The Monero Moon is a new curated weekly newsletter regarding all things Monero.

October 23rd 2018 — October 29th 2018

Development, Releases, and Technology

The Command Line Interface (CLI) wallet v0.13.0.4 Beryllium Bullet has been released. This release fixes a range of bugs and solves Ledger issues users may have recently experienced. Information and download links can be found here.

Monero is poised to receive Trezor hardware wallet support today — 29th of October. Trezor founder “Slush” tweeted that Monero support has been added to the Trezor codebase and will soon be functional on the Trezor Model T. It is likely support will initially be for the official CLI and GUI wallets. Work is also being carried out to enable support for the Trezor One and Trezor’s native webwallet.

The MyMonero desktop wallet v1.1.2 has been released. The in-app automatic update should notify you, however it is best to make sure you’re running the latest version. Addtionally, please note that the MyMonero iOS wallet will be updated soon. More information can be found here.

XMR-Stak v2.5.2 has been released and comprises of a NVIDIA bug fix. You can find more information here.

There has been a push to make Monero a base currency on the decentralized exchange Bisq. Monero now makes up for the majority of volume on Bisq, so it would be beneficial to purchase XMR using fiat currencies directly. Bisq developer Manfred Karrer explained that it is possible, albeit would be a big task taking approximately three to six months, and they lack developers. Karrer recommended they first add Monero wallet features to Bisq, and detailed how achieve this. If you are a developer and think you could assist Bisq in adding Monero as a base currency, check out this post here.

XMRWallet have offered a 15 XMR bounty for Bulletproof JavaScript integratation. Be sure to read community discussion regarding this development, and check out the relevant Github page here.

Generating and importing a spent output (blackball) list is unnecessary with Monero’s new larger ringsize. For more information regarding this issue, read Justin’s post here.

The Monero Outreach are looking for translators. They are after talented volunteers to help grow awareness and adoption for the Monero Community and public in general. If you can help out, check out this post here.

Due to its opensource and dynamic nature, it can be hard to find an up to date roadmap for Monero. If you would like to get an idea of Monero research and development taking place, head over to the Monero Research Lab’s Github page. Additionally, you can view the official roadmap on GetMonero.org.

General News

Bitcoin Magazine released an article about Monero’s recent protocol upgrade resulting in a 97% reduction in fees. The article gives reference to Coin Metric’s recent analysis of Monero transaction fees and size.

Monero Talk recently hosted prominent developer Howard Chu as a guest on their show to discuss Monero, it’s proof of work algorithm, and the fight against ASIC centralization. Watch the video below or on YouTube.

Monero Talk also sat down with one of Monero’s most versatile contributors Diego “Rehrar” Salazar. They discussed Monero’s Forum Funding Systerm (FFS), and how to get a project funded by the Monero community. Watch the video below or on YouTube.

A Bisq Growth Call took place between members of the Monero and Bisq communities. The participants primarily discuss the possibility of adding Monero’s functionality on Bisq. Watch the video below or on YouTube.

Cake Wallet tweeted their wallet has had over 10,000 unique installs. You can find the iOS wallet in the App Store here.

AMBCrypto published Monero’s [XMR] bulletproof upgrade rectifies loopholes in RingCT protocol, says Dr. Sarang Noether.

A new Monero article written in German was recently published titled Monero: Gebühren sinken dank Bullet Proofs um 97 Prozent.

The Monero Quick-Facts Sheet has been translated into Russian and Chinese thanks to u/lh1008. Check out this post where you can find more information and printer friendly copies.

The NYC Monero meetup is taking place tonight, Monday the 29th of October. Presentations will include an overview of the latest protocol upgrade, Trezor integration, a demonstration of the GoFundMe Monero project, and information regarding algorithmic trading for cryptocurrencies. Seats are limited so make sure you register as soon as possible.

Jake Chervinsky highlighted that US sanctions against Iran are back in full force on November 5. FinCEN issued an advisory with a small but critical section on crypto: “Institutions should consider reviewing blockchain ledgers for activity that may originate or terminate in Iran” and recommends they “utilize technology created to monitor open blockchains and investigate transactions to or from P2P exchange platforms”.

Justin Ehrenhofer penned an article about the necessity of privacy in order to protect individuals and businesses, and highlights Bitcoin’s non-fungible nature as a potential risk.

Elon Musk finally tweeted about Bitcoin. Not long after, his account was locked by Twitter because they assumed he was hacked, however Musk cleared the air with a follow up tweet. While this is not directly related to Monero, it is thought that having a high profile and innovative individual tweet about Bitcoin would increase adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Be careful what you read in cryptoland. BREAKER reported that half of all cryptocurrency news outlets would accept payment to post a third party’s content.

Monero’s Faketoshi (News special)

Ezekiel Osborne recently featured in an article and on the cover of Forbes Middle East. In the article Osborne claims to have been a creator of Monero, and is quoted saying:

“When we created it, we sold 50% of the entire token supply and we kept 50% for ourselves. We made our money because when we registered the tokens it cost $2.60 a token”.

