Monero (XMR) Frequently Asked Questions

Basics
Privacy
Security
Economics
Wallets
Node

Basics

What’s the meaning of [technical word]?

The terminology used in Monero can be quite complex; for this reason, we have the Moneropedia. A comprehensive list of terms that you often see and their explanation. If you don’t know what a word means or would like more info, visit Moneropedia. Some examples of often searched terms are node, fungibility, view key, pruning.

How can I contribute?

Monero is an open-source community project. Meaning that there is no company that runs it and there is no CEO who hires people. Everything is built by volunteers or community-funded contributors who dedicate their time to the project. There are many ways to contribute:

Translations. It’s easy, and anybody speaking a language besides English can help. Translations happen mostly on Weblate.

Contact a Workgroup. Almost everything in Monero is managed by workgroups, which are groups of contributors (often led by a coordinator) working on some specific development aspect. Some examples are the localization workgroup (translations), the community workgroup, the GUI workgroup, the Outreach workgroup, and so on. Workgroups are mostly independent and have their structure. Contact the workgroup that interests you and ask how you can help. For a list of contacts, see the Hangouts.

Do what you can do best. Are you a designer? Create Monero related images and spread them around. Are you a writer? Write about Monero. The only limit is your imagination. Find what you like to do and do it for Monero!

The Outreach workgroup wrote a useful article to help newcomers: Getting started with Monero.

More Info: Improving Monero

How can I get Monero?

You can buy Monero from an exchange or from an individual. Exchanges are the most common way to buy Monero; there are compliant exchanges in most jurisdictions. Some wallets include functionality to easily buy Monero with fiat or other cryptocurrencies. Alternatively, you can try mining Monero to get coins from the block reward.

In past, you needed Bitcoin to buy Monero, but that’s not the case anymore. On many exchanges, you can directly trade Monero for national currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, etc) or other cryptocurrencies. Some require KYC (proof of identification); others do not, like decentralized exchanges. On this website is available a list of exchanges where it’s possible to buy/sell Monero (XMR): Merchants & Exchanges.

More Info: How to Buy Monero (Monero Outreach)

How is Monero different from Bitcoin?

Monero is not based on Bitcoin. It is based on the CryptoNote protocol. Bitcoin is a completely transparent system, where people can see exactly how much money is being sent from one user to another. Monero hides this information to protect user privacy in all transactions. It also has a dynamic block size and dynamic fees, an ASIC-resistant proof of work (RandomX), and a tail emission, among several other changes.

Why is Monero called ‘Monero’?

Monero is an Esperanto word which means ‘coin’. Initially Monero was called ‘Bitmonero’, which translates to ‘Bitcoin’ in Esperanto. After the community decided to fork from the original maintainer, ‘bit’ was dropped in favour of simply ‘Monero’.

Is it true that Monero has a hard fork every 6 months?

Monero used to have 2 network upgrades (hard forks) a year, but this is not the case anymore. The choice of the biannual hard forks was taken in order to be able to introduce important consensus changes, which added privacy features and network-wide improvements (For example, bulletproofs and CLSAG both required a hard fork) and avoid the ossification of the protocol. Recently, the biannual hard forks included changes to the PoW algorithm to preserve ASIC-resistance.

The dev community and the Core Team agree that the protocol is stable and mature enough and biannual hard forks are not necessary anymore. Furthermore, the ecosystem around Monero has grown exponentially over the years, and frequent protocol changes would be increasingly hard to coordinate, which could be detrimental to the growth of the ecosystem and to the user experience. Cherry on the top, the new algorithm RandomX is ensuring long-term ASIC resistance, so regular changes are not needed anymore. Network upgrades will still add substantial protocol improvements and consensus changes, but at a lower and less strict frequency (every 9-12 months). The last hard fork was on August 13th, 2022.

More Info: A note on scheduled protocol upgrades

Are there videos I can watch to learn about Monero?

