Image credit: Business Insider
Monero (XMR) developers recently discovered a bug that could expose users' transactions. The team is working on a fix, but has announced that as long as the bug remains, users' privacy is at risk. Twitter account.
They call it a “major bug” and claim to have discovered it in the cryptocurrency’s “decoy selection algorithm,” the system the network uses to hide output transactions within 10 decoys.
Bug History
The bug was discovered by software developer Justin Berman, who noticed that it made it easier for output transactions to become visible as real spending among the 10 decoys. If a user spent money after the lock time in the first two blocks, or spent money after receiving it, the transaction would become visible.
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When Justin discovered the bug, he said there was no risk of addresses or transaction amounts being leaked. However, the bug allows users to know when transactions are taking place in cryptocurrencies. According to a statement from the developer, the bug does not help in the theft of funds, but remains in the wallet code.
Another Monero (XMR) contributor said on Reddit that the Monero bug affects past transactions, which is why Monerao developers are recommending that users wait at least an hour after receiving their XMR before spending it.
Monero (XMR) follows an uptrend on the daily chart as crypto market floats in the green zone | Source: XMRUSD on TradingView.com
This will help protect privacy until updates to the wallet software can be made to mitigate the privacy risks, and the developers have assured the community that they will not need to perform a hard fork or major network upgrade to address the bug.
Monero (XMR) Network
The Monero network entered the industry in 2014. It is a cryptocurrency that focuses on user privacy. Monero's goal is to provide a system where cryptocurrency users can complete private transactions that cannot be traced to anyone. The network uses proprietary encryption to keep transactions 100% unlinkable and untraceable.
The cryptocurrency maintains a prominent position in the cryptocurrency industry based on market capitalization and is the largest privacy-focused digital currency. At the time of writing, XRM is priced at $263. This price represents a 4% increase in 24 hours of trading based on TradingView data.
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In the past, our sources have said that Monero has been the focus of many financial regulators, who have been doing a number of things to undermine the privacy that characterizes its transactions.
For example, in 2020, the US Internal Revenue Service announced a $625,000 bounty to anyone who could decrypt transactions taking place on Monero and Bitcoin's Lightning Network, another privacy-focused network.
Featured image from Business Insider, chart from TradingView.com
