The market situation is not the best and no one knows what to expect, there is a fear of investors in the market. Since the recent drop, bitcoin has lost 40% of its ATH, the fear index has reached 10, and even the altcoins that performed better in the correction, such as NEAR, ATOM, have also lost a little in value. We hit the baseline BTC support of $ 40,000, which we got off to a good start last time, and went to the new ATH. Bitcoin dominance at the bottom. And today we saw a rebound and a small rise in BTC and the market as a whole. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new rally? Is it time to enter the market? I think yes, since we are not that far from a possible second bottom, and even if the lease continues, in any case, we need an upward correction.

Contrary to speculations from various cryptocurrency analysts who have predicted that the altcoin market was going to witness the highest price boom in 2021 it seems the hype was overrated and the market went in the other direction opposite the speculations and many speculators are left with no choice than to flow with the current market conditions.
The altcoin market witnessed some new development and projects such as the web 3 NFTs and the discovery of the metaverse which are now the rave of the moment, this and many more are the happenings that characterize the altcoin market with its wave being transferred to this year 2022. I guess the altcoin faith is left hanging at the moment and a lot of analysis has gone ahead which all point to a more groundbreaking development ahead.

Hey what's up guys first post on the forum I'd liked to contribute with some amazing Altcoin projects.
It seems to be so many people these days investing in meme coins for fun or projects that they don't understand. We are still very early in the space and recognizing that is important. The following cryptos below I've researched thoroughly and it is my assertion that with sufficient investment these cryptos will make you a millionaire these are great quality projects with invaluable utility and solid fundamentals for the future. I posted this as an article on mirror as well (first decentralized writing platform for writers) so if you'd like to throw a tip the link will be below

1. Ultra (UOS): They are currently partnered with AMD and Ubisoft among elrond, Sandbox, Cudos etc. This one has gone under the radar for a while this was my second investment in the crypto space and I invested in it in February. This is a game distribution platform similar to steam. Ultra takes 15% revenue share as opposed to most game distribution platforms which take 30%. This will mobilize developers to in turn lets say advertise their game to be downloaded on Ultra vs steam etc. A prominent thing that makes Ultra special and is sort of an underlying but major component is that it's not just a platform for games but an entire ecosystem for which any dapps (i.e Sandbox, Twitch, Discord) can be implemented (theta is already in the client). They have a universal SDK meaning games in the commonly coded language on Xbox, Playstation and PC can be ported into it. NFTs in gaming will give ownership to the players, the game you buy is an NFT and can be resold after a duration set by the creator. Imagine an exclusive game being sold with like 20000 copies or 100 unique NFT swords being added every season within the game, the possibilities are endless. The co-founder David Hanson has bragged several times on how there will be MILLIONS of gamers playing on Ultra next year. This is the best gaming/metaverse crypto project. Their interviews/podcast show me they have a great sense of knowledge of the gaming space, are well connected within the gaming industry which is evidenced by partnerships as well underlying tidbits in telegram and have thought thoroughly about a flowing economy of use cases with NFTs within games along with the platform. Now finally with Steam banning blockchain/NFT involved games and Ubisoft putting NFTs in one of their major titles (Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint) it is showing a dedication to the space which is also evidenced by this quote from Baptiste Chardon who is a blockchain business and product director at Strategic Innovation Lab at Ubisoft “This is not a one-time project. It’s part of our global Ubisoft strategy to try and test new stuff.” I am as optimistic as ever for the potential of this project.

2. Lukso (LYXE): Lukso is a blockchain basically for the new digital lifestyle. Digital clothing aka fashion, universal identity across blockchains, and tokenization of assets are some of the things they are focusing on. Fabian Vogelstellar is the founder and was a cofounder of the Ethereum foundation, one of his most prominent accomplishments was proposing the ERC 20 standard among many other things. He founded Lukso with his wife Marjorie Hernandez who runs her own fashion site called The Dematerialised taking an angle at the new digital fashion ecosystem. NFTs/Fashion and Universal Profiles (authentication across blockchains) are the main things they are going for here but there's a whole lot more. They have advisors on board from Nike to Chanel to Instagram. 
They also have a close connection with the RTFKT brand which was recently acquired by Nike, metaverse fashion will be huge and they will be one of the pillars occupying it.

