Glossary
Monero
A privacy-by-default Layer-1 that uses ring signatures, stealth addresses, and confidential transactions to hide sender, receiver, and amount.
Monero, launched in 2014, is the largest privacy-by-default cryptocurrency. Every transaction hides three things: the sender (via ring signatures that mix the real input with decoys), the receiver (via one-time stealth addresses derived from the recipient's public view key), and the amount (via Pedersen commitments — RingCT).
There is no opt-in transparency: all transactions on Monero look the same. That makes regulatory compliance hard and has led most major exchanges to delist it in regulated markets, but it remains the benchmark for private cryptocurrency.