Monero (XMR) is a secure and untraceable cryptocurrency that runs on a privacy-enhanced blockchain. Unlike Bitcoin (BTC), which is transparent, Moreno is known for ensuring the anonymity of its users through censorship-resistant transactions.
The company enables fast and private transactions between any two parties in the world through the Monero wallet and its untraceable digital currency, XMR.
When you think of bitcoin, peer-to-peer technology springs to mind. Moreno has, comparatively, been designed around privacy-oriented features. Some cryptocurrencies allow public viewing of all transactions and others make privacy optional.
Meanwhile, Monero has been popularised for being an anonymous cryptocurrency, where not only are the sender and recipient anonymous, but amounts too are wholly untraceable, even for developers and miners.
In keeping with its privacy focus, Monero was developed by a consortium of anonymous programmers in April 2014. Yet, despite its privacy-oriented features, Monero still uses a similar underlying blockchain technology to Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH).
It relies on open source code with a large community of contributors. Where it differs from bitcoin is that Monero applies privacy features to every single transaction made on its network.
In 2021, the project’s native coin struggled through a volatile rise. Yet what factors are shaping the Monero price prediction in 2022?
What is Monero (XMR)?
The primary function of XMR is to be used as electronic cash, eliminating the need for wire transfers, check clearing fees, multi-day holding periods or fraudulent chargebacks.
XMR can be exchanged for goods, services and other currencies with low fees and 1,244 merchants worldwide accept it as a payment, according to Cryptwerk. This is nearly half as many merchants (3,184) as those that accept Litecoin (LTC).
Monero’s blockchain is designed to make all transaction details, such as the identity of senders and recipients, as well as the amount of every transaction, anonymous by concealing the addresses used by participants.
The project claims to be the only cryptocurrency where every user is anonymous by default. This is made possible through the use of three technologies:
- ring signatures
- stealth addresses
- ring confidential transactions (RingCT)
Ring signatures are anonymous digital signatures that enable senders to conceal their identity from other participants in a group. A signer chooses a ring of public output keys (one of which is his/her own) and fashions a signature on the message of his/her choice.
A verifier can be assured that the signer knows the corresponding private key and that this key was not used to sign any other message with any other ring.
To generate a ring signature, Monero merges a sender’s account keys with public keys on the blockchain, making it unique as well as private. It hides the sender’s identity so that it will not be computationally possible to ascertain which of the group members’ keys were used to produce the signature.
Stealth addresses add an additional privacy layer since these randomly generated addresses for one-time use are created for each transaction on behalf of the recipient. Meanwhile, ring confidential transactions (RingCT) conceal transaction amounts and are mandatory for all transactions executed on the Monero network.
On average, a new Monero block is created every two minutes, and there is no maximum block size.
Monero coin price analysis: A technical view
Following a listing on one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges, Kraken, on 2 January 2017, XMR soared from $13.74 on 9 January 2017 to $132.38 on 30 August 2017. Eleven months later, when XMR was listed on another leading crypto exchange, Binance, it rallied from $87.99 on 3 November 2017 to the peak of $469.2 on 20 December 2017, an increase of 433%.
The price then retreated during March 2020, bottoming out at lows of $33.13 on 12 March. XMR rallied again in early 2021. After starting the year at $133.6 on 4 January 2021, the price moved back closer to the key $300 level on 19 February at $283.48.
The price then jumped to achieve an all-time high of $483on 9 May that same year, surpassing its previous all-time high of $469.2 on 20 December 2017. After a dip to $200.03 on 19 May 2021, XMR fell further to $183.1 on 20 July.
After sideways price action in the following months, the coin has failed to repeat those May highs. Monero’s coin price currently (10 January) stands at around $190.3, and ranks 44th in the list of cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation at $3.4b, according to CoinMarketCap.
Technical analysis provided by CoinCodex shows that short-term sentiment on XMR is bearish, with eight indicators displaying bullish signals compared to 23 bearish signals, at the time of writing (10 January).
The daily simple and exponential moving averages are giving sell signals, according to data from TradingView, while the relative strength index (RSI) is at 40, as of 10 January. An RSI reading of 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.
An opaque blockchain
A benefit of the project is that Monero can be exchanged for other currencies using peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges that offer full control for non-custodial coins.
In other Monero news, the company announced in August 2021 that it’s offering a new decentralised way to exchange bitcoin for Monero through an Atomic Swaps program. The project, self-described as a grassroots community, also boasts a graphical user interface (GUI) wallet which has been developed by the Monero community and is free to use.
What stands out about the project is that new blocks are created every two minutes, which can lead to faster transaction times. Since its blockchain is opaque, Monero offers an intrinsically high degree of decentralisation and its research lab and development team are working ongoingly on new technologies. Since its launch, over 500 developers from all over the world have contributed to the project.
In addition, its proof-of-work (PoS) algorithm prevents specialised mining hardware from dominating the Monero network by facilitating the distribution of block rewards.
“This is shown by how it ranks amongst the top fifty cryptocurrencies on CoinMarketCap. It’s worth noting that the project is operating in a field with other related privacy-focused coins such as BEAM, ZEN and DASH, with some of them gaining more than 100% in the past twelve months,” Lian told Capital.com.
A key risk for the project lies in the fact that Monero is susceptible to cyber criminality since the token operates on its own blockchain and all transaction details are concealed, as well as the wallet address and identity of both senders and recipients. What’s more, Monero is not subject to legal jurisdiction.
Monero (XRM) price prediction: Buy, sell or hold?
In terms of Monero predictions, algorithm-based forecasting service Wallet Investor gives a positive XMR/USD forecast. Based on historical data, Wallet Investor sees Monero’s future price going up to $228.050 by February 2022, reaching $487.543 in January 2024 and $742.974 by January 2026.
Digital Coin Price supports the bullish Monero forecast, expecting the token to grow to $254.36 in February 2022, $440.59 in January 2025 and $639.76 in January 2028.
Note that predictions can be wrong. Forecasts shouldn’t be used as a substitute for your own research. Always conduct your own due diligence before investing. And never invest or trade money you cannot afford to lose.
Original Source: https://capital.com/monero-price-prediction-will-xrm-go-up
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.