3. DTravel (TRVL): They are a DAO so think of a decentralized air bnb. Their team is top tier consisting of the person who wrote Cardano’s whitepaper all the way to booking.com cofounder and former airbnb executives. They are backed by Travala an already successful crypto flights project. I really like the sense of earnesty in their interviews which allows me to ride this journey out with them.

4. UTU (UTU): Trust infrastructure for the internet. Reviews and ratings are often manipulated they aim to essentially be the standard of the entire internet to ensure authenticity. There is definitely going to be a demand for this as it’s simply just an issue that is allowed to be seriously abused when it comes to book reviews on amazon or political podcasts, the use cases could also be extended to housekeepers, dating, doctors, financial services and micro-lending. There are just ever prevalent scenarios where a sense of trust will be essential for business. They are backed by Animoca brands (Sandbox, Axie Infinity) Elrond Travala etc. and have an already working product in South Africa implementing this in connection with a taxi service.

5. Cudos (CUDOS): Partnered with AMD, Ultra, Elrond etc. they are basically going to make use of phones and computers to allow you to mine other coins. Some things to note with this project is that Jörg Roskowetz who is AMD’s Head of blockchain is affiliated with this project (along with Ultra). He was quoted as saying "Distributed cloud compute and tokenization will become a standard.”. Ultra gives me confidence to bet on them and their team is pretty seasoned within the tech industry as well.

6. Propy (PRO): NFTs within the real estate industry. Their founder is very active in Miami networking, hosting webinars with thousands of real estate agents and showing up at real estate events. Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank recently answered a question at a real estate event from Propy’s CRO Joe Budelli which was “Do you believe we would have mass adoption of folks purchasing real estate as an NFT as well as other physical properties that represented by a title that can be digitized?” his reply was “We could save a lot of money and paperwork because it would all be on a smart contract. Real estate is probably the best use case for this. Also would be very good for taxes would solve a-lot of problems in terms of how you tax real estate as well and how you can pay your taxes on it and adjust tax rates. It’s coming for sure to real estate”.

7.GET Protocol (GET): NFTs, collectibles and tickets at concerts. They are already servicing several ticket providers. They have some good tech here and it looks very solid.

8. dotmoovs (MOOV):  Play to earn blockchain sports NFT game. They have great artificial intelligence tech it’s a very fun mobile app compete with others around the world. They have Futball ambassadors Ricardo Quaresma and Luis Figo. They have backing by the likes of moonrock capital etc. This is an app that can easily garner a community and potentially go viral with the right execution of marketing and developments within the project.

9. Syntropy (NOIA): They basically have a grand plan to change the entire current internet framework security, privacy, performance just next generation connectivity basically. They have a well seasoned team deep in the technology industry and have advisors onboard ranging from former AT&T, Verizon and even Microsoft executives. They are also partnered with Elrond. I must admit I don’t often have much of a technological understanding of some things but the vision expressed through what I heard makes resounding sense and if they pull it off the internet will just be a better place as a whole.

10. Bridge Mutual Insurance (BMI): This is pretty self explanatory not much to say about it. You can basically provide and get coverage over smart contracts, stable coins and exchanges. 
I don’t know when we will see the need or demand for this but it eventually will be needed.
These are a few up and coming projects that I believe in and will be investing in as well

$TDVR token This is a decentralized music VR platform coming up in 2022. Authentic party experience with photorealistic 3D venues, DJs, artists and clubs. They will utilize Oculus (best VR headset on the market today) and they're located in Berlin which is one of the most popular club scenes in the world. Founders are seasoned throughout prior history in the music industry, VR, tech(Fabian is also onboard ) etc.

$SAVG token first decentralized video and photo NFT marketplace users get 98% of profits, Rights Management Licensing in metadata of the NFTS and carbon neutral. similar to Shutterstock. Will be coming out some time in January 2022

$DEHR Decentralized linked in basically, "Users can Connect, Earn, Exchange Data as a daily basic through career activities". They just recently had their IDO December 15 I believe.

Honorable mentions

Elrond: This will be big one day just a huge ecosystem well connected with so many projects making great developments in the space. Will eventually reinvest back in given the opportunity.

Sandbox: Just a titan currently in the space and their parent company is well invested throughout the metaverse scene this would be a solid hold as any.

Hyprr: I hold a bit of this its a social media platform looks really smooth, some good early NFT artists on it, I like the branding as well. There is some negative discourse in their telegram and they seem to have had a rough history but seem to be moving in a good direction.

