Today 1 Monero costs $94, compared with just 50 cents at the beginning of 2015, and the collective value of all Monero has grown to close to $650 million.
The above screenshot shows rapid growth in the value of Monero coins.
Last year, the TOR market Alphabay began accepting Monero as an alternative to Bitcoin creating huge publicity for the ever-growing anonymous coin.
It is planned that Monero will add the anonymity software I2P to mask not only users' transactions on the Monero blockchain, but also the internet traffic underlying those transactions.
A screenshot from online black market Alphabay showing heroin offered in exchange for either Bitcoin or Monero.
It has been said that "Monero will no doubt be used in other potentially unsavory ways, too, like ransomware, and as currency for the gambling and porn industries." and this type of activity could possibly damage the coin's reputation causing more legitimate users to choose other alternatives such as Dashcoin as these malicious activities are associated with Monero!
Monero isn't the first cryptocurrency designed to offer a financial privacy panacea: Dash integrates the "Coinjoin" method to allow bitcoin users to mix their transactions with a few other spenders in what Todd calls a weaker form of anonymity than Monero offers.
With all this being said - There is certainly an application for a more anonymous coin in the cryptocurrency community at present - And Monero fills that gap..
