Without any doubt, cryptocurrencies are the goldmine of the 21st century. The market is currently booming with cryptocurrencies – because of the number of cryptocurrencies available as well the market capitalization.
According to Coinmarketcap, right now there are 1340 cryptocurrencies actively trading. Even two years back neither did we have these many cryptocurrencies, nor did we expect cryptocurrencies to be adopted by the masses.
Out of these 1340 cryptocurrencies, there is only a handful which has real use cases. And in my opinion, these are the ones which are going to survive in the long term. And Monero is unquestionably one of them.
Article Updated In 2018
Read –
Best Cryptocurrency To Invest in 2018.
Contents
WHAT IS MONERO XMR?
Monero is an open source peer to peer cryptocurrency just like Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. But Monero is not at all transparent like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
The Monero project was created for only one purpose – to make a cryptocurrency that is anonymous and untraceable.
It was launched in 2014 making it one of the earliest cryptocurrencies concerned about privacy. The native cryptocurrency of the network is called Monero or XMR.
In terms of market cap, Monero is placed at 9th place with a market cap of $5.2 billion. At the time of writing this post, each XMR costs about $338.
Read –
Beginners guide to Cryptocurrencies – Trading, Buy & Sell.
FEATURES OF MONERO
- New PoW Algorithm – Monero uses a version of the CryptoNote protocol called Cryptonight. This algorithm is ASIC resistant can only be mined using CPU or GPU. Currently, the best graphics card to mine Monero is the RX Vega 56.
- Better Security – Monero uses ring signatures, ring confidential transactions and stealth addresses to completely hide sensitive information like wallet addresses, transaction amounts etc. So Monero transactions can never be traced back to anyone. The ring signature feature is quite a new addition to Monero’s blockchain; it was added on 10th January 2017. While on Zcash the anonymity is optional, on Monero it is always applied or else the whole network will be compromised.
- Fungible – As the whole Monero blockchain is private and untraceable, Monero units are fungible. No one can associate XMR with any previous transactions.
- Great Performance – The Monero blockchain is more scalable than Bitcoin’s. So it supports faster transactions. Plus the transaction charges are very nominal too.
HOW TO BUY MONERO?
You can buy Monero directly with fiat currencies or you can even exchange any other cryptocurrency to Monero. I have listed the possible ways, one by one, down below.
HOW TO BUY MONERO WITH FIAT CURRENCIES?
For newcomers, one of the easiest ways to buy Monero is by using fiat currencies. Exchanges like Bitfinex, Exmo, etc. allows users to buy XMR using fiat currencies like USD, EUR etc.
In this article, I am only going to show you how to buy Monero on Kraken.
BUY MONERO ON KRAKEN
- First of all, create an account on Kraken. Please do note that to deposit any kind of fiat currencies you need to tier 3 verified on Kraken. That means you need to provide details like your actual name, phone number, address, ID proof etc. The verification process takes a bit of time. So plan beforehand.
- After you have registered yourself on Kraken and verified your identity you are free to deposit the currency of your choice. For that go to the Funding page and choose the deposit option. From the left-hand side list, choose the currency of your choice and follow the instructions.
- Now that you have some funds in your exchange profile it’s time to buy some XMR. You will see a drop-down menu on the extreme left of the main menu. From this drop-down choose XMR/USD or any pair of your choice.
- Then click on the Trade option to navigate to the trading page. On the trading page, choose the simple layout.
- Check whether the Buy option is selected. After that input the amount you want to exchange as well as the price per unit. A general rule of thumb is to use an amount a bit lower than the last price.
- Now click on the green Buy button and confirm the order.
- As soon as you submit the order it will get accepted. Now you will need to wait for the order to be carried out. Once the order is carried out successfully, you will see the XMR in your trading wallet.
HOW TO EXCHANGE TO MONERO
If you don’t want to buy Monero with fiat currencies you can also exchange any cryptocurrency of your choice to Monero. I have mentioned the two common ways to do it.
The first one is the basic way and has a greater charge. The second method can be a bit overwhelming for some but it is generally the economic solution.
THE BASIC PROCESS OF EXCHANGING
You can quickly and very easily exchange your Bitcoin or any altcoins to Monero using this method.
I usually use Changelly as it is very trustworthy. In this post, I am going to show the process of exchanging to XMR from BTC using Changelly.
EXCHANGE MONERO ON CHANGELLY
- First of all, head over to the Changelly website.
- On the landing page select the original cryptocurrency and enter the amount. For me it is BTC.
- After that select XMR from the right side dropdown and Changelly will show you an estimation of how many XMR you will get.
- Now click on the green “Exchange!” button.