Last but not least a few blockchain games that are actually shaping up to be some good quality games with good intentions behind them.
BigTime and Blankos Block Party. I’ll cover them another time hopefully.

Just one more thing I love SomniumSpace its a social open vr platform and from attending some concerts of actual DJs running it like real life, singers singing beautifully, rappers rapping in open syphers, people dancing as well as conversing and an actual woman pole dancing in real life (which translates to inside VR) the community is just beautiful. This was such a great experience and I recommend you guys try and attend a concert/get involved as well. I believe they have a token called $CUBE I haven’t had much time to look at it but I will almost surely be investing in this given the chance as well. (I love the faceless avatars NFT collection as well. I just had to mention it haha haven’t been able to even buy one yet my focus is on becoming rich first (or if I manage to catch a really good deal) then I can support good quality work and ideas like this project .

I acquired all these coins by purchasing ETH on Coinbase then sending it to my ERC-20 wallet which was Coinbase Wallet using the browser function to go to uniswap.org and swapping ETH for the Alt Coins. Always make sure that it has a verified checkmark from coingecko.com or coinmarketcap.com and that the token address matches on both Uniswap and Coingecko/Coinmarketcap. Kucoin is another good exchange to use along with Binance, Crypto.com and Kraken being an option as well.

If you enjoyed this article and I enlightened you on some things then I’m just glad I could point you in a good direction of long term projects to just invest into and enjoy the blooming of the flowers when the sun rises. Thanks and have a great day!

Monero (XMR) is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency that is not based on Bitcoin's code.

Monero aims to be a fungible and untraceable digital medium of exchange. It intrinsically has a higher degree of privacy than Bitcoin or any of its various forks. It was launched on April 18, 2014 (preannounced and no premine/ICO/etc.).

The official core team members are (in no particular order) - Riccardo "fluffypony" Spagni, luigi1111, NoodleDoodle, smooth, tacotime, Franciso "ArticMine" Cabañas, othe

Announcements
Please visit News, announcements and editorials on the Monero Forum for the latest news.
Visit our StackExchange site, where you can ask, answer, and view technical questions!

Features

• Untraceable payments
• Unlinkable transactions
• Blockchain analysis resistance
• Adaptive parameters

Academic and Theory

Monero's functionality is backed up by academic research and cryptographically proven schemes. Much of this research is done by the Monero Research Lab. Since Monero was initially based on the CryptoNote protocol, the CryptoNote whitepaper is also an invaluable reference for validating Monero's unlinkability and untraceability claims.

• The CryptoNote Whitepaper
• Initial Review of the CryptoNote Whitepaper
• MRL-0001: A Note on Chain Reactions in Traceability in CryptoNote 2.0
• MRL-0002: Counterfeiting via Merkle Tree Exploits within Virtual Currencies Employing the CryptoNote Protocol
• MRL-0003: Monero is Not That Mysterious
• MRL-0004: Improving Obfuscation in the CryptoNote Protocol
• MRL-0005: Ring Signature Confidential Transactions

Specifications

• PoW algorithm: CryptoNight [1]
• Max supply: Infinite (see note below) [2]
• Block reward: Smoothly varying [3]
• Block time: 120 seconds
• Difficulty: Retargets at every block

[1] CPU + GPU mining (about 1:1 performance for now). Memory-bound by design using AES encryption and several SHA-3 candidates.
[2] Initial number of atomic units is M = 2⁶⁴ - 1. However, once the block reward reaches 0.3 XMR per minute (sometime in 2022) that is treated as the minimum subsidy, which means that Monero's total emission will forever increase by ~157680 XMR annually.
[3] Uses a recurrence relation. Block reward = (M - A) * 2^-20 * 10^-12, where A = current circulation. Roughly 86% mined in 4 years (see graph).


Official downloads and links

Getting Started - Follow the guide to set up the software and start mining.

Official forum

Source and binaries
Also see below for optional GUI.

