We discuss why Monero is as untraceable and anonymous as ever in 2023.
When it comes to tracing transactions on the Monero network, nothing has changed.
Monero remains untraceable thanks to the use of ring signatures and stealth addresses.
Inside this ring or fan of transactions, Monero allows you to be nothing more than an anonymous part of a crowd so large and distributed that there is zero chance of having your true transaction details discovered.
As more and more people join the Monero network in 2023, creating more addresses and transactions as they do, the network effect takes hold.
This section of our Monero guide is here to put your mind at ease that in 2023, Monero is as untraceable as ever.
We discuss Monero’s increasing fungibility advantage over Bitcoin and discuss the measure Monero employs to remain untraceable.
Monero remains untraceable and anonymous in 2023
Monero is as untraceable in 2023 as it ever has been.
It still remains the only cryptocurrency, privacy coins or otherwise, featuring anonymous addresses by default.
This means that the sender, receiver and all details within the transaction are hidden from the prying public eye via the blockchain.
It’s this anonymity around Monero transactions that means Monero is untraceable and makes it truly fungible currency.
Its in its fungibility where Monero has a clear advantage over cryptocurrencies running on public blockchains like Bitcoin.
All thanks to the privacy technology that makes Monero unique.
Consider a Bitcoin transaction featuring coins that had previously been stolen or used by criminals in the past.
As every address and transaction is made public on the Bitcoin blockchain, these tainted coins can be easily tracked and are often refused.
With only 21 million BTC to ever be created and a lot more criminals in the world, realists will soon see how the rejection of tainted coins could quickly pose serious threats to the fungibility of Bitcoin.
Monero, however, employs a number of privacy-enhancing measures to ensure the anonymity of its users and keep the fungibility of the XMR token high.
Let’s move onto some of these measures to protect the privacy of addresses and transactions made on the Monero network.
How Monero remains untraceable
As we briefly mentioned above, Monero remains untraceable thanks to the use of ring signatures and stealth addresses.
Both of these measures ensure the identities of both the sender and receiver remains completely anonymous.
Ring signatures
The most important part of keeping Monero untraceable are ring signatures.
Ring signatures create decoy transactions that mean someone watching the blockchain is unable to tell which transaction is actually yours.
Within a ring of possible signers, all transactions are entirely equal and valid to any prying eyes from the outside.
There is no way to tell which of the possible signers within this ring actually belongs to your account.
But for those who are really paranoid, you know that one of these is still yours.
This means that technically someone could follow the fan of transactions and reach your exact one and discover details of your transaction and address.
However, there is an easy solution that will all but ensure your transactions remain completely untraceable.
This involves adding maximum background noise to your actual transaction.
Prior to sending funds to sensitive destinations, you can blend into this fan of transactions even better by simply sending your entire balance back to yourself a couple of times at random.
Also keep in mind that Monero's stealth addresses mean that there is absolutely zero difference between sending funds back to the same wallet and sending funds between wallets.
Speaking of stealth addresses...
Stealth addresses
The second major implementation that ensures Monero is untraceable, are stealth addresses.
Stealth addresses allow the sender to create random one-time addresses for every transaction on behalf of the recipient.
The recipient can publish just one address, and all of their incoming payments will go to different addresses on the blockchain.
Consequently, they can’t then be linked back to either the recipient's published address or any other transaction's address.
Stealth addresses allow only the sender and receiver to see where a payment was sent.
Final thoughts on Monero’s untraceability
This section of our guide to Monero has hopefully helped show why Monero is untraceable in 2023.
Not to mention that as long as the network continues to be adopted and used, its untracability will only increase.
Remember, your aim is to be anonymous within a crowd so large and diverse that even the most paranoid person would be entirely unfazed by the risks of having their transaction details uncovered.
If you’re implicated in something, then everyone else will have to also be implicated because there's no way of telling who's who.
But the ultimate upper bound of your privacy will remain the number of people transacting on the Monero network.
So as crypto in general expands through 2023 and beyond, Monero continues to provide the biggest crowd to be anonymous within.
Best of probabilities to you… and always pay your taxes.
Direct from the desk of Dane Williams.
Why not leave a comment and share your thoughts on whether Monero is traceable within the comments section below? All comments that add something to the discussion will be upvoted.
This Monero coin (XMR) blog is exclusive to leofinance.io.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Great explanation, thanks!
I have read about other projects that also aim to provide untraceability but I have also read about it having failed: one is Zcash that has already seen vulnerated its anonimity, and more recently Secret Network, from which I know nothing.