- Changelly will prompt you to login or signup. Proceed by supplying your email address or logging in using your social media profiles.
- After signing up Changelly will confirm the amounts. Click on the Next button.
- On the next page, you will need to enter your Monero wallet address. Then proceed to the next page.
- After that Changelly will generate a unique a deposit address for you. Copy this address and send your funds to this address. Please note that BTC, BCH, ETH transactions take a bit longer than XRP, IOTA transactions.
- Once Changelly receives the fund from you. It will redirect you to another page.
- Changelly will find the best exchange rate and convert your funds to XMR with a 0.5% fee.
- You will get the funds in your account within 15 minutes or so. But in some cases, it may take a bit longer.
THE ADVANCE PROCESS OF EXCHANGING
This is the best method to exchange any kind of cryptocurrencies. I usually prefer using exchanges like Binance, Bittrex, HitBTC, Poloniex etc.
But mainly I go with Binance as it has the lowest fee of 0.1%. You can further reduce this fee by 50% by using BNB or Binance Token.
EXCHANGE MONERO ON BINANCE
- First of all, you need to create an account on Binance.
- After you have registered yourself on the exchange and verified your email, you are ready to start trading.
- But before you trade you need to add some funds. Please note that Binance doesn’t support any kind of fiat currencies, so you can only deposit cryptocurrencies. Some of the accepted cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, USD Tether etc. I recommend BTC or ETH for the sheer amount of cryptocurrencies you can buy with these two.
- To deposit, you need to login to your Binance account and click on Funds.
- The funds dropdown will reveal the “Deposits and Withdrawals” item. Click on this to navigate to the deposits page.
- Now you will see a list of cryptocurrencies that Binance supports. Choose one of them and click on the deposit button next to it.
- Upon clicking the deposit button a popup will appear and you will be prompted with a deposit address.
- Now send the amount in the current cryptocurrency to the deposit address. For deposit, Binance has zero fees.
- And you’re done!
- Once you have funded your Binance trading profile, you need to navigate to the exchange page. I recommend using the Basic trading page as it is easier on the eyes.
- On the right-hand side, you will see a list of cryptocurrencies you can buy with BTC, ETH, USDT or BNB. Choose the cryptocurrency of your choice and it will reveal the list of altcoins you can trade with it.
- Now choose XMR/BTC pair from that list or any other pair of your choice.
- Under the candlesticks chart, you will see the option to buy Monero.
- There are two main ways that you can buy it –
- If you buy using the Market option, then you will only need to enter the amount of Monero you need. You also have the option to choose whether you want to buy 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of the amount of XMR available at the best market price. Click on Buy after entering the amount. And if you had sufficient balance your order will go through.
- You can also buy using the Limit option as it introduces a lot of control. You can bid your own price for each unit and the amount.
- For both cases, I suggest using BNB or Binance Tokens to take care of the fees. Binance charges 0.1% per order for trading. But if you use BNB then this charge will get halved making it 0.05%. But for that, you will need to buy some BNB at first.
BEST MONERO WALLETS
If you have been reading my articles for a while now you will know that I strongly recommend using a hardware wallet like Ledger Nano S or Trezor.
But in case of Monero, my hands are tied. Currently, not a single hardware wallet support Monero. But there will be a few in the future since Ledger is already trying to implement an XMR wallet.
Plus the Monero community has already raised fund for a standalone hardware wallet of their own. Keep yourself updated about this project by visiting this link: Dedicated Monero Wallet.
Right now, you have three options – use a web wallet or the desktop wallet or generate a paper wallet.
Using a web wallet makes sense if you don’t have a dedicated computer or you have to travel a lot. You can start using the web wallet by going to MyMonero.com. Once you are on the homepage, click on the blue button saying “Create An Account”. This will take you to the wallet creation page.
Scrolling down you will see a sequence of randomly generated 13 words. Carefully write down these words in perfect order as this sequence is the private key to your wallet. Enter the words one by one in the correct order in the confirm private login key field and click the blue button.
As soon as you click it a new Monero wallet will be generated for you. Now, whenever you want to view your wallet all you need to do is click on login from MyMonero homepage and write the magic words. Be sure to log out as soon as you finish.
The desktop wallet, on the other hand, can be downloaded from the official Monero website.
But if you are a complete security freak then generate a paper wallet for you. Navigate to this link Monero Address to generate one.
FINAL WORDS
Monero is a very promising cryptocurrency with a bright future. The cryptocurrency community loves it because of its ease of use, fast transaction speed as well as the privacy features.
Monero is already inside the top 10 cryptocurrencies and in 2018 I expect it to jump a rank or two.
