Introduction to Monero (XMR)
Let’s start with a question: How would you feel if anyone was allowed to check your bank account and how much money you had? And what if they could see how many transactions you did yesterday and to whom? Sounds like a nightmare to you too?
Money anonymity and financial transaction privacy are some of the most sought after things.
Monero (XMR) is a secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency build on open source. It has been created to offer the anonymity that couldn’t be achieved with Bitcoin. In their own words: “Monero is cash for a connected world. It’s fast, private, and secure. With Monero, you are your own bank. You can spend safely, knowing that others cannot see your balances or track your activity.” Monero (XMR) is not directly comparable to Bitcoin. It uses a different kind of cryptography to allow for the privacy attributes.
Source: Reddit
Monero has a bit of history, compared to the very young new cryptocurrency coins or ECR20 tokens. Monero was built upon a strong set of ethics and principles of decentralization and scalability. It was launched in the first quarter of 2014, without an ICO, or pre-mining. The governance and community approach behind the development of Monero is completely based upon donations from the token users themselves.
The Monero developers aim towards creating a cryptocurrency that works just like cash including complete privacy of all transactions and the parties involved in it. While on the Bitcoin blockchain you can see Address XYZ sent 5 BTC to Address ABC on Monero you will not be able to see anything. Not the addresses, not the amounts. Monero uses unique one-time addresses for each transaction so that only the receiver knows where the money went.
MONERO (XMR) - Private Digital Currency
Cryptocurrency Coin Research
The Investment Story for Monero (XMR)
Monero (XMR) is a Top 14 Coin at Coinmarketcap at the time of writing.
Monero (XMR) is designed to offer private digital money transfers. However, secure, private and untraceable transactions of funds are not the only thing that this cryptocurrency ecosystem can offer. Since 2014, the Monero blockchain has been upgraded with other services, like smart contracts.
Smart contracts on Monero are based on the same anonymity and ethical principles. Smart contracts are one of the key drivers of the blockchain ecosystem. However, smart contracts with added anonymity and confidentiality which are absolutely not traceable, are new and only available at Monero.
From a technical point of view, the way Monero is able to make transactions untraceable is through a technology called ring signatures. It essentially mixes an individual’s set of transactions with others so it is not clear to the public eye who owns which addresses. Additionally, the technology hides balances completely through stealth addresses which are random one-time addresses that can’t be associated with an individual or a history of transactions.
Investment Rating for Monero (XMR)
NEUTRAL (keep it – if you have it)
No action recommended. Keep it, if you have it.
Wait for a turnaround, before buy.
Info: Our investment recommendations
SELL, NEUTRAL, ACCUMULATE, BUY
Investment Valuation Scores for Monero (XMR)
The Valuation Scores are based on the Cryptocurrency Valuation Model developed by The Coin Research Team. Please see below for more details.
Cryptocurrency Investment Strategy for Monero (XMR)
Investment Rating: NEUTRAL for Monero (XMR)
Buy Up to Price: no buy recommendation, waiting for a turnaround
Stop Loss: –
Position Size: –
Cryptocurrency Exchanges: Where to buy Monero (XMR)?
Best Exchanges to buy Monero (XMR):
At the time of writing, XMR is being traded in 116 cryptocurrency pairs on key exchanges. The Exchanges with the biggest volume are Bithumb, CHAOEX and Binance.
Buy It On: Binance (RECOMMENDED), Enter Cryptocurrency on Binance and Coinbase
How to store Monero (XMR)?
Monero (XMR) Coins are stored on the Blockchain in proprietary Wallets.
We recommend to not store the coins on cryptocurrency exchanges. It’s safer to use the own wallet, where you control the keys.
Store It On: Nano Ledger (RECOMMENDED)
Price Scenarios and assumptions for Monero (XMR)
Bull Case Scenario:
Target price range: NEUTRAL rating, no price targets
Base Scenario:
Target price range: Rating NEUTRAL, no price targets
Risk Bear Scenario / Stop Loss Scenario:
Target price range: Rating NEUTRAL, no price targets
Time Horizon for Monero (XMR)
We do not recommend a new investment in Monero (XMR) for the time being.
Need to monitor the development of other privacy coins and the development of the total market.
Chart Development of Monero (XMR)
Key research findings: Monero (XMR)
Part 1): Company Background and Recent Updates of Monero (XMR)
Monero, like all other cryptocurrencies, lost ground since January 2018. It is in a steady decline since then, with no noticeable attempt to bounce back. For cryptocurrency investors, the big question is whether Monero is a worthwhile investment especially now that it’s at a low price.