Monero Core Team members were quick to denounce Osborne as a fraud, with Riccardo “Fluffypony” Spagni stating:

“Ezekiel Osborne is not one of the original Monero core team members that started the community-based stewardship of Monero, nor has he EVER been involved with Monero in ANY way. Until today none of us had ever even heard of him! Also the claim that the Monero tokens were “registered”, like it’s some sort of ERC-20, is just ridiculous…as is the baseless nonsense about selling 50% of the token supply and keeping 50%. I’m shocked that Forbes did no fact checking on this!”

In a Reddit discussion regarding the apparent fraudulent article, u/Ruskiv explains:

This guy is a fraudster, used to call himself Zeke Echelon aka ‘Satoshi’s Shotgun’ on twitter. Between January and February of this year, He would livestream on periscope nearly everyday, claim to be pumping shitcoins on cryptopia, tried to get people to join his dodgy fund called echelon private wealth and then dump on his new followers. When a lot of people started accusing him of being a scammer, he just deleted his twitter account and vanished, then he tried launching a casino scam called Satoshi’s Lotto Land, which didn’t go very far.

Monero Core Team member binaryFate further elaborated on this, linking an old r/cryptocurrency post warning of Osborne’s fraudulent activities:

There were two gentleman leading a P&D scam on Twitter. Ezekiel John Osborne (Twitter was @ZekeEchelon — from Australia — http://www.abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?abn=34309132773) and Alan Nguyen (from Maryland @AlanEchelon — 435 W Diamond Ave Apt 301, Gaithersburg, MD). Alan helped coordinate the scam with Ezekiel. As we know, it will be difficult to hold someone accountable in Australia, but Alan Nguyen of Maryland might be a good first choice. Here is his email taken from a screen cap of one of Zeke’s live video scams: alannguyen2397@gmail.com — 435 W Diamond Ave Apt 301, Gaithersburg, MD . Zeke quickly deleted his twitter after his final exit, but someone was able to steal his twitter name to expose him twitter.com/zekeechelon — if anyone is Australia and knows how to get ahold of authorities, you can find a lot of his personal info on that twitter page: (zeke@westsidebuilders.com.au — ezekielosborne@outlook.com — zeke@echelonpw.com.au) . Zeke was pretending to be a “Private Wealth Manager” but screen caps of his email show that he is a construction worker.

In my humble opinion, it appears Osborne made use of Monero’s privacy features to obscure or launder his new and nefariously obtained wealth. This should be a reminder to regulators that Monero is not the problem. Monero is just a tool. Like any tool, it can be misappropriated. If authorities conduct their duties correctly, it is likely they will be able to harness available resources in order to prosecute fraudulent characters. In this instance, a simple Reddit search raises a number of red flags.

Exchanges and Merchants

XMR.to now have a fresh new design for their web page, along with a community hub where they provide links to various useful resources such as block explorers and public nodes.

Following the recent protocol upgrade, Binance, Bitfinex, Poloniex, and Bittrex have all reduced their XMR withdrawal fees to 0.0001 XMR. In USD terms, this equates to a reduction from approximately $5 to $0.01. Morph Token have reduced their withdrawal fees even lower to 0.00008 XMR.

A project to integrate Monero donations into GoFundMe has been making progress. Check out this Reddit post for a sneak peak.

Decentralized exchange Bisq surpassed $3.5M in monthly volumes in October and recorded its most successful month yet. Over the past three months, 89% of all volume on Bisq was involved the trading of Monero. Check out The Block’s article for a detailed analysis. Omni Research also tweeted about this here. If you want to support Monero and the rise of decentralized exchanges, give Bisq a try.

A film crew are crowdfunding the production of a film about Ludwig von Mises, a prominent theoretical Austrian School economist. You can find more information and donate XMR to the film here.

There was discussion on Reddit regards to whether TheBigCoin.io is trustworthy. It appears one user has had issues regarding KYC requests, so if this is something you feel uneasy about, perhaps avoid using the service. The user complaining was new to Reddit with no prior history, so it’s possible to be FUD. Additionally, I myself have successfully used the service, along with a myriad of other Monero users.

Forum Funding and Proposals

There are a number of proposals to improve the Monero ecosystem that require funding. These include:

Please note that the Forum Funding System will soon be migrating to a new home.

Performance

Total Monero in Circulation — 16,526,515 XMR (last week: 16,508,754 XMR)

Monero Total Marketcap — $1,718,749,575 USD (last week: $1,745,798,335 USD)

Monero Coinmarketcap Ranking — 10 (last week: 10)

USD Price — $104 USD (last week: $105 USD)

BTC Price — 0.0161 BTC (last week: 0.0163 BTC)

LocalMonero.co Street Price — $129 USD (last week: $111 USD)

Average Transaction Fee — $0.005 USD (last week: $0.005 USD)

Hashrate — 427.6Mh/s (last week:408.7Mh/s)

Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —

Memes