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

October 16th 2018 — October 22nd 2018

Development, Releases, and Technology

The protocol upgrade took place last week and the much anticipated Bulletproofs were implemented. It was reported there were a few minor issues related to the GUI wallet for Mac users, some block explorers failed temporarily, and one exchange experienced withdrawal issues. Besides that, the upgrade went relatively smoothly and should be considered a major success given the benefits Bulletproofs have provided.

As part of the protocol upgrade, fees have been drastically reduced. Users were quick to report a drastic reduction in transaction fees. Low priority fees are now approximately half a cent — $0.005 USD, or 0.000046 XMR.

Posted by u/traveliando on reddit.com/r/monero

Transaction sizes have also been dramatically reduced after the protocol upgrade. According to Coin Metrics, transaction sizes have reduced by over 80% from ~18kb to ~3kb, however if you view a block explorer such as XMRchain.net, one could argue the mode transaction size is 1.87kb. Regardless, this is a huge win for Monero and enormously helps improve scalability while reducing future blockchain bloat.

The protocol upgrade also implemented a change of the Proof of Work algorithm. This resulted in a noticeable drop in hashrate, however when compared to the April 2018 protocol upgrade it is less extreme. This means it is likely there were no ASIC miners operating on the Monero network. Head over to BitInfoCharts to check out Monero’s current and historical hashrate.

The official Graphical User Interface (GUI) wallet v0.13.0.3 Beryllium Bullet was released a few days prior to the protocol upgrade. It is mandatory to update your old GUI wallet to the new version to ensure your wallet remains compatible after the protocol upgrade. Find links to the wallets and more information here.

Additionally, the new GUI wallet for Mac users is currently not working correctly. To mitigate this issue and get the GUI wallet running on Mac, try Selsta’s solution here by installing homebrew or download a working build from the build-bot. Alternatively, sit tight a few days until a fix is released in v0.13.0.4, or use one of the many other wallets available.

Windows users reported they were unable to restore wallets using v0.13.0.3 Command Line Interface (CLI) and GUI with the Ledger Nano S hardware wallet. The issue is now solved and will be fixed in the forthcoming v0.13.0.4 release.

The Command Line Interface (CLI) wallet v0.13.0.x Beryllium Bullet introduces a couple of interesting options for monerod and monero-wallet-rpc daemons, and may be especially useful for merchants and parties accepting Monero. New functions include block-notify and tx-notify. For an overview of the new functions, read u/qertoip’s Reddit post here.

Cake Wallet v3.0.9 has been released. This is a mandatory update so make sure you are running the new version once the protocol upgrade takes place on October 18th. Download the new version here, or read u/pinkphloid’s post for further information.

Make sure you’ve updated your MyMonero desktop wallet to v1.1.0 Spinal Tap to ensure your wallet remains compatible after the protocol upgrade. The MyMonero desktop is an alternative and somewhat easier to use wallet when compared to the official GUI wallet. It is perfect for those new to cryptocurrency and hasn’t received much publicity yet so give it a try. It works on Mac, Windows, and Linux. The wallet can be found here for download.

Justin Ehrenhofer noted that the Edge Wallet app supports Monero by sending your details to MyMonero, and as a result means that MyMonero already (indirectly) has a working lightweight android wallet. Edge Wallet is an intuitive and easy to use app you can download for free from Google Play.

Numerous Monero block explorers were reported to have temporarily failed after the protocol upgrade. At moment of writing, block explorers such as ExploreMonero, blox.mineXMR, xmrchain.net, and MoneroHash are all working.

u/hapticpilot shared a simple script to make Monero transactions more anonymous while you wait for Kovri. If you use Monero’s official command line interface (CLI) wallet, you can use the following bash script to submit your raw transactions over Tor so that your anonymity is not compromised by passive observers on the network (e.g. your ISP) or by the remote nodes you are connected to. You can find all the information you need here.

The onion Monero explorer and transaction export tool have been updated for the recent protocol upgrade. You can find the links to the updates on Github here.

Andrés published How to use Monerujo with the Ledger Nano S. The guide is straightforward, however you will require an OTG cable. Read the guide here.

Monero-python v0.4.3 has been released in order to support the recent protocol upgrade. To update, download it directly from Github or PyPi. Alternatively, read this Reddit post for more information.

Monero Project contributor u/edbwtf brought to everyone’s attention that over 500 people have contributed a total of 16,600 commits to Monero’s source code. Check out the stats here.

The Open Source Technology Improvement Fund published The OSTIF and QuarksLab Audit of Monero Bulletproofs is Complete — Critical Bug Patched. This report is a result of the audits The Monero Project sought in order to ensure the security of the recent implementation of Bulletproofs. You can find the report here.

General News

A litany of articles were published in the lead up to the protocol upgrade. These included:

After the hard fork, Monero continued to gain positive publicity.

Lucas Nuzzi published Monero Becomes Bulletproof, a fantastic article which discusses the recent protocol upgrade. This is a must read article as it discusses post protocol update Monero in an objective manner. Take the time to read Nuzzi’s highly popular article here.