Latest release: 0.10.1.0 Wolfram Warptangent

• Source code
• Windows, 64-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/win64) - SHA256: 727a53dd154b61fd653f81da27788077fdf519301c81d3c1eb033c1ff2bf97c6
• Windows, 32-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/win32) - SHA256: ce77137b33bcaeb59273cb73b86e426e35e6209fb52a7e74fd9432a5a3018041
• OS X, 64-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/mac64) - SHA256: 447cebae257864b3706a8622f495bfd9fae780a6b277e1e31ac83bef7bc855c6
• Linux, 64-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/linux64) - SHA256: bf09eea27c957e7e2bdd62dac250888b301d4d25abe18d4a5b930fa7477708c7
• Linux, 32-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/linux32) - SHA256: 9a18d274970df85d6bc926dc99407959c680c36f19017996be9c758f6c02cf06
• ARMv7 (downloads.getmonero.org/arm) - SHA256: 57221605997a3cd815f2a9689486abbdb124263fff047ca61068900eb7cb1839
• FreeBSD 64-bit (downloads.getmonero.org/freebsd64) - SHA256: 3858d4786b65a37e981b142e9c0f256ac66662314794d05f595c4c30cb5b6ddb

Donations for general development

XMR:
BTC:
Monero Community Hall of Fame

Alternative Clients

Please visit: How to choose a Monero client

Miners

• CPU, open source - Wolf`'s CPU miner.
• CPU, closed source - yvg1900 - Yam M8a Miner New version - use at your own risk.
• GPU, open source - Tsiv Nvidia GPU Miner (based on ccminer) Early in development - Thanks Tsiv!
• GPU, closed source - Claymore AMD GPU miner - Early in development - use at your own risk.

Blockchain explorer

• moneroblocks.info
• chainradar

Exchanges, Services, and Related Projects

Please visit Merchants and services directory

Pools

For an up-to-date list of pools, go to http://moneropools.com

FAQ
For a longer FAQ, check Community FAQ

What is CryptoNote?
CryptoNote is the technology that allows creation of privacy-centric cryptocurrencies. You can visit their website here. The level of anonymity provided by CryptoNote isn't possible with Bitcoin code base by design. Bytecoin (BCN) was the CryptoNote reference implementation, and XMR is based on BCN's code.

Two of the main features of CryptoNote are ring signatures that mask sender identities by mixing and one-time keys that make transactions unlinkable. Their combined effect gives a high degree of anonymity without any extra effort on the part of the user.

Unlike Bitcoin, your funds are not held in the address you give out to others. Instead, every time you receive a payment it goes to an unlinkable address generated with random numbers. When you decide to spend the funds in that one-time address, the amount will be broken down and the components will be indistinguishable from identical outputs in the blockchain.

For example if 556.44 XMR are sent, the protocol will break it down into 500 + 50 + 6 + 0.4 + 0.04 and a ring signature will be performed with other 500's, 50's, 6's, 0.4's, and 0.04's in the blockchain. Unlike the "CoinJoin" mixing method, CryptoNote mixes outputs not transactions. This means no other senders need to be participating with you at the same time or with the same amounts. Any arbitrary amount sent at any time can always be rendered fundamentally indistinguishable (a mathematical proof is given in the white paper).

The degree of anonymity is also a choice rather than decided by the protocol: do you want to be hidden as one among five or one among fifty? The size of the signature grows linearly as O(n+1) with the ambiguity so greater anonymity is paid for with higher fees to miners.

Ring signatures are explained below. Reproduced from CryptoNote:

A normal signature looks like this. There's only one participant, which allows one-to-one mapping.

https://i.imgur.com/dcbDq05.png

A ring signature obscures identities because it only proves that a signer belongs to a group.

https://i.imgur.com/avTQPnT.png

This allows a high level of anonymity in cryptocurrency transactions. You can think of it as decentralized and trustless mixing.

https://i.imgur.com/ioewLSY.png

How does this compare to other anonymous solutions?
Ring signatures originate from the work of Rivest et al. in 2001 and the implementation in CryptoNote relies in particular on Fujisaki and Suzuki's work on traceable ring signatures. There are two other anonymity implementations currently available or in development. One is ZeroCoin/ZeroCash's use of zero-knowledge proofs. The others are based on gmaxwell's CoinJoin idea (such as mixing services for Bitcoin or the altcoin Darkcoin).

1. Comparison with ZeroCoin and ZKP-based approaches:
You can read about ZeroCoin and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) here. The ZK environment allows an anonymity set that includes everyone in the network because the validity of an output can be proven without knowing the corresponding public key until it is spent. The largest risk is that this is recent research-level cryptography that hasn't been subjected to years of cryptanalysis, so exploits may emerge down the road. Ring signatures are much simpler and more mature, with many peer-reviewed papers published over more than a decade.

