I wanted to hold off on review of this coin but been watching its price action all day and believe it finally broke through its all time high and is about to cross $150. XMR is advertised as a secure, private and untraceable coin. A fork of bytecoin in April 2014 it was introduced to the public. Presently the coin has a solid base of followers and there are forums dedicated to the coin. The best known is on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Monero/
The developers are active participants in the forum and is very open and candid about all things related to XMR.
XMR is currently ~8th in market cap and is worth ~0.018 BTC. Currently ~15.4million coins in circulation and is expected to total out at 18.1million and then a continuous emissions rate of XMR created due to inflation. Even with limitless of XMR it will take many decade to surpass the fix 21 million BTCs.
The coin is a proof of work coin and algorithm is cryptonight. My preference of all mining algorithms mainly because cpu mining is still somewhat feasible effective when mining in cryptonight. However this has made illicit activities more pronounced on the internet. For instance malware and websites hijacking a user's cpu power for mining XMR and unknown to them as they install the software or surf the web.
There are a lot of development happening with XMR and one I am watching very closely is the compatibility to store XMR on a hardware wallet. XMR wallet amounts are kept hidden from public view unlike BTC, but still hackers have been able to steal XMRs from owners.
The transactions of XMR goes through a process called ring signature tracking where actual sender and recipient of the coins are mixed with other users to hide their identity during the transaction. As of 2017 the have been additional upgrade to the XMR transactions where users apart of the network assist in confirming the transactions. The confirmations are done automatically without user's input. Now this is only my interpretation of the info that I read and for readers whom want to learn more they should go through the monero reddit site.
This coin has a clear roadmap and a ton of developers pushing and advertising XMR. The privacy and anonymity XMR has proven itself and I believe that is why the coin is valued as high as it is currently. With future roadmap tasks completed such as recent subaddresses and multi-signatures the coin continues to rise in evaluation. In time I believe XMR will be much more valuable.
