A June 2022 special report from Reuters about the cryptocurrency exchange Binance brought Monero to the forefront again. The article pointed out that Binance has encouraged the use of privacy coins such as Monero by offering them to customers and through its educational articles despite law enforcement agencies’ warnings. A US Department of Justice report states, “the use of anonymity enhanced cryptocurrencies is a high-risk activity that is indicative of possible criminal conduct.” The correlation of Monero with criminal activity has been an oft-repeated attack against XMR and other privacy coins. This article will guide you through the misconceptions about Monero such as this and present facts that can help you understand Monero better.
Only criminals use Monero
The blockchain analysis company Chainanalysis reported that 0.15% of crypto transactions were linked to illegal activities. In contrast, the UN reports that between 2 to 5% of fiat were connected to illicit practices. Another study by Simon Butler showed criminals still preferred cash. Cash or cryptocurrency are simply tools and how a person uses them makes the difference.
Its team developed Monero for financial privacy on the blockchain. "Monero takes privacy seriously. This level of privacy must be completely accessible to all users, whether they are technologically competent or have no idea how Monero works. A user needs to confidently trust Monero in a way that this person does not feel pressured into changing their spending habits for risk of others finding out." Some legitimate ways that Monero is useful are the prevention of corporate espionage, escaping abusive relationships, and access to funds in countries under authoritarian regimes.
Privacy is not a crime. Monero and Monero holders don’t deserve the notoriety attributed to them time and time again.
Monero is actually centralized because of its hard forks
Many people understand hard forks as a change in a network’s protocol that split a single cryptocurrency into two. The hard forks that Monero has been taking is to maintain the network’s privacy features. As privacy improves, so do the tools to break privacy. Hard forks in the Monero network keep privacy robust and strengthen defenses against attacks.
Monero is not available on exchanges
Some centralized exchanges have delisted Monero from their offerings, but most have not. You can still get Monero using fiat or using crypto. There are also decentralized exchanges and peer-to-peer platforms that support Monero. The Monero team is continually developing on and off-ramps so that people will have easy access to XMR without having to put their privacy and data at risk and disclosing personal information that may identify them.
Monero has high transaction fees
This is no longer true since Bulletproofs was added to the protocol. This technology lowered transaction sizes, leading to a drop in transaction fees. In 2021, Nasdaq and Nano included Monero in their list of crypto coins with the lowest transaction fees.
Monero has limited adoption
Cryptwerk lists more than 1,200 merchants that accept Monero as payment and the list is growing by the day. As more and more people realize the value of privacy, so will the use of privacy-centric crypto such as Monero. You can use XMR as payment for goods and services, fashion items, and even donate your crypto to charity.
Monero has few crypto wallet options
Monero’s network and protocol differ significantly from those of Bitcoin and other crypto. This makes it difficult to add to third-party crypto wallets. Just like its adoption, there is a steady increase of Monero wallets. There are hardware, desktop, and web wallets. Wallet apps are also available for both iOS and android.
If you are looking for a web-based wallet that supports Monero, XMRWallet enables you to store your Monero and make transactions locally in your browser. It aims to ensure faster, easier and uninterrupted Monero transactions. The core features of the XMRWallet include:
• Absolutely client-side
• Fast transactions – wallet transactions occur in seconds
• Immediate account creation
• Multiple language support - presently supports 10 languages
• Compatible with original Monero seed (import wallet)
• No transaction import required (entire wallet sync)
• Visible height synchronization (with progress bar)
• XMR/USD balance view (auto updates)
• Max function on send page
• Multiple seed access (in new tab)
• No registration required, no logs
Create an XMRWallet account now to send and receive Monero instantly while remaining in complete control of your coins and keys.
