Drugs, Code and ICOs: Monero's Long Road to Blockchain Respect

If monero was the top-performing cryptocurrency of 2016, don't tell that to the blockchain project's outspoken maintainer.

Core to the increasing interest in monero is how its blockchain works.

A proof-of-work blockchain like bitcoin, monero's is rare in that it was built without forking bitcoin's code.

For this reason, bitcoin core developer Greg Maxwell told CoinDesk he believes monero was one of the first altcoins to have made a "Really interesting" technical improvement that's of interest to the wider blockchain community.

The journey to this point for monero is a long one.

At a time when hard forks seem to be the most contentious changes to any digital currency, monero has mandated hard forks on its network every six months, in which users must accept an update to stay with the main blockchain.

Spagni largely credits the movement on the development front to cultural differences, and the fact that monero adopted a development process where any contribution that isn't "Dumb or obviously bad" is added to the code base.

Olaoluwa Osuntokun, a developer at bitcoin's Lightning Network called the monero development team "Not overt scammers", a compliment that could pass for high praise among a notoriously fickle bitcoin crowd.

"The greatest likelihood is monero fails, it's that bitcoin fails," he said.

Spagni also sees a future where bitcoin and monero complement each other, one where bitcoin may be a store of value and monero may be more of a payment method, a digital cash that can be used for anything and everything - whether it fits into accepted norms.