Monero doubles Blockchain privacy with new hard fork

Blockchain privacy may be under siege from a political standpoint, but it’s not stopping there Monero (XMR-USD) at all. On the contrary, the XMR crypto thrives through the harsh philosophical debates of privacy versus security. Today, it’s doubling down on its commitment to keeping transactions anonymous with a new hard fork upgrade. The news is yet another example of the protocol marching to the beat of its own drum. While the certainty of the future of blockchain anonymity remains up in the air, the project continues to innovate.

Monero, along with Zcash (ZEC-USD) and other projects such as Tornado Cash, is leading a wave of desired privacy in the blockchain space. It and Zcash provide this privacy by intentionally hiding who transacts on their chains, how much they trade, and who they trade with. This practice makes the flow of XMR from party to party completely anonymous.

But as regulators look to enforce within the crypto space, privacy projects are directly in the crosshairs. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been on Monero’s tail for many years now. Back in 2020, it offered a $625,000 bounty to anyone able to crack the project’s code and help it track users. More recently, the EU has created legislation intended to ban blockchain anonymity within its borders.

Things came to a head this month when the US Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash. The project, which allows users to anonymize their money by mixing it with other users’ assets, came under fire after it was revealed to be a tool for a North Korean hacking outfit The Lazarus Group. But even as the government goes after a close peer to the XMR crypto, Monero developers are unaffected. That much is clearly based on the project’s new upgrade.

Monero Hard Fork Ups XMR Crypto Privacy Furthermore

The Tornado Cash sanctions are greatly hampering the project, that’s for sure. US citizens can no longer use the tool or interact with dozens of blacklisted wallets associated with it. This causes a ripple effect affecting a number of other protocols. While this reality rattles several other projects worried about further sanctions, Monero developers are rolling out an upgrade that doubles down on blockchain privacy.

The hardfork upgrade released over the weekend hasn’t seen much backlash from Monero users themselves. Of course, the more anonymity transactions provide, the better privacy-focused investors they are. This hard fork, which arrives after a delay in July, accomplishes just that.

Specifically, it increases anonymity by increasing the number of signatures required by validators of transactions from 11 to 16. This increases privacy by further blurring the line between which validators have actually validated a given transaction, and those who are simply “placebos” .

In addition, the upgrade increases the performance of the network. A new “Bulletproof” algorithm is claimed to increase transaction speed while reducing transaction size. Developers say the algorithm will lead to a 5% to 7% increase in blockchain productivity. “View-tags” have been introduced to speed up wallet synchronization on the network as well, allowing users to get their wallets up and running on-chain faster.

In the wake of the upgrade, XMR crypto prices remain largely stable. Earlier today, the coin’s price rose by half a percent. Volume increases by 23% and more than $90 million worth of XMR changes hands.

At the date of publication, Brenden Rearick did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.