Today I’ll be reviewing Monero, a privacy focused coin. Monero is not a fork of Bitcoin, but built on CryptoNote. I’m not sure why I’ve never tried Monero before. I’m looking forward to reviewing it.

TL;DR: Monero offers superior privacy to Bitcoin, but lacks mobile and hardware wallet support.

The Monero project started in April 2014. The project has grown steadily and currently has a market cap of $1.5 billion (1 XMR = $99.24) The network processes around 2000 transactions per day.

Monero is accepted on a number of DarkNet Markets, including WallStreet Trading and TradeRoute.

I write these reviews in the evening on the weekends. I’ll use the latest source-code and documentation. Waiting for support ticket replies or joining a Slack is not an option when you’re ready to hit the DarkNet Markets!

My review of Monero is quite long, but not very technical. You can skip to the end by searching the page for the word “conclusion”.

Goals for the review

Compile and install Monero from source-code Sync the full Monero blockchain Install a Monero wallet on my Android phone Buy Monero (XMR) Send XMR to my Monero full node Install the Monero desktop client BONUS: Buy a service or item using Monero BONUS: Send the remaining XMR to a hardware wallet

The Monero Landing page

It seems that Monero is private.

Monero’s landing page mostly repeats that Monero is private. I prefer privacy over scaling. I hope it works.

I click Get Started.

I want to avoid having to sit on their Slack.

I want to compile and run a full Monero node from source-code. I follow the link to the Github.

The Monero Github Project

The monero-project user on Github has a few different projects. I don’t know what language QML is. I’ll try the project simply named monero first.

The Monero Project in Numbers

The monero-project/monero project on Github looks alive. Monero has a large number of contributors, stars, forks, and issues. This tells me that the Monero project is popular. But is it active?

The number of changes to the Monero code is consistent over time.

Finding the Source Code

These “Build Success” badges are generated from an automatic system. A system like this is called Continuous Integration.

The README has a list of operating systems compatible with the newest version of Monero. Ubuntu 16.04 looks promising.

The idea of a “staging” project is very similar to Bitcoin Core’s process.

The Monero README recommends using a tagged release. I head over to the releases section.

The latest version of Monero is Helium Hydra. Most notable changes mention privacy. The focus on privacy is consistent with all the mentions of privacy on the Monero landing page. 👍

Helium Hydra sounds like a Final Fantasy boss.

The latest Final Fantasy game, FFXV, is way too easy but worth playing anyway. One of the best parts of the game happens after you finish the main story line. It’s a mix of Back to the Future and Super Mario. I won’t spoil more.

Helium Hydra is a mandatory upgrade. In Bitcoin this is called a hard fork and caused a three year civil war. I hope Helium Hydra doesn’t cause a civil war in Monero.

I see 39 contributors to the Helium Hydra release code. The previous release of Monero was on March 25th, 2017.

The source code of Monero is linked from the release page. I’ll need to set up a Linux machine first.

Compiling and Installing Monero

I’ll need a machine to compile and run Monero. It would be hard for you to repeat the process if I used my own laptop.

Setting up an Amazon AWS machine for Monero

Ubuntu 16.04 is a widely used version of Linux that works with most coins.

I choose Ubuntu 16.04 and click Select.

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A computer with 4 CPU cores and 16 GB ram should be enough to compile, run, and sync Monero.

I don’t know how big the Monero blockchain is. 500 GB should be more than enough.

Monero’s README lists the following dependencies:

I’ll install only the required dependencies. The rest are for developer debugging and testing.

Installing the dependencies takes around a minute. Maybe all those CPU cores were worth it.

I download and extract the Monero source-code I found on the Helium Hydra release page earlier.

The Monero build instructions are very easy. Just run make .

I compile with the make -j2 command to use two CPUs for some extra speed.

OBJECTIVE SUCCESS!

Compile and install Monero from source-code

Easy enough! I start the monerod program. I hope syncing the Monero blockchain won’t take too long.

I don’t see any updates on the syncing progress. I’ll go grab a coffee. 😪

Five minutes later.

Monero is slowly downloading the blockchain. It’s getting late. I’ll check the progress tomorrow.

I check on the syncing next day and Monero is all caught up.

OBJECTIVE SUCCESS!

Sync the full Monero blockchain

I recommend watching the behind the scenes video of How I Met Your Mother’s 100th episode. NPH is an amazing actor.

Finding an Android wallet for Monero

Compiling a mobile wallet from source-code would take too much time. I’d rather just get something from the Play Store. But all wallets in the Play Store are hosted wallets. That’s unacceptable from a security/privacy standpoint.

I wonder what difficulties working with the community means.

I’ll use the MyMonero Wallet from Chrome. Not as appealing as an actual native Android app. 😠