Monero XMR is considered as the best coin for crypto investors looking for an anonymous coin. Its distribution and adoption in the darknet are still substantial.
The development and marketing of Monero XMR are very quiet. Again, we speak about a community financed by donations with less financial power compared to the big ICO coins. However Monero has not been known for lots of hype anyhow, it’s more a humble coin, choosing silent routes, that loves the “understatement”.
Question is how will Monero now deal with the upcoming new cryptocurrencies fighting for the title of the best anonymous coin.
Key competitors for Monero are Z-cash Komodo, PIVX, and to some extent, Verge and Dash have privacy features included as well. Additionally Republic Protocol (REN) develops a new blockchain layer, that would add privacy and anonymity to every available blockchain.
Moneros developers are focused on the technology, working to improve the reliability of the cryptocurrency as an anonymous coin. Marketing and education are not key in their strategies and roadmap for the time being, leading to a deterioration in value and to become undervalued for quite some time now.
Obviously, the negative price development is not great news for Monero, like it’s not for the other cryptocurrencies too. Having other cryptocurrencies implementing privacy features and being loud and active in communication, there is a risk that this might further erode the position of Monero over time.
The use case of Monero (XMR)
Let’s start with the benefits of Monero (XMR) Cryptocurrency:
- Private: No one can see how much balance you have by looking at the blockchain.
- Secure: Irreversible cryptographic math secures Monero transactions and wallets.
- Untraceable: Monero coins can’t be traced back to the blockchain due to encryption.
- Decentralized: All nodes or wallets are equally eligible to verify Monero coins.
- Fungible: All coins have the same market value irrespective of time or place.
Monero is special because not all crypto coins are private by design. They’re of course better than your bank account, credit cards or PayPal. Most cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, etc. rely on public ledgers and it’s quite easy to monitor transactions of wallets, the history, etc. Public blockchains used for money transactions are like distributing flyers with your bank account statement. Most people are not going to take a look, however, some might.
For business transactions, public ledgers are an even higher risk. Cryptocurrency addresses of the company would be public (because you would like to receive transfers from your customers). Every transaction that goes out of the wallet, linked addresses etc can be traced and tracked. And your competitors will derive some intelligence of it.
Monero has no public transparency on the transactions, addresses are designed for one-time use and assigned to each transaction. Only the receiver knows where the money went. Transactions in Monero (XMR) can be made optionally transparent. Read-only keys can provide a view on historical transactions, useful for auditors, your accountant, tax advisor, etc.
Twitter Feed Monero (XMR)
Part 2): The Team and the Investors of Monero (XMR)
Monero XMR is entirely open-source. It has a dedicated team and over 350 people have made contributions since launch. It’ s probably one of the largest open source teams on Github.
There is no aggressive development or management on Mondero. The currency will continue to develop at a steady pace, rolling out new usability features and adapting to changes in the industry as they arrive. Monero doesn’t have a detailed public roadmap, but its contributors consistently deliver the upgrades they promise.
Part 3): Valuation of Monero (XMR)
Like always the introductory reminder: Cryptocurrencies are a new asset class. The performance of these assets is based on a different set of fundamentals, compared to standard Stock or Bond assets. Most projects are in an early stage, very much comparable to startups during the Dot.com area. Therefore financial indicators (like Net Revenue, Margin, EBITDA, Cash Flow) would not provide valuable insights and are not available. Softer Key performance indicators are rarely available too, like the number of customers, adoption rate, etc.
The Coin Research Team has developed a comprehensive CRYPTOCURRENCY VALUATION MODEL for Tokens and Crypto projects. We use a broad set of indicators and group them into 3 categories:
- Project Fundamentals
- Token Economics
- Community / Social attention
The Score range is from 0 – 100 (maximum). Scores above 70 indicate very solid projects with strong indicators in the subsegments researched.
Project Fundamentals Score
Token Economics Score
Community / Social Attention Score
The Coin Research Valuation Model for Cryptocurrencies considers the following:
- Fundamentals Score: Research of the Idea, Use Case, Whitepaper, Blockchain, Legal risk ICO, Funding level, Competitive situation, Roadmap, Github, Team, Leadership, Governance, Investors, Advisors, Transparency, Communication, and several others.
- Token Economics Score: Token use case, Value from the use case, Incentive to use it, Inflation, Distribution, Decentralization of Ownership, Dividend Model, Governance model, Exchanges, Liquidity, Daily Volumes, Fluctuations, and many more.
- Community and Social Attention Score: Followers, Hashtags, Mentions, Members Social Media channels, activity, quantity and quality, Tonality, Promotions, Educational material, Support Groups, etc.
Part 4): Investment Risks for Monero (XMR) and How to Mitigate Them?
