MonaCoin, also called MONA, is a type of digital currency that is mostly used in Japan. It was made to be a way for people to pay each other without using exchanges or other third parties. The cryptocurrency was made in 2013 as a hard fork from Litecoin. It uses the same blockchain for most of its transactions. On the other hand, it does not use the Scrypt algorithm like Litecoin. The Lyra2REv2 algorithm, which uses less power, is used instead. It also can’t be mined by ASIC machines.
The name “MonaCoin” comes from an internet meme, which is a cat-like image made from ASCII characters. The anonymous “Mr. Watanabe,” whose name has never been confirmed, came up with the idea for the cryptocurrency. The number of MonaCoins that will ever be made is set at 1.0512 million. In 2014, a MonaCoin foundation was set up to promote the use of and growth of cryptocurrency.
Developers and users of MonaCoin work together to make it better. Find out what Monacoin is and how it can be used.
Details about Monacoin and Their Benefits
Monacoin has a total of 105,120,000 tokens, and every 1.5 minutes, a new block is made. At the time this was written, miners, who are specialized users who check transactions and make blocks, were paid 25 MONA. Using an algorithm called Dark Gravity Wave (v3), these rewards are cut in half every 3 years. This makes the cryptocurrency rarer and more valuable.
Instead of Scrypt, which is used by Litecoin for its Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, Monacoin uses the Lyra2REv2 algorithm. This is how Monacoin plans to fight against ASIC-based mining hardware, and it is part of a movement in the Japanese cryptocurrency community. This makes the Monacoin network more secure, but in general, the push against ASICs is a sign of a bigger problem: monopoly in cryptocurrency mining.
Simply put, ASICs make it nearly impossible for individual miners and hobbyists to compete while increasing the risks of power concentration. This goes against Satoshi’s original idea that each computer should have one vote.
At the 937440th block, through a soft fork, Monacoin added Segregated Witness or SegWit. This made it one of the first blockchains in the world to use this technology. At the moment, Bitcoin and Litecoin, among others, also use SegWit.
Even though SegWit involved complex technical changes, it made it possible for more transactions to fit in each block, which increased the speed of all transactions on the network. Also, Monacoin works with the Lightning Network, which speeds up the way transactions are settled.
In 2018, Monacoin also joined the group of highly sought-after cryptocurrencies that have successfully completed Atomic Swaps. Atomic Swaps are a way for crypto-assets to be converted from one type to another, mostly by using smart contracts. This gave Japan’s “national” cryptocurrency more options and made it possible for it to do all kinds of decentralized financial things.
The best things about Monacoin
Identifying the user. Statistics show that more than 70% of coin users are in Japan, so this asset is very popular in that country. Most stores and services that accept cryptocurrency will take Monacoin as payment.
Easy to understand and safe. Users only need to click a few times to make a payment. They don’t have to write anything down except the amount of the transfer. Also, only a few cyberattacks are known to have happened while the coin has been around.
High efficiency. Transactions happen right away, and giving final approval only takes a few seconds. This is partly because of the SegWit protocol. The developers also added the protocol for the Lightning Network to the Monacoin blockchain. Because of this, network bandwidth and the ability to grow have increased by a factor of several.
Transparency. The project has not been involved in any scams or other illegal activities. The MONA coin is a digital currency, so there is a stable, large, and friendly community of people who use it.
Final Thought
Monacoin’s main purpose is to be a way to pay, and the community works very hard to keep it that way. Over time, though, more MONA-based apps and services are being released, which is good for the coin’s market capitalization as a whole.
Even though MONA is very popular in Japan, it is only available on a few global exchanges, such as bitFlyer. Monacoin is Japan’s pride, and bitFlyer is the only cryptocurrency exchange in the EU to list it.