[XMR] Monero - A secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency

[forevernoob]

I don't know why it wouldn't have OpenCL 2.0 headers...

It's because I'm running Debian Jessie. Apparently Ubuntu & Debian unstable has OpenCL 2.0.
I will try to install it manually somehow.

[phishead]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but do you guys think it's absolutely necessary to learn how to learn linux and command lines to run nodes/mine for Monero?  Is there going to be an easier GUI that allows nodes to be run automatically on a Windows or MacBook?  I don't know if it's necessarily essential to install Linux or not, because I'm still having trouble running all of this on my two computers I have.

[nioc]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but do you guys think it's absolutely necessary to learn how to learn linux and command lines to run nodes/mine for Monero?  Is there going to be an easier GUI that allows nodes to be run automatically on a Windows or MacBook?  I don't know if it's necessarily essential to install Linux or not, because I'm still having trouble running all of this on my two computers I have.

Absolutely necessary?  No. 

I'm an idyot and have mined and run a node on my anemic windows machine. 

It is my understanding that CPU mining is faster on linux than it is on windows and but unsure about GPU mining.

I have the node on my task bar so one click and it starts right up.   A node is difficult for me only because I have 4GB memory and have not upgraded because the database release always seems imminent although obviously not.     I tried once and was not able to get the 0.9 windows beta to run. 

As far as command line, I never used it before Monero but if I can write this post I can use CL and have

[phishead]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but do you guys think it's absolutely necessary to learn how to learn linux and command lines to run nodes/mine for Monero?  Is there going to be an easier GUI that allows nodes to be run automatically on a Windows or MacBook?  I don't know if it's necessarily essential to install Linux or not, because I'm still having trouble running all of this on my two computers I have.

Absolutely necessary?  No. 

I'm an idyot and have mined and run a node on my anemic windows machine. 

It is my understanding that CPU mining is faster on linux than it is on windows and but unsure about GPU mining.

I have the node on my task bar so one click and it starts right up.   A node is difficult for me only because I have 4GB memory and have not upgraded because the database release always seems imminent although obviously not.     I tried once and was not able to get the 0.9 windows beta to run. 

As far as command line, I never used it before Monero but if I can write this post I can use CL and have

Well I have a Windows XP with an AMD Athlon CPU and have been told by some people that it would be pointless to mine XMR on that thing, I just don't know how true that really is.   If I were to mine and get some "free" monero right now that might be worth thousands of dollars in the upcoming years, then it's really worth it.

All in all though, I would like to support the network and run a node.. but when I go on getmonero and learn about running nodes it tells me I need a VPS and all this kind of stuff.  I don't really think that is necessary, but then again I really don't know.

My computer is about 10 years old.. is it still capable of doing these kind of things in your opinion?

[nioc]

It needs to be a 64-bit computer in order to run the Monero software and I imagine yours would be 32-bit which is not supported.

I don't know about your CPU but it's probably not worth it.  Neither is mine which now would take 3-4 weeks to mine 1 Monero but I actually turned it on a few days ago as it's turning cool by me and the heat is not really on yet so.... Hi ArticMine


At ~40 cents per Monero may I suggest you buy a few.  It seems the easiest way for you is to first set up a web wallet with MyMonero
 https://mymonero.com/#/
All you need to do to create an account is to click the button in the middle of the page which reads "Create an Account"

A 13 word seed will be created.  Write this down immediately on paper and place it in a secure location as well as a backup copy.  You will have to use it to log in to your account.  No other way to do it.  Wait, you are using XP which hasn't been supported for 18 months.  No security or other updates during that time.

Well my next step was to tell you the easiest way of buying which is using ShapeShift.  No account setup, not even email is required.  Just btc to buy with and a Monero address to send to.

Anybody have advice on using XP now?

[GingerAle]

some peeps ask what monero looks like on the blockchain

i made slides

http://imgur.com/a/Oe0l1

[8XMR]

some peeps ask what monero looks like on the blockchain

i made slides

http://imgur.com/a/Oe0l1

More documents like this should be add to getmonero.org Please add slides from developer YouTube presentations to website for share.

[Ratatosk]

Little edited copy/paste of my text in Monero Speculation thread :

The most important thing for a coin to succeed and to be adopted by all users and shops (on internet or real street store), is at first : to have a complete payment confirmation in less than 10 seconds, ideally 5. Until any coin includes this function, it's useless to speculate on it, because it will not be used in common all day payments tasks. That should be the first priority task for Monero devs (easy to say for me, I know, but I can barely understand and change some parameters in PHP or HTML code of a Wordpress install, so you see my level).

