In the last two months, our developers have been working hard on the switch to the code base of Monero. Now, we are happy to announce that the new code will be released on June 9th on our Github account. We’ll be releasing the new version of the client (v3.0.0) / wallets (v0.5.0). With this release we will finish the switch from codebase of Bytecoin to the Monero one.
But the actual fork date will be on the block height 490000, which is estimated to take place on June 30th. Some members of our community may find that frustrating or may see it as a delay. That’s why we want to explain to our dear community that we decided to do the fork on June 30th so we would have enough time to contact the exchanges, which usually takes lot of time (it can take weeks to receive and answer from cryptopia) and to contact all the pools we know of to make sure they all upgrade and they have everything ready for the fork. This won’t affect our roadmap because as soon as the new code is released, the team will start working on the next milestone.
Thanks to the switch of codebase, Leviar will share the top of the line features with Monero, especially in terms of privacy and anonymity. These features are the following:
Stealth Address:
The stealth address feature is a huge upgrade over bitcoin’s privacy. Here’s the best way to think of it…
With bitcoin, you reveal your real “home address” in order to send and receive bitcoin. With Monero, you use the equivalent of a “post office box” as your address to send and receive Monero.
By using a virtual P.O. box instead of your actual address, your transactions cannot be linked back to you. [1]
For more information, please watch the following video here.
Ring Signature:
In cryptography, a ring signature is a type of digital signature that can be performed by any member of a group of users that each have keys. Therefore, a message signed with a ring signature is endorsed by someone in a particular group of people. One of the security properties of a ring signature is that it should be computationally infeasible to determine which of the group members’ keys was used to produce the signature.
For instance, a ring signature could be used to provide an anonymous signature from “a high-ranking White House official”, without revealing which official signed the message. Ring signatures are right for this application because the anonymity of a ring signature cannot be revoked, and because the group for a ring signature can be improvised (requires no prior setup). [2]
For more information, please read the article here
Monero Ring Confidential Transactions (Ring CT):
Monero ring confidential transactions, also known as RingCT, is a privacy feature that was implemented into the Monero protocol. With ring confidential transactions, the transactional privacy of users are improved because the value of funds being transferred is obfuscated.
Prior to the implementation of ring confidential transactions, Monero required transaction amounts to be divided into denominations. For example, if Bob wanted to initiate a transaction of 12.5 monero on the blockchain, this output would be denominated into 3 separate rings of: 2, 0.5 and 10. The advantage of this technique is that it ensured that there was always an ample amount of ring members that could be found on the network, since a ring signature could only ring together outputs that were of the same value. However, the limitation of this technique is that, from the perspective of an outside party, they would be able to see the amounts that were being transacted. The implementation of the ring confidential transaction feature was specifically designed to tackle this issue. [3]
For more information, please read the creator Shen Noether’s paper here or watch the following video here.
Public-View Key:
The public-view key feature is what separates Monero from any other privacy solution. You can share your public-view key so other people can see your transactions.
Here’s why this is a powerful feature.
A common knock against bitcoin is that it’s too open. Banks and brokers like the low costs of using a blockchain but are concerned by how easy it is to track transactions. They fear competitors might use that knowledge to poach clients.
At the same time, regulators support banks adopting the blockchain because it makes auditing them easier. Monero’s public-view key feature solves this problem.
It gives banks total transactional secrecy plus complete openness with the regulators via the public-view key. With the public-view key, regulators can view all of the transactions. [1]
Built-in Scalability:
Another big knock against bitcoin is that it limits the size of each block in the blockchain to just 1 megabyte. As bitcoin has grown, the block sizes have stayed the same. This has caused the bitcoin network to slow down. It just can’t handle a lot of transactions at once.
For instance, the Visa payment network can handle up to 56,000 transactions per second. By comparison, bitcoin can only handle seven per second.
Monero has no such preprogrammed limit. It’s designed with a “look-back” window. That means the network reviews the preceding transactions and automatically adjusts the size of the blocks to account for transaction volume.
That makes Monero scalable. And that means as more people use Monero, it will be able to grow quickly. [1]
ASIC Resistance:
When Bitmain released the Antminer X3 an ASIC specialized for the Cryptonight hashing algorithm the monero team revealed a new software upgrade, called Lithium Luna, that intends to prevent ASIC miners from being efficient on the network’s Cryptonight Proof-of-Work (PoW) hashing algorithm. We the team behind Leviar also going to fork to Monero V7 making the Leviar network ASIC resistant.
For more information about Lithium Luna and the actions taken by Monero to prevent the ASIC mining, please read the following article here.
We will use this lapse of time (between the release of the code and the actual fork date) to start communicating to spread the word about the upcoming fork, sharing the features we will inertie from Monero’s code and the long term goals of the project.
We will also start contacting exchanges to list our coin as soon as the fork is activated (More information about listings will be announced later).
We want to thank our community for their support and understanding. We will need your help and support more than ever to make Leviar bigger and better day after day.
Do not forget to get the Android app!
The Leviar Team
Notes:
[1] 5 Unique Features of Monero (XMR) That Will Increase Your Financial Privacy and Security
[2] Ring Signature
[3] Monero Ring Confidential Transactions (RingCT)
