By Jamie Redman,
Privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) has been making waves in the community as of late. Most recently, it has been revealed that the digital currency will be used by leading Dark Net Markets.
Oasis & Alphabay Will Implement Monero
According to a recent Reddit post on the Dark Net Markets (DNM) forum, Monero will be used by the Alphabay and Oasis marketplaces. Rumors suggest that more markets will add Monero in the near future as well.
Of course, due to the news, Monero has climbed to the eighth position on Coinmarketcap.com, and its price has reached a high of $5.20 USD per token at press time.
Launched in April 2014, Monero has a goal of facilitating completely anonymous transactions. The privacy-centric token is not a clone of Bitcoin, unlike its competitor Dash, and uses the CryptoNote protocol to create blockchain obfuscation. Monero’s CryptoNote claims to provide superior anonymity over tumbling methods used by Bitcoin and Dash.
Monero’s code has been applauded by Bitcoin Core developer Wladimir J. van der Laan and other known cryptographers within the community.
Many people believe that cryptocurrencies like Monero and Dash are better tokens to use on the Dark Net in comparison to bitcoin. Recently, companies like Block Seer, Chainalysis, and Elliptic have produced software that can trace and monitor bitcoin transactions. These tracking services have made it more apparent that those who wish to remain anonymous with bitcoin may be targeted by law enforcement if used for illicit activities.
With Dark Net Markets showing love to Monero, it may continue to push the cryptocurrency’s value higher.
However, its competitor Dash has seen a significant rise in price over the past three weeks — reaching roughly $14 per token at press time. Dash’s community has been steadily promoting the digital currency’s privacy features and has been gaining broader acceptance throughout the crypto-community.
Critics, however, feel that Dash isn’t the best privacy-centric cryptocurrency. Perceived shortcomings, such as the coin’s instamine, and coinshuffling being done over Masternodes held on clearnet servers like Amazon, lead Dash skeptics to question its true ability to hide user identities.
The Competition Stiffens with Monero’s Increased Popularity
With Monero being added to DNMs like Alphabay, it may stiffen the competition for Dash and Bitcoin. Last year, rumors of DNMs adding Dash circulated cryptocurrency channels. Most notably, it was believed that the Nucleus marketplace would integrate the coin. However, there has been no confirmation of any such integration, and Dash seems to have shifted its focus towards investors and mainstream privacy.
Adding an anonymous cryptocurrency to the DNM networks may prove to be valuable in time, since these black markets produce significant economic value. Monero is definitely getting some attention from the announcement, and it remains to be seen how it will last. The cryptocurrency community is very passionate towards privacy and anonymity, so projects like Monero, Zcash, and Dash have been on everyone’s radar for quite some time.
Meanwhile, players in the Bitcoin industry have been working on increased privacy. Mycelium, for example, recently announced the implementation of coinshuffle. Furthermore, discussions of Schnorr signatures and Confidential Transactions being added to the Bitcoin protocol have been popping up throughout the community.