital era has brought about greater concerns regarding privacy in the financial sector as well as everyday life. There is merit to an altcoin that can protect its users in this respect. Furthermore, these features will only continue to improve due to Monero being open-source, as well as having a community that supports its development.
Of course, it is just as important for a cryptocurrency—or any currency for that matter—to hold value even after a long time. In addition, it should be accessible to anyone without any unfair advantages in the system. Its decentralized nature should remain so, given it is one of the most promising qualities of crypto in the first place.
Hopefully this has all been helpful in understanding what makes XMR unique as an altcoin. At the end of the day, one’s choice of coin reflects what they believe to be the future of global finance.
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