Timing & Transaction-Graph Analysis
Temporal heuristics, the guess-the-newest guess, merge and change-output heuristics, amount leaks in the transparent era, and the residual statistical risk that remains.
#how-it-works
40 lessons with this tag.
The Pre-RingCT Traceability Lessons
Historical weaknesses when rings were optional or small — zero-decoy cascade deanonymization and transparent amounts — and how mandatory RingCT and enforced decoys fixed them.
Proving Payments with View Keys & Proofs
How a private view key exposes incoming transactions read-only, and how payment proofs let you prove a specific payment for records or disputes.
Privacy with Selective Transparency
How Monero is private by default yet the owner can choose to reveal specific information — privacy is not the same as being unable to prove anything.
Same Tools, Different Trade-offs
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash and Monero side by side: the shared foundation, the Zcash-vs-Monero assumption trade-off, why mandatory privacy matters, and the FCMP++ roadmap.
Monero's Math II: Hiding Amounts
Pedersen commitments C = xG + aH, the homomorphic balance check, the overflow loophole, and how Bulletproofs+ prove amounts in range with no trusted setup.
Monero's Math I: Hiding Sender & Receiver
Stealth addresses via ECDH (P = Hs(rA)G + B), ring signatures that hide which key signed, and key images I = x·Hp(P) that stop double-spends without naming the output.
Where the Math Diverges: Transparent vs Private
What a transparent transaction reveals, why pseudonymity isn't privacy, the three things a private chain must hide, and the two schools that solve it.
Digital Signatures: ECDSA, Schnorr & EdDSA
How all blockchain signatures descend from Schnorr, why ECDSA names the spender, and how Monero generalizes one signature into a privacy-preserving ring.
Elliptic Curves: One Idea, Different Curves
Why Bitcoin and Ethereum use secp256k1, Monero uses Ed25519, and Zcash adds pairing curves — and how the curve choice follows from each chain's goals.
Hash Functions: The Common Workhorse
SHA-256 vs Keccak across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Monero, the hash-to-scalar and hash-to-point maps Monero adds, and how hashing becomes commitment.
The Shared Math Under Every Blockchain
The four ideas every cryptocurrency is built from — finite fields, groups and the discrete-log problem, one-way hashes, and signatures — and why Monero invents almost no new math.
The Daemon RPC API
The daemon's JSON-RPC and legacy endpoints — get_info, get_fee_estimate, get_outs, send_raw_transaction — the read-and-broadcast layer of the chain.
The Roadmap: Seraphis, Jamtis & FCMP++
Where the protocol is heading: full-chain membership proofs via curve trees that replace ring signatures, the Seraphis transaction protocol, and the Jamtis addressing scheme.
Bulletproofs+: The Weighted Inner-Product Argument
Generators, the Fiat-Shamir transcript, the weighted inner-product that shrinks the proof, batch verification, and the transaction-weight clawback.
CLSAG: Exact Construction & Domain Separation
The aggregation coefficients, the domain-separated challenge hashes, and how one ring proves both key ownership and commitment opening — with the round-robin written out.
Cofactor 8 & Point Validation
Ed25519 has cofactor 8, so points can carry a torsion component. Why key images must be checked for the prime-order subgroup, the hash-to-point map, and the bugs that ignoring this caused.
RandomX, Block Weight & the Fee Algorithm
The PoW VM that keeps mining on CPUs, plus the dynamic block-weight penalty and the fee formula that derive Monero's adaptive, low fees.
Anatomy of a Monero Transaction
A byte-level tour: inputs with key images, outputs with one-time keys and view tags, ecdhInfo, the range proof, tx_extra, fees and the balance proof.
RingCT, Pedersen Commitments & Bulletproofs+
Hiding amounts with commitments C = aH + xG, the balance equation, and how Bulletproofs+ prove a value is in range without revealing it.
CLSAG Ring Signatures & Key Images
How Monero proves you own one ring member without revealing which — LSAG → MLSAG → CLSAG — and how the key image I = x·Hp(P) stops double spends.
Stealth Addresses: The Math
One-time output keys via ECDH: R = rG, P = Hs(rA)G + B, how the receiver recovers the one-time private key, subaddresses, and view tags.
The Curve: Ed25519 & Monero's Keys
The twisted-Edwards group Monero is built on, scalars mod ℓ, points, and how spend/view keypairs and addresses are actually derived.
What Is 'a Monero'? Outputs Explained
There's no 'coin' file — what you own is a set of unspent transaction outputs. The mental model that makes the rest of Monero click.
Node Pruning Explained
How blockchain pruning works, what it keeps and drops, when to prune, and how to run a pruned node that still fully validates.
Checking Network Stats: Fees & Supply
Read the Monero network live — current transaction fees, block reward, difficulty and the total circulating supply — straight from your node or a block explorer.
What Is Monero Mining?
How Monero's RandomX algorithm lets ordinary CPUs secure the network and earn rewards.
Watch-Only Wallets & Auditing
Using view keys and watch-only wallets to audit funds without exposing spend ability.
Churning: Myths & Reality
What churning is, when it helps, when it doesn't, and the misconceptions to drop.
Payment Proofs
How to prove you sent (or received) a specific payment without exposing your whole wallet.
Checking Your Transactions
Monero has no public explorer for your funds — how to verify payments using your wallet, tx keys and view keys.
The Life of a Transaction
Follow a Monero transaction from your wallet to confirmation, tying all the pieces together.
Fees & Dynamic Block Size
How Monero keeps fees low with an adaptive block size, and how transaction priority works.
Confirmations & the 10-Block Lock
Why received Monero is locked for 10 blocks, and what confirmations mean for your funds.
Dandelion++ & Network Privacy
How Monero obscures which node a transaction came from, and why network-level privacy matters.
RingCT: Hidden Amounts
How Confidential Transactions hide the amount while still proving no money was created from nothing.
Ring Signatures
How mixing your spend with decoys hides which output is really being spent — protecting the sender.
Stealth Addresses
How one-time addresses hide the receiver so your address never appears on the blockchain.
Public & Private Keys in Monero
Monero's unusual two-key design: spend keys and view keys, and what each one can do.
What Is a Blockchain?
How a blockchain works as a shared, tamper-resistant ledger that no single party controls.