Monero

Monero is a privacy-focused, censorship-resistant blockchain that enables anonymous transactions for users of its cryptocurrency, XMR.

XMR is an inflationary asset and issues tokens based on two schedules. The first is called the “main emission curve” and the second is called the “Tail emission curve.”

During the first stage (main curve), 18.132 million XMR tokens will have entered circulation by May 2022. After that, the system will be replaced by the tail curve issuance schedule whereby 0.6 XMR tokens will be released into circulation with every new block discovered. Monero blocks are discovered every two minutes regardless of how many miners are participating.

Monero uses the RandomX proof-of-work algorithm, which was developed by Monero community members to prevent application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining equipment dominating the network hashrate. ASIC miners are capable of producing significantly higher hashes per second than laptops and other ordinary devices used by Monero miners. The equipment gives their owners an unfair advantage over other miners.

Like most cryptocurrencies, Monero price didn’t reach its first peak until January 2018, right around the time all other assets in the market were experiencing huge surges in price. XMR topped out at $469 before dropping to $37 by the end of the year. From March 2020 – when the coronavirus pandemic was first announced – to May 2021, XMR price went on a significant bull run, climbing 1,886% to a new all-time high of $517.62.