Over the years, the community has created many informative content like articles and videos. Most of these videos are publicly available on platforms like YouTube. On this website, we host a few videos explaining the’s fundamentals of Monero. To optimize their effectiveness, they should be viewed in sequence:

Introduction to Monero (also available in Russian (Putin needs to go) and Brazilian Portuguese)
The Essentials
Stealth Addresses – More info on the Moneropedia entry: Stealth Addresses
Ring Signatures – More info on the Moneropedia entry: Ring Signatures
Ring Confidential Transactions – More info on the Moneropedia entry: RingCT

Does Monero have a block size limit?

No, Monero does not have a hard block size limit. Instead, the block size can increase or decrease over time based on demand. It is capped at a certain growth rate to prevent outrageous growth (scalability).

Is Monero a mixer or mixing service?

No. Monero uses a completely non-interactive, non-custodial, and automatic process to create private transactions. By contrast for mixing services, users opt-in to participate.

Privacy

How is Monero’s privacy different from other coins?

Monero uses three privacy technologies: ring signatures, ring confidential transactions (RingCT), and stealth addresses. These hide the sender, amount, and receiver in the transaction, respectively. All transactions on the network are private by mandate; there is no way to send a transparent transaction accidentally. This feature is exclusive to Monero. You do not need to trust anyone else with your privacy.

More Info: About Monero

Is Monero magic and protects my privacy no matter what I do?

Monero is not magic. If you use Monero but give your name and address to another party, the other party will not magically forget your name and address. If you give out your secret keys, others will know what you’ve done. If you get compromised, others will be able to keylog you. If you use a weak password, others can brute force your key file. If you back up your seed in the cloud, you’ll be poorer soon.

Is Monero 100% anonymous?

There is no such thing as 100% anonymous. If nothing else, your anonymity set is the set of people using Monero. Some people don’t use Monero. Monero may also have bugs. Even if not, ways may exist to infer some information through Monero’s privacy layers, either now or later. Attacks only get better. You can still die in a car crash if you wear a seatbelt. Use common sense, prudence, and defense in depth.

Security

What is ASIC resistance? Why is it important?

Unlike regular computers for general purposes, ASICs are special computers created to do only one job. This characteristic makes ASICs very efficient for mining.

The problem is that these devices are very expensive and can be afforded by few. This leads to a few entities owning a significant amount of the network’s hash rate, which severely threatens the network’s security. For example, if big ASIC operators collude and gain most of the network’s hash rate, they could arbitrarily reject transactions.

Monero fixes this problem by being ASIC-resistant: it uses an algorithm (RandomX) that strongly reduces the efficiency of ASICs, making them not profitable to build. Miners can use common consumer hardware, which allows them to compete fairly. The Monero network is currently protected by thousands of miners using ‘regular’ computers. This makes a network much harder to attack, with no miner having a significant advantage over other miners (they all use more or less the same hardware).

Are there known vulnerabilities in Monero?

The Monero community has created a series of videos called “Breaking Monero”, where potential Monero vulnerabilities are explored and discussed. There are 14 videos, with each exploring a different subject. Check out the videos on monerooutreach.org.

More Info: Available on Spotify as podcast

Why is my antivirus/firewall flagging the Monero software i just downloaded as malware?

After downloading the Monero software (GUI and CLI alike), your antivirus or firewall may flag the executables as malware. Some antiviruses only warn you about the possible menace; others go as far as silently removing your downloaded wallet/daemon. This likely happens because of the integrated miner used for mining and block verification. Some antiviruses may erroneously consider the miner as dangerous software and act to remove it.

The problem is being discussed, and solutions are being elaborated. In the meantime, if you get a warning from your antivirus, make sure the software you downloaded is legitimate (see the guides linked below), then add an exception for it in your antivirus so that it won’t get removed or blocked. If you need assistance, feel free to contact the community.

More Info: How to verify your Monero CLI/GUI software is safe on Windows (beginner), How to use the command line to verify your Monero CLI/GUI software is safe (advanced)

Economics

How does Monero have value?

