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1) Introduction

Monero is secure, untraceable, electronic cash. It is open-source, decentralized, and freely accessible to all. In this video, we will touch on some key aspects of Monero and community dynamics.

2) Technology recap

In the previous videos we talked about how Monero works from a technological perspective. We saw how ring signatures obscure the source of a transaction, stealth addresses hide the recipient's wallet address, RingCT masks the amount sent, and how Kovri cloaks IP addresses. Now, we will turn to how Monero is different from other cryptocurrencies.

3) How is Monero different?

For one, Monero is distributed fairly. There was no premine, developer tax, nor presale of tokens in an initial coin offering.

Monero is based on a steady emission curve and a Proof of Work protocol. Proof of Work is a system that depends on difficult mathematical problems in order to generate new blocks in a blockchain. Once a solution is found by a random miner in the network, they are rewarded a certain amount of coins for solving the computational puzzle. Monero uses an egalitarian type of Proof of Work that is configured in such a way that ordinary users can easily mine for coins on consumer-grade equipment. This feature ensures decentralization by de-incentivising the development of application-specific hardware. Such industrial equipment leads to the concentration of hashing power to a few miners, which could potentially enable adversaries to act against the interest and values of the community.

Another feature of Monero is having a dynamic block size, which makes Monero flexible in how it will grow. The maximum block size can adapt organically according to the amount of traffic on the network. As transaction traffic increases, blocks start to fill up above median size up to a maximum of 2 times the median. When the increase is sustained over a number of blocks, the median will increase and with it the maximum block size. This prevents an attacker from submitting multiple transactions to try to overwhelm the network, while maintaining space scarcity to create a fee market for miners to fill blocks.

The transaction fees are also readjusted automatically. Once the median block size of the last 100 blocks changes, transaction fees and the base reward are rebalanced. As the median block size increases, transaction fees per kilobyte decline.

As an open source project, everyone is free to review, copy, remix, or propose modifications to the code. Development decisions are transparent and meeting chat logs are publicly accessible online for the world to see. You do not have to trust a for-profit corporation, vulnerable to secret court orders, or an omniscient, mythical founder.

The Monero Project is a grassroots initiative that is made up a loose collective of individuals that are passionate about writing high quality, secure code. There is no company, shareholders, nor central authority that dictates the development process. Community members voluntarily associate with each other for the mutual interest of advancing the right to transactional privacy.

4) Hangouts & FFS

Many users are active on the Monero subreddit, which has seen steady growth in the number of subscribers over the years. There are also related, subject-specific subreddits, such as “xmrtrader” – for price speculation, “MoneroMining” – for mining questions, “MoneroMarket” – a place to buy or sell items with Monero, “MoneroCommunity” – a spot to discuss outreach, and “Kovri” – a subreddit dedicated for the Kovri project. Besides Reddit, members of the community are active in the #monero channel on Freenode IRC, Mattermost, and Slack. If you are an avid Twitter user, you can follow announcements and current developments on the official Monero account at “monerocurrency”. There is also an open-source project management system that is available on taiga.getmonero.org, where community members can meet, plan, and work on exciting new projects. Many of the projects currently being worked on in taiga were crowdfunded by the community through the Forum Funding System.

The Forum Funding System (also known as "FFS") is an avenue available to individuals or companies that would like to propose an idea and seek funding from the Monero community. Some projects funded using the FFS method include, the design on an open source hardware wallet, the employment of a mathematician and computational physicist, and interestingly, this very video you are currently watching. The FFS encourages innovation and development of projects that are beneficial to the Monero ecosystem.

5) Conclusion

As it has been shown, Monero is a revolutionary cryptocurrency, like no other, that is private by default and cryptographically secure. There is a vibrant community committed to decentralization and the development of high quality open software, without the need to trust anyone. With Monero, you are indeed your own bank! If you are interested in what makes Monero the leading privacy-centric cryptocurrency, please check out the other videos or visit getmonero.org.