Mastering Monero

Mastering Monero is a book covering how Monero works, the technology that makes it private, and a general overview on crypto. It can be downloaded free here. Crypto is going to become a big part of people's lives at some point in the future. Much of that depends on when it becomes more easily adopted by the masses. The sooner people learn about this technology, the better off they can protect themselves when it reaches critical mass.

One of the biggest issues with other crypto currencies is they lack an acceptable amount of privacy. I'll use Bitcoin as an example. Whenever you send or receive money to your wallet, that transaction gets recorded publicly on the blockchain forever and can be searched by anyone. Another issue is people can see how much crypto a wallet holds. Neither of these are bad in all circumstances, and in some cases, it's a good thing to have transparency.

The major issue with the privacy aspect is someone who wants to pay for goods and services with crypto. If their address is ever tied to their real life identity, it makes them a target. It can reveal personal spending habits, and could place them in grave danger if they are found to have a substantial amount of crypto.

This is where Monero comes in. It was designed from the ground up to be private. The team behind it has continued to work on it over the years and has made some great improvements, such as the adoption of RingCT, which is discussed further in the book. The first few chapters are non-technical, while the later chapters go into the specifics of how everything works. If you're interested in learning about crypto and/or have any plans to transact with it, this book is a must read.