Monero has value because people are willing to buy it. If no one is willing to buy Monero, then it will not have any value. Monero’s price increases if demand exceeds supply, and it decreases if supply exceeds demand.

What is fungibility, and why is it important?

Fungibility is a simple property of money such that there are no differences between two amounts of the same value. If two people exchanged a 10 and two 5’s, then no one would lose out. However, let’s suppose everyone knows the 10 was previously used in a ransomware attack. Is the other person still going to make the trade? Probably not, even if the person with the 10 has no connection with the ransomware. This is a problem since the receiver of money needs to constantly check the money they are receiving to avoid tainted coins. Monero is fungible, meaning people do not need to endure this effort.

If Monero is so private, how do we know they’re not being created out of thin air?

In Monero, every transaction output is uniquely associated with a key image that can only be generated by the holder of that output. Key images used more than once are rejected by the miners as double-spends and cannot be added to a valid block. When a new transaction is received, miners verify that the key image does not already exist for a previous transaction to ensure it’s not a double-spend.

We can also know that transaction amounts are valid even though the value of the inputs you are spending and the value of the outputs you send are encrypted (these are hidden to everyone except the recipient). Because the amounts are encrypted using Pedersen commitments, no observers can tell the amounts of the inputs and outputs. Still, they can do the math on the Pedersen commitments to determine that no Monero was created out of thin air.

As long as the encrypted output amounts you create is equal to the sum of the inputs that are being spent (which include an output for the recipient and a change output back to yourself and the unencrypted transaction fee), then you have a legitimate transaction and know no Monero is being created out of thin air. Pedersen’s commitments mean that the sums can be verified as being equal. Still, the Monero value of each sum and the Monero value of the inputs and outputs are undeterminable.

More Info: About supply auditability

What is Monero’s maximum supply?

Monero has a fixed emission rate, not a set maximum supply. Around May 2022, Monero’s emission will drop to and permanently remain at 0.3 XMR per minute (0.6 XMR per block). This is approximately 1% inflation for the first year and will approach 0% in future years. This tail emission allows permanent incentives to secure Monero, even in the far future, while keeping inflation at a very low percentage.

Why does Monero not have a maximum supply?

Miners process transactions on the Monero network by mining blocks. The miner of a block is paid the constant block reward of .6 XMR and the transaction fees of the users who have transactions in that block. Monero has the block reward rather than relying solely on the transaction fees to incentivize the miners to keep securing the network with their hash rate and keep transaction fees low.

The tail emission caused by this constant block reward creates an inflation rate of less than 1%, trending towards 0% over time. The fixed emission of the currency ensures human corruption cannot over-inflate the supply. Keeping the network predictable, decentralized, and secure.

Wallets

What is the difference between a lightweight and a normal wallet?

For a lightweight wallet, you give your view key to a node, which scans the blockchain and looks for incoming transactions to your account on your behalf. This node will know when you receive money, but it will not know how much you receive, who you received it from, or who you are sending money to. Depending on your wallet software, you may be able to use a node you control to avoid privacy leaks. For more privacy, use a standard wallet, which can be used with your node.

What wallet should I use?

There are multiple wallets available for a vast number of platforms. On this website, you’ll find the wallets released by the Core Team (GUI and CLI) and a list of widely trusted and open-source third-party wallets for desktop and mobile.

I can’t see my funds. Did I lose all my Monero?

You probably didn’t. It’s very hard to simply ‘lose’ your coins since they are technically nowhere. Your coins ‘live’ on the blockchain and are linked to your account through a system of public and private keys secured by cryptography. That’s why if you don’t see your funds, it’s probably because of a technical issue. Look at the ‘Resources & Help’ section at the top of this page for a list of useful resources that will help you identify and fix your problem.

I haven’t touched my Monero in a long time. Did I lose my coins due to a hard fork (network upgrade)?

Don’t worry, your coins are safe. To be able to spend them, you only have to download and run the latest Monero software. You can use the mnemonic seed you previously saved to restore your wallet anytime. Note that hard forks in Monero are scheduled and non-contentious. Which means no new coin is created.

Why is my wallet taking so long to sync?

If you run a full node locally, you must copy the entire blockchain to your computer. This can take a long time, especially on an old hard drive or slow internet connection. If you are using a remote node, your computer still needs to request a copy of all the outputs, which can take several hours. Be patient, and if you would like to sacrifice some privacy for faster sync times, consider using a remote node or lightweight wallet instead.

Why my wallet needs to be scanned everytime I open it?

Because new transactions have been recorded on the blockchain from the last time you opened your wallet, which needs to scan all of them to make sure non of those transaction is yours. This process is not necessary in a mymonero-style (openmonero) wallet, a central server (which could be managed by you) does this work for you.

Node

Can I manually import the blockchain?

Yes, you can, but you probably shouldn’t. Importing an external blockchain is very resource intensive and forces you to trust the entity providing you with the blockchain. It’s usually faster to download it the normal way: running a node and letting it synchronize with the other nodes in the network. If you really need to import an external blockchain, you can download one in the ‘Downloads’ page of this website. Follow the guide below if you are using Windows. If you are a Linux user, you can use the tool “monero-blockchain-import”, which is included in the archive when you download the GUI or CLI wallets. Start syncing the imported blockchain with this command: “monero-blockchain-import –input-file blockchain. raw”.

More Info: Import Blockchain

How can I connect my node via Tor?

Support for Tor is still in its infancy, but it’s already possible to natively send transactions through the network and to run a Monero daemon on the Tor network. Better Tor and I2P integrations are in progress.

More Info: How to connect your wallet to your own node over Tor

How do I decide if I should run a full node or a pruned node?

A complete node requires a considerable amount of storage and could take a long time to download and verify the entire blockchain, especially on older hardware. If you have limited storage, a pruned node is recommended. It only stores 1/8th of unnecessary blockchain data while keeping the full transaction history. If plenty of storage is available, a full node is recommended but a pruned node still greatly contributes to the network and improves your privacy.

How big is the Monero blockchain?

The Monero blockchain is always growing so there is no fixed size. As of 2022, the full blockchain is around 140-150GB. A pruned blockchain is about 50GB. Check out Moneropedia entry pruning to learn the difference between a full and a pruned blockchain.

Why does the blockchain need so much space?

When you download the blockchain, you are downloading the entire history of transactions in the Monero network since it was created. The transactions and the related data are heavy and every node must keep the entire history to ensure it’s the same for everybody. Pruning a blockchain allows to run a node that keeps only 1/8 of not strictly necessary blockchain data. This results in a blockchain 2/3 smaller than a full one. Convenient for people with limited disk space. Check out the Moneropedia entries node and remote node for more details.

Can I avoid downloading the entire blockchain?

Yes. You don’t need to download the blockchain to transact on the network. You can connect to a remote node, which stores the blockchain. All the most common wallets (including GUI and CLI) allow to use remote nodes to transact on the network. There are multiple ways to take advantage of this functionality. For example, GUI and CLI offer a ‘bootstrap node’ feature, which allows people to download their blockchain while using a remote node to use the network immediately. Ways to improve the usability of the Monero network are constantly being explored.

More Info: How to connect to a remote node within GUI wallet

Is it dangerous to run a personal node?

Running a personal node is the safest way to interact with the Monero network because you are in full control and don’t need to rely on third parties. From a general point of view, running a node is not dangerous, but remember that your ISP can see you are running a Monero node.

Is it dangerous to use a remote node? What’s the data a node operator can get from me?

It’s always advisable, especially for privacy-conscious users, to use a personal node when transacting on the network to achieve the highest rate of privacy. Some people, for convenience, prefer to use remote nodes which are not under their control (public nodes). The convenience of not having to deal with a personal copy of the blockchain comes at a cost: lessened privacy. A remote node operator can see from what IP address a transaction comes (even if it cannot see the recipient nor the amount) and in some extreme cases, can make attacks able to reduce your privacy. Some dangers can be mitigated by using remote nodes on the Tor or I2P networks or using a VPN.