The invest concept of a cryptocurrency is still novel and, compared to traditional investments. Monero is an established coin, with a proven and trustworthy protocol. With their increasing use, Cryptocurrency Coins and Tokens are becoming less experimental every day, but remain in a development phase and extremely volatile.
Please note and unchanged: Cryptocurrencies are pretty much the highest-risk, highest-return investment that you can possibly make.
Our overall risk evaluation is MEDIUM for Monero (XMR).
Risk 1: Market Volatility for Basic Attention Token
Cryptocurrencies and XMR included, are highly volatile assets. Monero has lower volatility, compared to the other newer cryptocurrencies. Still, a 2-3% fluctuation is quite normal and not exceptional. During the same day!
The volatility of XMR Cryptocurrency Coins fluctuated between 6 USD to 480 USD during the last 2 years.
We see the Monero XMR currently in a downward trend, that seems to stabilize between 40-50 USD.
Source: Coinmarketcap
Risk 2: Company Inherent Risks for Monero (XMR)
Company inherent risks are:
- Security breaches and hacks of the Monero blockchain and software protocol. Note this is a “Software Only” company and the software/ protocol is everything they produce. Entirely digital companies and all cryptocurrencies face a high risk from hackers, malware, and operational glitches.
- Important team members could leave the project. The project is open source and the contributors are not being paid. The best ideas are worth nothing if there are no high skilled people to execute. The ongoing development of the chain and protocol are crucial for success and survival of XMR.
The Monero price is quite dependent on the total market situation and the development of the cryptocurrency / blockchain industry. Many transactions on the blockchain demand for more privacy coins/volume. Upgrades, innovations, faster and cheaper transactions of competitive privacy coins might put Monero under significant pressure.
Risk 3: Regulatory Risk for Monero (XMR)
Monero did not raise money through an ICO. It has not been funded by professional investors and therefore there are no risks expected on this front.
However, there is a general concern among legal authorities that anonymous coins can be used for illegal activities, such as forbidden substances or money laundering.
There are several cases worldwide where Monero (XMR) has been used for criminal activities inluding attempted extortions and similar. And there is the famous case of FBI’s investigation on the Darknet marketplace Silk Road, that however used Bitcoin for illegal activities. There is a risk of a ban of privacy coins into niches, due to the misuse of the digital money.
Risk 4: Investors Risk Monero (XMR) – Consumer Protection
Unlike traditional banks, cryptocurrency doesn’t have any official safeguards or insurances. Your wallet is not a bank! Your exchange is not a bank!
For example, whereas the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation underwrites depositors’ savings to the value of $250,000 each in both banks and brokerages, crypto exchanges are not part of the program. If your exchange becomes insolvent, you will lose everything.
Same applies for the access to your wallet. If you lose your keys, you lose access to your funds and they cannot be recovered. Reset password definitely does not work for Crypto wallets.
Ultimately, buying cryptocurrencies could result in losing everything you invested in them. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Part 4): The Worst Case Scenario and How to Avoid it?
The worst-case scenario for Monero (XMR) is that the coin falls to zero. Or nearly zero. This can happen if the Software would be hacked, the issue is not solvable and the company would not be viable. However, the probability is extremely low for this.
Form an investors point of view, the risk is that the investment does not develop positively and the coin drops in value.
How to avoid losses with cryptocurrencies?
We recommend working with a clear Loss limit Strategy. Means, when the coin reaches a level you set, e.g. 40 USD for Monero, you sell the investment.
This can be executed via Stop Loss Orders if you keep the coins in exchange. Stop Loss Orders allow you to set a price at which you want to sell a coin. Stop-loss orders are designed to limit an investor’s loss on a position in a security.
Example: if the coin reaches 40 USD, your Stop Loss Order will be executed immediately and you would automatically sell at 40 USD. Note that if the price of the coin never reaches your limit price, your trade won’t be executed.
Stay tuned to The Coin Research and check our updates. We will publish updates to Monero (XMR) on a regular basis.
Disclosures:
The Authors do not own XMR tokens. This research report is strictly informational and is not investment advice. Please refer to our Legal Notices for further information. The Coin Research and the author did not receive compensation to create this research report, outside of our customers and subscription paying members. We have not been hired by the covered company or other third parties (e.g. consultants, advisors, VC) to prepare this research report.
Forward-Looking Statements and Projections:
Any estimates, projections, forecasts included in this document are speculative and based upon analysis of publicly available information. The targets, recommendations, thoughts shared in the report are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other unpredictable factors. The report might not cover all risks, might be materially wrong and forecasts might not materialize. No representations or warranties are made as to the accuracy of such forward-looking statements.