Monero (XMR) Splits into Four Different Projects Post April 4th Hard Fork

With the crypto market recovering from one of its worst price slumps, all wasn’t well with Monero. But as revealed earlier, Monero is all set to embrace new changes to get back in the game. In its efforts to make XMR’s mining technology egalitarian, the dark-web’ favourite currency executed the controversial hard fork on April 6. With the fork resulting in four Moneros, each one is claiming to be the original Monero. The following segments explore the gist of the story.

The Monero (XMR) Hard Fork on April 6

As evident from the previous proposals, the hard fork on Monero was planned to boost the proof of work (PoW) network, increasing the ring size to 7. Almost all the major platforms, from Reddit, Twitter to Telegram, have witnessed severe debates regarding the outcome of the fork. With many members refusing to comply with the egalitarian approach, the fork seemed to be the only solution to settle the disputes. The hard fork on April 6 updated the proof-of-work (PoW) system with suitable changes in its move to eliminate the threats imposed by ASIC. Moreover, the PoW system update, which was spurred by the hard fork, has been executed as an attempt to prevent XMR mining with Application Specific Integrated Circuits.

What Triggered the Split?

Introduced in April 2018, Monero (XMR) is relatively a recent currency. While the major altcoins owe their origin to the bitcoin codebase, Monero was developed with the Cryptonote protocol. The proof of concept, which was designed by the cryptographer Saberhagen, has been transformed into Cryptonote coins that adhere to the Cryptonight PoW algorithm. Following the launch of Antminer X3 series by China’s Bitmain Technologies, many other operations like Halong Mining and Baikal talked about ASICs that process this algorithm. The ASIC resistance, which has alarmed many developers in the past, posed a huge threat to Monero. To mitigate the problem created by the ASIC, the Monero developers planned the hard fork, rendering these systems useless. Despite a large part of the Monero community dismissed the idea of the split, the fork was executed on April 6, splitting the project into four subsets with the original (version 11) XMR codebase.

The Four XMR Protocols

Although all the four projects decided to deploy the pre-fork protocol, they will share the same network under different slugs and logos.

Monero Classic (XMC)

The first Monero fork, which has been named Monero Classic, is introduced by a Singapore-based group, including by many reputed developers and miners. In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Bento Tan, the representative of the group, revealed that the development of ASIC seems healthy.  Furthermore, he added: “The ability to have choices promotes competition and that drives growth. We have to look at things at that level. Unilateral control is a suffocating death because you take away the need to improve and innovate.”

Monero-Classic (XMC)

This project is handled by a Chinese agent who identifies himself as PZ. As evident from its origin, it is backed by Bitmain’s Antpool mining systems. As per PZ’s reports, unlike its former contender, the emergence of this XMC is a “normal market economy phenomenon.”

Monero 0 (XMZ)

While speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, the representatives of Monero 0, who identify themselves as “proof-of-work maximalists”, said that they are “concerned users.” “We’ve decided that the Monero Project’s strategy to continuously hard fork is no longer a stable or a sane strategy. We believe that Satoshi’s Proof of Work is the only mechanism for decentralized consensus. The so-called ‘network upgrades’ that are centrally mandated by the Monero Project are a Trojan Horse designed to compromise the effectiveness of Proof of Work in the Monero network. Monero 0 is not a fork; it is the original Monero”, the group concluded.

Monero Original (XMO)

Very little information is available on this Monero protocol. Although much is unknown about XMO, the project has raised many eyebrows because of its association with GitHub. “Monero has always been about freedom of choice, about diversity and about the strong community behind it. We are providing the Monero fans [with] a possibility to support the iconic coin and stay on the original chain. Monero Original team stands for diversity, which is a logical marker of evolution. We are excited to see our favorite coin mature, and we are even more excited to help [in] keeping this diversity”, added the Monero Original Team.

The Forks Might Be Unstable

The hard fork has been executed amidst vehement controversies; so many questions have been raised regarding the reliability of these subsets. Also, such a critical project demands high-end technical support from cryptocurrency infrastructure providers. Some of these Monero projects have already sought support from significant exchanges and mining pools. Overall, the most critical aspect of the split is moving coins both blockchains singly.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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