Monero (/məˈnɛroʊ/; Abbreviation: XMR) is a cryptocurrency which uses a blockchain with privacy-enhancing technologies to obfuscate transactions to achieve anonymity and fungibility. Observers cannot decipher addresses trading Monero, transaction amounts, address balances, or transaction histories.[4] The protocol is open source and based on CryptoNote v2, a concept described in a 2013 white paper