Steemit Crypto Academy - Season 2- Homework Post for @levycore: PRIVACY COINS

INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone, it has been a great pleasure taking part in this particular lecture on Privacy Coins by @levycore, below is my submission, and I hope you will enjoy it.

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PRIVACY COINS
Privacy coins are a type of cryptocurrency that allows private and anonymous blockchain transactions to be conducted while the source and destination are kept hidden (unknown). Some of the techniques used by private coins include hiding the user's actual balance and wallet address and mixing multiple transactions to bypass chain analysis. Examples of privacy coins are; ZCash, DASH, Monero, Beam etc. Below is a detailed fundamental analysis on Monero and I will be using it to show you how privacy coin actually works.

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DETAILED FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS ON MONERO (XMR)
Monero is a digital currency that provides a high degree of anonymity to its users and their transactions. It was published on 18 April 2014 Without Premine and development receives no portion of the block reward. Monero was created by seven developers, five of whom are still unknown (anonymous). Rumor has it that XMR (Monero token) was also invented by Satoshi Nakamoto.

The popularity of Monero in the cryptocurrency world is mainly due to its anonymity. All its users are provided with a unique key or public address different from each user. Monero doesn't allow a window perspective of the recipient's shares by senders, even if the public address of the recipient is known. In simple terms, Monero transactions cannot be traced because coins/funds transferred are rerouted through a randomly created address and used exclusively for that transaction only.

Monero provides the highest level of decentralization in terms of network security and code development. Its health check algorithm prevents specialized mining hardware from controlling the network and ensures that rewards are fairly distributed throughout the network. The Monero research is carried out in global collaboration, and the project is carried out with maximum transparency. Every development decision can be commented on publicly, and every major developer meeting is posted online.

The current price of Monero on CoinMarketCap today is US$300.81, and the daily trading volume is US$405,908,256. Monero has gained 8.19% in the past 24 hours. CoinMarketCap currently ranks Monero as 26th with a market capitalization of USD 5,459,618,774. All these values were recorded when I was making my analysis. Below is the screenshot.

HOW TO CREATE A MONERO PRIVACY COIN WALLET WITH SCREENSHOTS?

Before I begin, I would like to make it known to all my readers that, although there are many popular privacy coins to choose from. I recommend Monero because it is easy to transact with, protects your funds from hackers, and also keeps your identity unknown.
I will be showing you how to create a Monero wallet (step by step) below.
STEP 1.
Open your browser and search for MyMonero and click on the link as indicated in the below screenshot or click on the link right here to access MyMonero.com [click me] (https://mymonero.com/).

STEP 2.
On the MyMonero webpage, click on download (Windows) if only you are using a windows machine or click on "check it out here" to redirect Android users to the Google Play store to download the app (don't worry about the procedures, it’s the same for both devices)

Install the app on your device after the download (it takes just some minutes depending on your internet connection) and open/launch it.

STEP 3.
Now locate "create a new wallet" and click on it.

Click on "next" and Enter a wallet name and a specified folder color of your choice as shown in the picture below.
Click on "next" to continue.

STEP 4.
On the next window, accept their term and conditions by clicking on "Got it" Click on "next" to continue.

STEP 5:
Copy and save the mnemonic, because if your data is lost and you want to recover or switch between devices, you will need it.

Verify your mnemonic and click on "next"

STEP 6:
Create a strong password longer than 7 characters, and click Next to complete the process.

I have successfully created a wallet with a balance of 0.00, as shown below.

Please provide an explanation of why you chose the privacy currency. (List the advantages and disadvantages)

The main reason why I chose this specific coin is because;
1. It allows You (users) to take absolute control of your transactions. Since your identity is confidential, no one can see the purpose of your spending.

2. Monero's technology is very impressive as compared with other cryptocurrencies.
Monero is not a fork of Bitcoin, but rather CryptoNote protocol. The Monero team has developed new technologies to make Monero transactions completely anonymous. Thus; Ring Signature Keeps the sender's address private, RingCT-Keep the transaction amount private, and Hidden Address-Keep the recipient's private address.

3. Monero has greater uses because it is one of the few truly fungible cryptocurrencies.

Although Monero is one of the best privacy coins to trade with, it also has downsides which includes;

1. It is difficult/hard to develop applications that interact with the blockchain.

2. It has privacy features that allow anyone to access the dark web market and sell all kinds of shocking drugs, guns, and other criminal items which is "very bad".

3. Monero can be mined on low-budget computers equipped with CPUs, enabling many hackers to infect the computers of unsuspecting website visitors with malware, and use their CPUs to mine.

CONCLUSION
Monero is a decentralized cryptocurrency, which means it is a secure digital currency managed by a network of users. The transaction is confirmed by a distributed consensus and then recorded on its blockchain network. You don't have to trust a third party to ensure the security of Monero. Monero is also one of several privacy coins, unlike Bitcoin, which provides anonymous transactions that cannot be detected and cannot be tracked with the blockchain. Monero is a great coin and has the potential to become a world-class coin. Thank you very much @levycore for such a great lecture…