84
votes
What advantages does Monero offer that are not provided by other cryptocurrencies?
It is the only private cryptocurrency in use today which is truly fungible as all transactions are private and created equal.
It satisfies the 3 important properties of electronic cash: decentralized,...
- 19.9k
58
votes
Accepted
How does Monero privacy and security compare to Zcash?
As described by Monero Research Lab academic Shen Noether with regard to the anonymity set:
Monero (although the zcash proponents note that a ring signature is a "smaller" anonymity set, ...
- 1,364
43
votes
Accepted
Why was I2P chosen over Tor for native Monero integration?
There are several advantages where I2P implementation is more suitable over Tor, e.g.
I2P is significantly faster when routing internal traffic, where Tor is optimized for low-bandwidth clients and ...
- 1,563
34
votes
Accepted
How vulnerable is Monero to Quantum Computing?
From Monero developer Smooth:
“Yes it would be more vulnerable (with regard to public keys) but the protection it affords if uncertain and fragile. If QC can crack keys "slowly" then you can ...
- 6,563
26
votes
Accepted
Does Monero have any mobile wallets available?
Does Monero have any Android or iOS wallets available?
No Monero iOS or Android wallet currently existed in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for a long time with the custodial Freewallet ...
- 6,563
24
votes
Accepted
What are the primary differences between Monero and Bitcoin?
Privacy
You won't find your standard address on the blockchain. Every single output is its own one time address, there is no choice about it (as opposed to Bitcoin, where address reuse is discouraged,...
- 34.8k
21
votes
Can we practically compensate full nodes
The short answer is no, at least not safely.
Something we've discussed before is for full nodes to (completely optionally) include a donation address in their handshake, with separate addresses on ...
- 5,089
19
votes
Accepted
What privacy or security trade offs are associated with not running your own full node?
Using a third party node has drawbacks in two main categories: privacy, and performance.
When you refresh your wallet, the daemon sends blocks and transactions to your wallet, which then inspects ...
- 34.8k
18
votes
How does Monero privacy and security compare to Zcash?
Adding this answer to make it simpler to those who can not understand the top response.
ZCash uses a new cryptography tool called zk-SNARK (don't worry about the name). This is different than the ...
- 8,744
17
votes
Accepted
Number of Monero block explorers and their unique features
An incomplete list of explorers with unique features would include Moneroblocks, ChainRadar, and The Onion Monero Blockchain Explorer, of which the clearnet version can be found here.
Moneroblocks is ...
- 4,566
17
votes
Accepted
How can individuals safeguard themselves and the community against a key reusing fork?
First, there is no stealing possible, so your funds are safe ASSUMING THE MONEROV (OR OTHER KEY REUSING FORK) SOFTWARE IS NOT A TROJAN. If it is not, then the key reuse only affects one of the privacy ...
- 34.8k
15
votes
What are some ways I can disguise my mnemonic seed?
From fluffyponyza here:
Due to the nature of the key you can write it as part of something else - eg. write a fake love letter to your wife so that the 24 words on the left hand side are your key ...
- 2,948
15
votes
Accepted
Can Kovri be blocked in e.g. China?
With Deep Packet Inspection, you can filter/block almost any traffic you want. In the I2P projcet, on which Kovri depends, the devs are aware of blocking possibilities in restricted countries and they ...
- 2,681
15
votes
What is MoneroV, and how is it different than Monero?
MoneroV is a chain split off Monero. It will inherit Monero's history going forward. MoneroV is widely regarded as an attack on the Monero network.
Any initial transactions made on MoneroV will be ...
- 8,744
13
votes
Accepted
Security concerns with OpenAlias
Yes. Anyone who gains control of the TXT records would be able to change the address they reference. To answer your second question, you are correct that this would not affect any Monero received ...
- 1,257
13
votes
Accepted
What security risks are associated with accepting Instant Transactions?
The risk is that this transaction will not be included in a block, ever, and thus never pays the merchant.
The risk are the same as with Bitcoin, since Monero uses the same type of PoW system, so you ...
- 34.8k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the safest method to create a Monero wallet for cold storage?
Ok, here is another version. It's not perfect or detailed and it will probably need some additional research.
Preparation:
Get an old computer (and seal its Ethernet port with duct tape – this ...
- 1,486
12
votes
What privacy or security trade offs are associated with not running your own full node?
Remote Nodes
Patches have been made to limit the information leak to a remote node. It does not know what inputs you control, and it does not know what blocks your receiving transactions are from. ...
- 8,744
12
votes
What cryptographic assumptions is Monero based on?
Firstly, Monero relies on the safety of Ed25519 (as opposed to secp256k1 for Bitcoin) and EdDSA. Note that if EdDSA/Ed25519 breaks, a lot more than Monero will be impacted, including SSH, Tor, I2P, ...
- 6,563
12
votes
Accepted
Is it safe to share a daemon with a roommate?
You are asking two different things here:
what are the risks in using the same daemon
They're typically small, and mostly either privacy leaks or denial of service.
Obviously, whoever runs the ...
- 34.8k
12
votes
Accepted
How do I use cold transaction signing?
You need to have a cold and hot wallet pair for the same account.
In the hot wallet, make a transaction. It doesn't have the spend key, so instead of actually sending the transaction to the Monero ...
- 34.8k
11
votes
What are the primary differences between Monero and Bitcoin?
A few other security related things that weren't mentioned in the other answers. In contrast to Bitcoin's 10 minute block time, Monero has a 2 minute block time.
Additionally, Monero uses a ...
- 1,498
11
votes
Accepted
Monero private key collision
Well, private spend keys are 64 character hex strings, see here:
https://moneroaddress.org
That will give you around 1e77 possible private keys. If n is the number of possible private keys, and you ...
- 4,393
11
votes
Accepted
How to change password on a wallet created with simplewallet?
As far I know, this is not possible. You have to restore you account with
simplewallet --restore-deterministic-wallet and give a new password.
- 3,339
11
votes
Accepted
What are the most secure options for backing up your mnemonic seed?
You could also scrypt your paper wallet. Then use base64 to get the encrypted data in a printable format. This way somebody stealing it will still need a password to get the keys or mnemonic seed and ...
- 226
11
votes
What is Monero's mechanism for defending against a double-spend attack?
Double spends are prevented by the use of key images, which are sent along with each output being spent in a transaction, and which are checked for uniqueness before allowing the transaction.
In the ...
- 34.8k
10
votes
What is the safest method to create a Monero wallet for cold storage?
In essence, the most secure method would be to create a live bootable OS on a USB stick, access it on a machine that is not connected to the internet, and then generate your mnemonic seed and address ...
- 1,752
10
votes
Can we practically compensate full nodes
Make Monero useful and people will run nodes. You don't need to compensate nodes to give people an incentive to run one, you just need to make Monero intrinsic or a large part of their business. This ...
- 6,484
10
votes
Accepted
Could Monero help me to implement a safe election for a small group of students?
This is possible with a "daughter" project of Monero called URS (Unique Ring Signatures) and was introduced by core-team member tacotime. From the README of the repository:
URS can be used ...
- 15.1k
10
votes
Accepted
Is there any way of changing the password of an existing wallet?
This answer depends on whether your .keys file was compromised as well. If an attacker knows your password and somehow has access to your .keys file he will be able to steal your funds. However, if he ...
- 15.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible