by Hodler Ash 
When deciding to dip into the cryptocurrency market, the first instinct is often to choose by market cap alone. The most obvious pick would be Bitcoin since it was the first and longest-running on the market. The problem is, Bitcoin has been riddled with issues and bad news for the past decade. Perhaps the most pressing issue for Bitcoin is its lack of privacy.
It is because of this that altcoins have set themselves apart with a diverging approach to crypto. In particular, many crypto enthusiasts have been setting up a free Monero wallet to store their XMR coins because Monero has some interesting features that directly address Bitcoin’s issues. This comes as a result of its prime focus on being a privacy coin from the ground up.
Read on to learn about the most significant differences between Monero and Bitcoin.
Built for Privacy and Security
Despite receiving updates, Bitcoin is largely the most basic cryptocurrency by virtue of being the first. On its own, it has the bare minimum of anonymity since transactions do not contain any personal information. However, these are still linked to a user’s wallet key. If someone wished, they could track all activity linked to that wallet and crackdown on a user’s sensitive information.
Unlike many altcoins, Monero was not based on Bitcoin. They had gone out of their way to build their coin from the ground up to have privacy built into it. First of all, it uses ring signatures to hide a user’s key during a transaction with multiple decoy addresses. As the Monero network grows, these ring signatures improve and create even more decoys per exchange, making traceability impossible.
As a double precaution, Monero had also introduced stealth addresses to their coin. This means that apart from the decoys, transactions are also assigned a temporary address instead of using the keys of the users. This further protects the privacy of both parties while leaving no trail of transaction history behind the users or the coins.
Mining Opportunities
At the moment, Bitcoin is an incredibly popular coin to mine because of its value and widespread user base. It isn’t hard even for solo miners to catch a block on the network and start hashing. The problem is that Bitcoin uses SHA-256 which is not only basic, but also compatible with ASICs. This allows corporate groups to hoard ASICs for a huge advantage in mining.
Fortunately, Monero uses the more complex RandomX algorithm. On one hand, it can be mined using either GPU or CPU on a computer. This makes it accessible even to the average user starting out. On the other hand, it discourages any development of an ASIC so that no one can hold an unfair advantage over the rest of the community.
Extra Costs of Crypto
Another important point to consider is the cost. Because of Bitcoin’s current value and popularity, exchange platforms often charge greater transaction fees for sending out Bitcoin. As opposed to that, transferring Monero can be paid in pocket change, so to speak, especially compared to Bitcoin.
This concerns mining as well. It costs much more to mine due to the hardware required and the extra mining platform fees. These all add up to more than the average amount of Bitcoin a user usually mines. In contrast, Monero tends to cost a lot less in terms of equipment and mining fees.
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Future-proofed Fungibility
The prominence of Bitcoin right now may give the illusion of absolute fungibility. This may not actually be true when considering the long term. Going back to issues on privacy, it is worth noting that Bitcoins are encoded with unique identifiers. It allows their exchange history to be traced. This is where the concept of tainted coins comes from.
If a user pays with a Bitcoin that has been used in shady or illegal markets, it can be rejected—even blacklisted—by vendors who accept crypto. More importantly, this can be grounds for government agencies to apprehend users who hold these tainted coins, even if they were never involved in any illicit activity.
As mentioned earlier, Monero coin is designed with multiple layers of privacy protection for users. The most crucial is the obscured transaction history of each coin. Nobody can trace where a coin has been or how it has been used. This prevents vendors from blacklisting or outright rejecting exchanges from a user on the basis of coin history.
Hopefully this has clarified the attributes that set Monero apart from Bitcoin. As it shows, there is so much more to cryptocurrency than its value and its popularity. The attractiveness of Bitcoin lies mostly in people’s fear of missing out. It’s popular and the high value provokes regret in not having invested sooner. But Bitcoin is no longer as friendly to newcomers as it used to.
It is much wiser to look into altcoins like Monero which are growing rapidly in value and support. Furthermore, its features promise longevity in its value, and its privacy secures users from hacking and tracing. What matters in the end is making the most responsible decision with one’s money.