Have you heard of any of this projects? Could you share your pow and insights on it and maybe some comparison to XMR?
Thanks in advance, and all the best,
EvM
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While both can technically be considered privacy coins, Monero is slightly different to (and in my opinion better than) ZCash.
The biggest difference lies in the fact that Monero's privacy is not a choice.
Every Monero wallet is anonymous by default, while ZCash's privacy feature is an optional extra.
As I discussed in the blog, the aim is to be anonymous within a crowd so large and diverse that it becomes impossible to trace.
But as ZCash's option means the anonymous pool is going to be smaller, this actually makes it easier to trace even the anonymous transactions.
It's for this reason that when comparing Monero vs ZCash, I lean toward Monero.
As for Secret Network, I had not heard of this project before but it certainly looks interesting.
That comparison might be another cool section of our Monero Guide to do.
Cheers :)
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Awesome bro, thank you very much!
It is funny that when I searched for Secret Network, one of the main features it shows off (hehe) is actually having the "Monero's Privacy by Default" making reference to what you have just stated!
I will share the link to Secret Network here. I personally don't understand many technical details sometimes, even though I make my best effort every time. Maybe you could comprehend it way better, and hopefully share it with all of us, hehe.
Thanks for everything!
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I like Monero and what it does. The biggest hurdle is, much like Hive, limited on-ramps for USA citizens.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
But on-ramps for US citizens isn't a Monero issue...
That's a US issue, haha.
Lazy regulations on tech that can easily be circumvented.
If you truly wanted to buy XMR or HIVE, you know there are simple ways to do it...
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Certainly there are. Blocktrades is one place I can acquire Monero without having to VPN. But, you're right. It's a US issue, not a Monero issue.
This is an awesome article and will be coming back around and reblogging it with the @coinlogic.online account for the https://coin-Logic.com front page feed!
I have been debating on whether to start putting my ‘savings’ into Monero or Dash. I can do more with DASH as far as just using it, and have the private transactions, but with everything going on in today’s world and the fact they BTC is pretty much being sucked up by the institutions and is completely traceable, I am back looking hard at Monero as well though. May kind of go into both really. And it’s cool that I can exchange both on Blocktrades.us for Hive.
As Bitcoin becomes more and more mainstream, it is going to be interesting to see how the complete lack of privacy on transactions is viewed.
Right now Monero has such a bad reputation with the mainstream, but once push comes to shove and the privacy aspects only XMR can offer are actually required, I think that will quickly change.
Just picture not being able to spend the BTC you received from a random foreign business because it was 'tainted'.
Not our problem! haha
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Monero is Bitcoin 2.0, it delivers the main crypto use case. Cash-like decentralized payment system
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
...with the added privacy feature of having every Monero wallet anonymous by default!
Bitcoin 2.0 is certainly an interesting way of describing Monero.
Cheers for stopping by :)
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
I have loved the explanation. Luckily for everyone, there are currencies like Monero that allow us to preserve the freedom of citizens. Without financial freedom there is no freedom.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
It's going to be interesting to watch how Monero's mainstream reputation of being the criminal coin changes over the next decade.
People are slowly starting to understand the benefits of true decentralisation and not having to rely on a 3rd party.
We're seeing it in social media as Twitter et al continue banning people for their own moral reasons (as publicly traded companies loll).
How long before people can see it's just a step away from coming to their finances?
In my opinion, Monero is going to play a huge part in shaping the future of the entire financial industry.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
There are groups that don’t like Xmr because of its features, but i do think Monero is an important project in the crypto space.
It continues us the feature of privacy that was a selling point of bitcoin in the beginning and may protect people’s safety who may need it in certain situations.
It’s one of the better projects out there in my opinion
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
While some people in the mainstream may not like Monero right now because they think it's the criminal coin, I think this perception will soon start to change.
We are going to see some huge issues around public Bitcoin transactions, especially if certain coins are stolen from high profile individuals who can easily track and make a lot of noise.
The hassle is just not going to be worth it and Monero will slide right in.
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Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Norways secret service has bragged that they "are on the verge of cracking Monero". Something similar happened with the encrypted Encro-phones criminals used and the police surveyed them secretly for months, allowing them to incriminate themselves. There is great value in hidden transactions for sanctioned countries that need capital and similar, but whatever can be encrypted is bound to get cracked sooner or later
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Monero has been cracked using CipherTrace in 2020. Try using Google. So how trustworthy is this "expert." The posting dates are all shown to be recent, only weeks ago. Either dates are faked or opinions are inept.