Although it often misses out on some of the focus and attention that other prominent cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum receive, for those in the know, Monero is one of the most exciting projects in the crypto world.
Following its initial release in 2014, Monero has since grown to be one of the most popular cryptocurrencies currently in circulation. With an estimated market cap just shy of $3bn, it is currently ranked in the top 30 active digital currencies.
Much of what makes this such an exciting project is that it has a wide range of uses and potential applications.
It has many privacy and efficiency benefits that have allowed it to generate widespread support across a range of different industries and sectors. And as we can see from the likes of Casinotopsonline.com, these privacy and efficiency benefits have been embraced by the online casino sector! As a result, we have seen more and more Monero casinos setting up in recent years.
But what exactly is this cryptocurrency, and why are Monero casinos proving to be so popular?
What is Monero?
Monero (XMR) was launched in 2014 with the relatively simple goal to allow financial transactions to take place with higher levels of privacy and anonymity.
This was partially as a response to the limits of the most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which although being touted as a ‘private’ way to make transactions online, often made it easy to trace payments back to their original source. This was due to Bitcoin working on an ‘open-ledger’ system, which kept a public record of all transactions made on the Bitcoin network.
To solve this issue and to limit the information that was publicly available, XMR was designed to obscure the identities of senders and recipients to a much higher degree.
For this reason, MXR quickly became known as the ‘privacy’ cryptocurrency, with efficiency and speed coming second in the order of priority.
Interestingly, much like Bitcoin, the origins of this technology are not fully known. While we do have the original documents and whitepaper that give birth to the coin, we do not know who the founders were. Seven Monero developers were involved in creating the currency, five of whom have decided to keep their identities anonymous.
XMR also has its roots in an older crypto project called ‘Bytecoin’, which was similarly a privacy-focused project.
Monero wallets
There are several different digital wallets that let you store and send XMR.
The development community has released a dedicated XMR wallet that can be used to store your XMR coins. This allows you to buy, sell, convert and manage different digital currencies.
Using a XMR wallet will significantly increase the efficiency of making crypto payments online and they are supported by a wide range of businesses online.
Monero at online casinos
The privacy benefits that Monero offers have made it a popular option for individuals wanting to use cryptocurrencies at online casinos. As a result, there are now hundreds of online casinos that provide full support for XMR.
Not every online casino that supports cryptos will support Monero, however, so be sure to choose an online casino that does!
Pros of Monero casinos
XMR has several attributes and features that make it unique, particularly in comparison to some of the bigger crypto projects out there.
For example, XMR achieves a much higher degree of decentralization when compared to other crypto projects, which prevents the issue of the supply of coins becoming too centralized.
Monero is also unique in that each unit of XMR coin is completely fungible. In this way, unlike each Bitcoin in circulation which has its own serial number, allowing transactions to be monitored, XMR coins are essentially identical.
XMR is also unique in that transaction details are concealed by default. This includes obscuring the recipients, senders and the size of the transaction. This is unique even when compared to other privacy-focused coins such as Zcash.
To ensure that individual transactions can’t be linked to each other, which could be used to reveal the recipient and sender identities, stealth addresses are created for each transaction which are only used once.
Payments
Making payments with XMR is a relatively easy process. However, there are some important things to keep in mind before initiating any payments. This includes the following:
- XMR transactions are irreversible: Once they have been initiated and confirmed by a miner, Monero transactions cannot be reversed, so make sure you get the account details correct!
- XMR transactions are private: XMR transactions are kept fully private, unlike other cryptocurrency transactions.
- XMR transaction fees are paid by the sender: Unlike credit cards where the merchant pays, when you make a payment using XMR, you pay the fee. This transaction fee is used to incentivize miners to include the transaction in a blockchain. The transaction fees you are charged will not vary depending on the size of the transaction. Instead, it depends on how congested the network is
To make a payment using the Monero GUI, follow these steps:
- Go to the ‘send’ page in the Monero GUI
- Enter the recipient address. You can often get this using a QR code, or you can simply copy and paste it from the source.
- Select the amount you want to send
- Select the transaction priority
- Add a description to the transaction if you want
- Click send, confirm and wait for the transaction to complete.
FAQ
Is Monero private?
Yes, XMR is a privacy-focused coin that keeps all transaction details hidden.
Are Monero transaction fees high?
This will depend on how congested the network is when you want to make a transaction. Generally speaking, XMR fees are reasonable compared to other larger cryptocurrencies.
Is Monero good for online casinos?
Yes, the privacy benefits and low fees make XMR a great choice for use at online casinos.