Communication/marketing is very important. About this, Monero website should really do as https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet page : teach clearly the people that there are Monero GUI wallets, even if not created by the team. Like Bitcoin : the most used wallets are not the "official one". You should really make that appear on website, plus updating the outdated links driving to the home/downloadpage of the GUI wallets.
http://monero.org/downloads/
https://getmonero.org/downloads/
and improve the design of
https://getmonero.org/home
https://getmonero.org/getting-started/choose
in sections Web wallet, Desktop wallets and Non GUI wallet...
I think Monero team doesn't need to create a GUI wallet, if there are good ones from outside...

Sadly, as with the VHS/Betamax case, or Windows/Linux analogy, it's not always the best technology that's chosen and adopted by the world... So, informing and educating people about the Monero product, in a simple and clear way, is also a priority, before speculation... See the "success" of Dash, even if far less good than Monero... Or even Shadowcash... whatever the real objectives behind these projects are...

[Ratatosk]

Some people told me about InstantX of Dash and Zerotime from Vanillacoin, as technologies of near instant payment.
Do you think such things could be inserted in Monero ?

[myagui]

[...]
The most important thing for a coin to succeed and to be adopted by all users and shops (on internet or real street store), is at first : to have a complete payment confirmation in less than 10 seconds, ideally 5. Until any coin includes this function, it's useless to speculate on it, because it will not be used in common all day payments tasks. That should be the first priority task for Monero devs (easy to say for me, I know, but I can barely understand and change some parameters in PHP or HTML code of a Wordpress install, so you see my level). [...]

See, I strongly disagree with this argument. If tomorrow we had 10 or 5 second payment confirmations, would the userbase magically explode? Hardly. What is missing in virtually every crypto-currency in existence, is a meaningful use case, and one in which the convenience trade-offs are reasonably balanced with whatever functionality is introduced.

The strongest use case for Monero, is that it offers secure and decentralized private transactions.
No gimmicks, no enrich-me-nodes, no semi-centralized mixing, no vaporware du jour gamechanger tech that will-never-be.
Available today, truly private and untraceable.

Growth will slowly materialize if we continue to observe a steady increase in market adoption and sustained community expansion (so far, so good).
MoneroDice and CryptoKingdom are both important examples, however early stages for either of these. The more services developed around Monero, the more we increase it's usefulness and effective worth.

[kazuki49]

Anybody have advice on using XP now?

XP is not supported anymore, it is after Windows 10 the big 'no no' with cryptocurrencies. Be your own bank involves more than running a node and wallet, you need to have some basic common sense

[c789]

Give Linux Mint a try, or Ubuntu. "Linux" may sound intimidating, but my parents use it (Linux Mint) and they're not computer-savvy at all. Here are only a few reasons why you should at least try it:

• It's free.
• It's very secure. Most linux PCs don't run antivirus software because it's just not needed. You can get antivirus software if you want (also free).
• It's open-source, meaning, among other things, that people can browse the source code. This lets us verify that there is no spyware in the operating system. Microsoft spies on you, as does Apple, as does Google, as does AVG, etc. Not so with Linux.
• Firefox comes with the above mentioned versions of Linux, as does LibreOffice. With LibreOffice, you can open/edit/save Microsoft Office documents in Microsoft format, or in other formats. So, there's no need to buy Word, Excel, etc.

Linux also generally uses less system resources. You could put Linux on the free part of your existing hard drive. You can dual-boot your hard drive and when the computer starts, you'd choose between Linux and XP. The linux installation DVD will partition your drive for you (make a backup first!). If you'd use Linux for nothing but a Monero node, you should be ok with a 40GB partition, but of course more space is better. If you don't have space and can't get another computer, you could just buy a separate hard drive and put linux and Monero on it.

As has been mentioned, Windows XP is not supported by Microsoft anymore. It's not a very secure system to begin with, and with no patches available, it becomes more of a target for hackers with each passing day. It's not a system I'd want my Moneroj on.

[mmortal03]

Which leads me to the second thing I wanted to mention: I made it clear in that original thread, and it behoves repeating, web-based wallets are not "safe". Where a local wallet has a set of security risks (eg. a deviant local process can hijack your transactions as they are being built and redirect the funds) web wallets open up an additional class of security risks: trusting code that is delivered live, and passes through multiple points on the Internet. Using MyMonero involves trusting your ISP, trusting CloudFlare, trusting the CA, trusting MyMonero, and trusting the various data providers en-route, each and every time you use the web wallet. That having been said, MyMonero represents a smaller attack surface than a Bitcoin / altcoin-based web wallet where the keys are held on the server, as MyMonero is unable to spend funds independently of the user. Thus this attack would involve serving up compromised JavaScript, which would be noticed were it done on any sort of scale.

To that end, I'd like to reiterate my original comment from our previous discussion on the security of MyMonero:

It is important to note JavaScript-based wallets are never going to be really safe, and MyMonero is no exception. I've said before that MyMonero is merely a stopgap solution until we have libraryise completed (so that third-party GUI developers can better hook into core functions) and/or we've found an SPV-style solution (our current work is on using a bloom filter for viewkeys instead of passing the raw viewkey) for lightweight wallets. In fact, the website even says quite clearly: "The clients below are ideal if you are using Monero for the first time".

