What Is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency which allows money to be sent without the need for banks and middlemen. It uses a variety of mathematical “proofs” to prevent someone spending the same money in two places at once.
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and it achieved this goal by displaying every transaction in public, forever.
Bitcoin is sent from one “address” to another. Addresses are not supposed to be linked to a person’s name but often people must give their ID to a currency exchange to buy Bitcoin and if hackers or other bad people access this information then they can link the transactions back to the person’s ID very easily.
This can be used to blackmail, extort or kidnap them. This was seen repeatedly in France in 2025 due to hacks and a corrupt tax official selling information to criminal groups.
What is Monero?
Monero is a slightly newer currency (2014 vs 2010) which has been designed with privacy and security in mind from day one, learning from the challenges that Bitcoin has experienced. Monero transactions cannot be linked from account to account and even the amounts sent are hidden from public view. It uses a number of modern mathematical approaches to keep information truly private.
We know that the convenience of card payments is hard to beat and Bitcoin is more established but we believe in an age where our every move is increasingly tracked to sell us more products and make sure we are behaving “correctly”, it is important for us to avoid making our financial history available for anyone with access to the master password.
How can I use Cryptocurrencies?
You only need to convert as much as you need to spend, as you can buy small fractions of any currency.
Monero is a few years younger than Bitcoin and its accessibility is a little lower, like bitcoin was previously.
Most people buy Bitcoin or Litecoin before using a Decentralised EXchange (often called a DEX or “peer-2-peer”) to buy Monero. A DEX uses smart contracts to prevent scams. As soon as Bitcoin is changed into Monero and stored on your own computer or a site which doesn’t keep your ID, it is private and secure.
- RetoSwap uses Tor technology to ensure privacy and is our main recommendation.
- Bisq is easier to set up but has less advanced privacy technology
reddit.com/r/XMRtrader is a large community with more information about buying Monero.
