This morning looks quite different from yesterday, with the crypto market generally on an upward swing. However, there’s one crypto that stood out yesterday, and it is standing out once again today. Monero (XMR-USD) came into the spotlight early this week thanks to its coordinated bank run on centralized exchanges (CEXs). Well, there’s another catalyst on the horizon for the XMR crypto, by way of a hard fork.
The Monero network is one of the most polarizing crypto projects on the market. It utilizes a variety of technologies like stealth addresses, RingCT and ring signatures to help keep crypto transactions completely private. Using the Monero chain, one can completely disguise their identity and the amount of crypto they are transacting. This allows the user to reap all the efficiency, fast settlement and other benefits of the blockchain without ever having their data recorded permanently to the chain.
This tech is what makes Monero a “true, fungible currency.” But, it has also drawn the ire of crypto skeptics and blockchain bears who say Monero is an obvious means for blockchain crime. Indeed, many have labeled the XMR crypto as a favorite for cybercriminals, using the chain for money laundering and other illicit activities.
What makes Monero stand out is that it stands for privacy on the blockchain above all else. As other cryptocurrency projects bend the knee to lawmakers who expect more transparency, Monero users are doubling down on keeping the blockchain world as free as it is today. And with a new major update on the horizon, details show that Monero is not going to budge on this stance.
XMR Crypto to Get Privacy Boost With July Hard Fork
Hard forks are big events, implementing radical changes on a project. Forks have allowed plenty of huge projects to come from the same chain. Take, for example, Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), which was a fork of Bitcoin (BTC-USD), or the many forks that Ethereum (ETH-USD) is implementing on its way to the Earth-shaking Merge upgrade. There’s no doubt then, that a new Monero fork stands to fuel XMR crypto gains.
Over the weekend, word surfaced that Monero will be conducting a hard fork, set for July 16. This upgrade will allow the network to up its privacy measures further. Most notably, it will increase the network’s ring size from 11 to 16. Monero uses ring signatures as a way to keep its transactions private. Previously, transactions were signed for by any combination of 11 keyholders. The protocol would obfuscate which keys actually signed for a transaction, effectively blurring outsiders from being able to track who the transaction belongs to. By bumping that number to 16 keyholders, it becomes much harder for even the most determined sleuths to reverse-engineer a ring signature to discover the transactor.
The news is great for Monero fans, who like that the famously private chain is becoming even more private. As a result, the XMR crypto is seeing a price bump to the tune of about 5% today. Volume also continues to rise. With $432 million in XMR swapping hands, today’s volume is twice as high as yesterday’s.
On the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
