When several weeks go by without a cryptocurrency hard fork, one would almost assume something is wrong. Luckily, that is not the case, and a new currency has been announced. Known as Electronero, this new altcoin is a hard fork of the Electroneum currency, which also borrows a lot of functionality from Monero. It’s an interesting mix of various features combined into a potentially powerful project.

Under the Hood of Electronero

Anyone who has paid attention to the cryptocurrency ecosystem will have noticed that not every currency provides privacy or anonymity features. In most cases, one has to look into CryptoNote currencies, all of which contain privacy and anonymity-oriented features. Monero is a pretty good example of how CryptoNote-based currencies are worth paying attention to.

As such, it is not entirely surprising to see developers take an interest in hard forking existing CryptoNote currencies. In the case of Electronero, it is a fork of Electroneum, a cryptocurrency which has become somewhat popular among altcoin enthusiasts. Electronero is a direct fork of Electroneum, but it uses the Monero source version 0.12.0. The Electronero team acknowledges that this codebase is “one of the most respectable branches” in the industry today.

Even though Electronero initially started out as an educational project, it could make an impact on the cryptocurrency industry. The team is confident that the introduction of Ring Confidential Transactions and setting minimum transaction mixins to 12 can make Electronero a powerful altcoin in the near future. That’s certainly possible, as people will undoubtedly show an interest in this particular project because of its unique features.

Electronero also uses some features found in Sumokoin, including the Camel emission and LWMA difficulty algorithm. Electronero can be obtained by existing Electroneum holders, as they will be part of an airdrop taking place at block height 280,000. Depending on whether or not exchanges decide to list this forked currency, buying Electronero shouldn’t be much of a problem either.

As one would expect, the launch of CryptoNote ASICs is part of the reason why Electronero was created. This new fork aims to solve some of the problems outlined by the Electroneum community. Providing untraceability and linkability, as well as remaining ASIC resistant and having a low premine, all make this new currency something worth keeping an eye on.

That doesn’t guarantee its long-term success by any means, though. It will still remain difficult for new currencies to gain any traction in the cryptocurrency industry. Even so, an airdrop is always worth looking into, especially if you already own Electroneum as part of your portfolio.