Other issues with ZKP include the RSA private key used to initiate the accumulator, which must be trusted to be destroyed by the generating party. It also obscures the entire economy, not just sender/receiver identities. If the ZK system is compromised, then an attacker can continuously spend coins that don't exist using false proofs. This damage is hidden from everybody due to total blinding and consequently at any given time it's not possible to know if the network has already been compromised. There is a tradeoff between these inherent risks and the maximal anonymity set provided by ZKP. CryptoNote aims for a different balance through the dual layers of privacy provided by one-time keys and ring signatures.

2. Comparison with CoinJoin-based approaches:
XMR is more qualitatively similar to mixing implementations like CoinJoin. The differences arise in the departure from the Bitcoin protocol, which allows XMR to use new cryptography to provide decentralized and trustless mixing of superior quality. The critical problem with mixing services is the need to trust the operators. As an example, blockchain.info's mixer gives the following disclaimer: "However if the server was compromised or under subpoena it could be force to keep logs. If this were to happen although you haven't gained any privacy you haven't lost any either."

The CoinJoin-inspired Darkcoin performs mixing with selected "masternodes" since it still uses ordinary signatures that can be mapped one-to-one. The motivation is that a randomly selected node is less likely than a single service to exhibit bad faith (such as keeping logs) . In practice, a few VPS companies host the vast majority of nodes and this approach relies on the integrity and good behavior of these nodes. XMR's more fundamental cryptographic approach doesn't have these vulnerabilities and the quality of anonymity is much higher.

XMR's ring signatures are also far more secure and convenient than CoinJoin because they mix outputs not transactions. This means a transaction doesn't involve waiting around for other senders to mix with. Nor is a user restricted to mixing only if others are sending the same amount. Arbitrary amounts can be sent at any time without anyone else's participation. This feature makes a timing analysis of the blockchain useless.

Overview of a transaction
Bob decides to spend an output, which was sent to the one-time public key. He needs Extra (1), TxOutNumber (2), and his Account private key (3) to recover his one-time private key (4).

When sending a transaction to Carol, Bob generates its Extra value by random (5). He uses Extra (6), TxOutNumber (7) and Carol's Account public key (8) to get her Output public key (9).

In the input Bob hides the link to his output among the foreign keys (10). To prevent double-spending he also packs the Key image, derived from his One-time private key (11).

Finally, Bob signs the transaction, using his One-time private key (12), all the public keys (13) and Key Image (14). He appends the resulting Ring Signature to the end of the transaction (15).

https://i.imgur.com/QFMVqRI.png

Translations

https://i.imgur.com/W5Dsaee.png   中文  (QQ Group: 272729907)

https://i.imgur.com/Ke1m6xC.png   Pyccкий

https://i.imgur.com/jrOaucg.png   Português

https://i.imgur.com/JBYHU64.png   Français

https://i.imgur.com/zsveCPn.png   Español

Once people was crazy about meme coin. After publishing lots of article, videos Against meme coins as cautioins, and after knowing that such step would be risky but they keep invested on such coins for earn quick money. Doge was pumped after elon tweet but dump again. now it seems people are more careful than before and most of memcoins got flop. so holding meme coins still make you rich or soon it'll be end of meme trend?

To my own knowledge and i will also be glad if i can get some opinions  to me before you ask what, ask why. Why are you investing?
Investing is like a project. All projects have a goal or finished item.
What is your goal? Be specific. Getting rich is not specific. One million saved or $1000.00 a month in dividends is specific.
Your goal should be your realistic. One million is realistic. One billion is not. One thousand in dividends is realistic, $10,000 per month, no.
Define your time horizon. Months, years? The time will help you to stay on target and provides measurable times.
Always take risk into account. What is your risk tolerance?

Hello all,

I am new to crypto having only got involved 8 weeks ago.

I currently am invested in 7 coins but have been wondering for a while now if I should get involved with Cardano?

Since I got involved with Crypto early November most of what I have read and watched has been pretty negative saying how Cardano is boring but recently I have noticed more positive talk.

With the current price at £0.95 is now a good time to get involved? I am looking for coins to hold long term - what is the realistic target for Cardano by 2024?

Its been a very long time that I've been using coinmarketcap.com/new to find new crypto projects that just get listed on the platform and I've come to notice that every two to three days coinmarketcap always list up to 30 new crypto projects, how insane is that? It shows that more than 100 crypto projects are released every week cos some landed on coingecko first before coinmarketcap, this to me is scary