One final bootnote: the view key is sent to the MyMonero server every single time, so we don't state that "no keys" are sent to the server, merely that the spend key is not. That is a factually correct statement, barring any number of circumstances outside of our control, such as a user's ISP being compromised. I hope it is unnecessary for me to qualify that statement every time I make it:)

Not only is it not as safe, but it's very arguably not as anonymous, as the user is sending their view key to the server. I assume that it's at least encrypted on its way to the server, and then discarded by the server afterwards, but this doesn't mean that there couldn't be some malicious logging going on somewhere along the chain that could link users' IP addresses to their transaction history, which could de-anonymize a good chunk of Monero transactions.

Given this projects' goals, people using it may assume that if it's Monero, its anonymity is not in question. Actually, based on your own words (in bold in the quoted material above) maybe the slogan on the MyMonero front page very well shouldn't be "Send and receive Monero safely and securely, anywhere and any time", and should, instead, be a warning that makes an effort to explain to people that their view keys are being sent to the server, that they're using a JavaScript-based wallet that is never going to be safe, and that this is only a stopgap solution. That would seem to better fit the principles of this project.

[Harpua]

Give Linux Mint a try, or Ubuntu. "Linux" may sound intimidating, but my parents use it (Linux Mint) and they're not computer-savvy at all. Here are only a few reasons why you should at least try it:

• It's free.
• It's very secure. Most linux PCs don't run antivirus software because it's just not needed. You can get antivirus software if you want (also free).
• It's open-source, meaning, among other things, that people can browse the source code. This lets us verify that there is no spyware in the operating system. Microsoft spies on you, as does Apple, as does Google, as does AVG, etc. Not so with Linux.
• Firefox comes with the above mentioned versions of Linux, as does LibreOffice. With LibreOffice, you can open/edit/save Microsoft Office documents in Microsoft format, or in other formats. So, there's no need to buy Word, Excel, etc.

Linux also generally uses less system resources. You could put Linux on the free part of your existing hard drive. You can dual-boot your hard drive and when the computer starts, you'd choose between Linux and XP. The linux installation DVD will partition your drive for you (make a backup first!). If you'd use Linux for nothing but a Monero node, you should be ok with a 40GB partition, but of course more space is better. If you don't have space and can't get another computer, you could just buy a separate hard drive and put linux and Monero on it.

As has been mentioned, Windows XP is not supported by Microsoft anymore. It's not a very secure system to begin with, and with no patches available, it becomes more of a target for hackers with each passing day. It's not a system I'd want my Moneroj on.

But if you have a Windows XP and downloaded Linux mint or any Linux software on there, could it then be classified as "safe"? I'm really trying hard to get a new wallet that's not on mymonero so I can get my cold hard XMR off the web... but I don't know how I should go about doing this.  I definitely don't have the money to buy another computer...

[c789]

No, if your XP computer is infected, it can't alter the Linux .iso that you download. Download the iso, then burn it to a DVD, or to a USB drive using http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/ You can verify that what you've downloaded hasn't been corrupted by comparing the checksum of the iso to the checksum of the iso that's posted on the download page (google "verify iso checksum").

I'd rather not turn this Monero thread into a Linux thread You can PM me if you want or better yet, check out ubuntuforums.org (their info applies to Linux Mint too). You can get answers to anything Ubuntu there.

[kazuki49]

But if you have a Windows XP and downloaded Linux mint or any Linux software on there, could it then be classified as "safe"?

Yes, but make sure to backup your data first, the Mint installation allows for dual boot easily, you'll have a very safe enviroment to deal with Monero on linux.

in other news, the new default mixin value was bumped to 4 https://github.com/monero-project/bitmonero/commit/79c95c1748da8981aa8042db4cc316242a9f90fb

[illodin]

dual boot

very safe

If you get spyware infection while booted on the Windows, it can see the Linux partition and copy itself there. Your run-of-the-mill keylogger hidden inside a clone coin wallet probably can't do that though.

[kazuki49]

dual boot

very safe

If you get spyware infection while booted on the Windows, it can read the Linux partition and copy itself there.

Not if you encrypt the partition.

[illodin]

dual boot

very safe

If you get spyware infection while booted on the Windows, it can read the Linux partition and copy itself there.

Not if you encrypt the partition.

Which partition? You'll still have your boot partition unencrypted.

[aerbax]

If you get spyware infection while booted on the Windows, it can see the Linux partition and copy itself there. Your run-of-the-mill keylogger hidden inside a clone coin wallet probably can't do that though.

I don't think your "spyware infection" is going to try to search for ext4/xfs/jfs/btrfs/zfs partitions while you're booted into Windows - which can't natively read any of those disk formats - and inject an ELF executable.

If that happens, you're being targeted by a much more sinister organization.