MoneroV (XMV)

What Was MoneroV (XMV)?

MoneroV was a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that forked from the Monero blockchain to address specific problems some developers thought were holding Monero back. Developers believed that Monero took the wrong approach regarding specific aspects, namely scalability, coin supply, and rising transaction fees.

While it shared several design characteristics, MoneroV differed from its parent. It had a limited supply and claimed to be more scalable than Monero. The governance and decision-making process for Monero was advertised as less centralized. It attempted to address these shortcomings by using different protocols and limiting the supply of its coins. 

As a result of the fork, all Monero coin holders became owners of the XMV token.

MoneroV was introduced in February 2018; mining began when the Monero blockchain reached block 1564965. The intent was for the cryptocurrency to take Bitcoin's place as the most popular cryptocurrency, and become the first to be 100% private with endless scalability and utility.

Learn more about MoneroV and what it was designed to address.

Understanding MoneroV (XMV)

Some developers believed that Monero had too many issues that were not being addressed. They thought a fork was required that would let them implement the changes to programming they felt were keeping Monero from reaching full potential.

Monero's infinite supply of coins was one of the most significant causes of developer concern. It was felt that a limitless supply available to users might induce inflation in the coin's price. The cryptocurrency’s governance framework was also criticized for not being decentralized enough. Like many cryptocurrencies at the time, Monero’s mining ecosystem was dominated by a few entities with substantial assets and mining power.

Another problem Monero faced was that it suffered from the same scale problems as those that affect Bitcoin. For example, when MoneroV was launched, Monero’s median transaction size was 51.2 times larger than that of Bitcoin’s transaction size. Thus, Monero’s blockchain was thought to be susceptible to the same problem as Bitcoin's at the time: it was believed that rising popularity and an increasing number of transactions would cause higher fees per transaction and slow down processing times.

How Was MoneroV (XMV) Different From Monero (XMR)?

Since it was forked from Monero, MoneroV shared several design similarities with XMR. Both use ring signatures and stealth addresses—also called temporary addresses—to mask user identity. They also have block intervals of 120 seconds each and adjust difficulty levels for each block. 

But there are significant underlying differences between their blockchains. According to the development team behind MoneroV, the cryptocurrency’s design was aimed at garnering mass adoption and scale. It was developed to compete with Bitcoin and incorporated Monero’s privacy features. It was hoped that it would also be quick and easy for anyone to use.

In the buildup toward releasing MoneroV, the team outlined problems with Monero’s blockchain and their proposed solutions. “In the same way central banks around the world print money out of thin air, Monero’s infinite coin supply is a tax in the form of inflation for all XMR [Monero] holders,” they wrote in their roadmap document.

Coin Supply

The supply of MoneroV was capped at 256 million. About 158 million of those coins were distributed to new investors and existing owners of Monero coins when MoneroV was launched. All Monero coin holders received 10 MoneroV coins for each Monero coin.  

Blockchain Protocols

Another critical difference between the two cryptocurrencies was their use of protocols. A significant reason for Monero’s problems with scalability was the blockchain protocol CryptoNote, which appends additional information to each transaction to preserve privacy.

MoneroV uses Mimblewimble, a privacy-oriented protocol that is supposed to be scalable. It is a trimmed version of the Bitcoin protocol that preserves privacy while grouping transactions, similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, to ensure faster processing. Its use was expected to result in lower transaction costs and a smaller blockchain size. 

What Happened to MoneroV?

The developer community behind MoneroV remained largely anonymous and became susceptible to the same charges that it leveled against Monero’s community. The coin used a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which rewards miners with coins. Like all cryptocurrencies that use the PoW mechanism, they attract industrial-sized mining firms that attempt to control the mining network with hashing power.

MoneroV’s launch may also have privacy implications for Monero users. A new wallet with the same address, private keys, and mnemonic phrase that a user had on the Monero blockchain was generated for MoneroV users. Thus, any transaction by a user on their blockchains produced the duplicate keys, which are used to confirm outputs from a particular address. This could have compromised user privacy and left a transaction trail that spanned MoneroV and Monero blockchains.

Additionally, MoneroV didn't experience much in the way of trading or reaching its intended audience. This created a situation where the coin had extremely thin liquidity, where it was hard for coin holders to exchange their XMV for other cryptocurrency or fiat currencies.

As of April 2022, XMV is not supported on major exchanges—it is also hard to find a market on decentralized exchanges.

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