Dr Sarang Noether will be discussing Bulletproofs via a YouTube stream in a few hours time. Join the chat and watch the discussion here.

Everyone’s favorite YouTube channel Monero Talk recently sat down cryptographer Benedikt Bunz, a co-creator of Bulletproofs, to discuss exactly what Bulletproofs are and why they are the perfect fit for Monero.

If you’re in San Francisco, the October Monero Meetup is happening tonight (22nd October). Head over to the Meetup page to register your attendance so you can go catch up with fellow Monero enthusiasts! This month they’ll be covering recent Monero development updates as well as a discussion of the privacy coin landscape.

If you are attending the 35th Chaos Communication Congress (35C3) in December make sure you join the Monero assembly. Read this Reddit post for further information.

The Monero Games, which incentivizes users to respond to support posts on r/MoneroSupport and donate to the Forum Funding System (FFS), started just after the protocol upgrade. If you would like to participate check out this post for more information, or join their Telegram channel.

The Monero Defcon Crypto Puzzle still remains unsolved. It is a very cryptic puzzle, which is an image featuring many hidden images and symbols. The puzzle itself is a true work of art and was created by The Monera. Check out this Reddit post for all the information you need regarding the puzzle.

The Monero Defcon Crypto Puzzle by Monerart

Riccardo “Fluffypony” Spagni recently spoke at Chain Reaction, a Blockchain Entrepreneurs Club South Africa (BECSA) event. Watch the YouTube video of Spagni’s talk below.

BTC-Echo published Hard Fork für Monero: Beryllium Bullet jetzt verfügbar. If you are German speaking, you can read it here, and read a Reddit discussion regarding the article here.

Monero Outreach published Un Monedero Seguro es un Monedero Feliz. Check out this post to read the article or find more information regarding Monero resources in Spanish. Additionally, join the Spanish Monero Telegram channel #monero-es or contact u/lh1008.

Recently spotted on a sidewalk in Miami:

The Church of Monero shared their Week 8 report. They hold a weekly mass on Sundays at 18:00UTC in which participates send XMR amongst one another. If you would like to participate, join the Telegram group @churchofmonero or contact Xeagu.

The October Monero Coffee Chat took place last weekend. Topics of discussion included the recent protocol upgrade, community interaction with exchanges, and The Church of Monero. Watch the video below or here on YouTube.

u/JosephineBellini shared some cool looking Monero art.

Zcash founder and CEO Zooko Wilcox gave praise to Monero’s recent protocol upgrade and implementation of Bulletproofs. Tribalism is rampant among cryptocurrency communities and at times may be perceived as detrimental to future progress, so it is refreshing to see a developer praising a competing project.

Ferdous Bhai published Post-Bitcoin-Maximalism: A call for embracing the currency competition. Bhai discusses the current state of maximalism within the cryptospace, why Bitcoin maximalism is dangerous, and believes meritocracy is needed in which “a free-market that encourages experiments and innovations is the best tool we have found historically for societal progress”.

Fidelity Digital Asset Services announced that will handle cryptocurrency custody and trade execution for institutional investors. Fidelity Investments Chairman and CEO Abigail Johnson explained that their “goal is to make digitally native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors”. Read a CNBC article reporting on this news story.

Exchanges and Merchants

Crypto Posters now has a whole range of Monero merchandise for sale. If you fancy getting a Monero themed coffee mug or tank top, head over to their website.

Get yourself a fresh looking Monero snapback hat from Crypto Collection. There is free shipping offered to buyers in the USA and Canada. Check out the Crypto Collection’s website here.

ChangeNOW announced that the recent protocol upgrade has been fully supported. According to their post, you can make XMR trades with no accounts and no limits. Be aware that there are reports of high fees related to this service, so it may be worth checking costs before trading.

A range of different Monero merchandise can be found on Redbubble. Head over to Redbubble here to see what cool designs are on offer.

Forum Funding and Proposals

There are a number of proposals to improve the Monero ecosystem that require funding. These include: ErCiccione: Coordinator of the localization workgroup (translation), Monerujo wallet development, and The rehrar tour!. If you have any spare Monero sitting in a mobile wallet, chip in and donate a few XMR to a good cause.

There are also a number of other potential developments in the Ideas section of the FFS. You can find them here but beware, you will need to filter through a fair bit of spam.

Performance

Total Monero in Circulation — 16,508,754 XMR (last week: 16,490,532 XMR)

Monero Total Marketcap — $1,745,798,335 USD (last week: $1,769,404,904 USD)

Monero Coinmarketcap Ranking — 10 (last week: 10)

USD Price — $105 USD (last week: $106 USD)

BTC Price — 0.0163 BTC (last week: 0.0159 BTC)

LocalMonero.co Street Price — $111 USD (last week: $123 USD)

Average Transaction Fee — $0.005 USD (last week: $0.22 USD)

Hashrate — 408.7Mh/s (last week: 572.9Mh/s)

Monero Mining Pools Hashrate Distribution —

Memes