monero

Monero: the secure, private, untraceable cryptocurrency

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Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol

Quick Overview

Monero is an open-source, privacy-focused cryptocurrency project that aims to provide secure, untraceable, and fungible digital transactions. It uses advanced cryptographic techniques to ensure the anonymity of users and the confidentiality of their financial activities.

Pros

Strong privacy features, including ring signatures and stealth addresses
Active development community and regular updates
ASIC-resistant mining algorithm (RandomX) promoting decentralization
Fungibility, making all coins equally valuable and interchangeable

Cons

Lower transaction speed compared to some other cryptocurrencies
Higher resource requirements for running a full node
Less widespread adoption compared to Bitcoin or Ethereum
Potential regulatory challenges due to its privacy features

Code Examples

// Example 1: Generating a new wallet
std::string password = "my_secure_password";
tools::wallet2 wallet;
wallet.generate("my_wallet", password);

// Example 2: Creating a transaction
crypto::hash txid;
wallet.transfer({"42address..."}, {1000000000000}, txid);

// Example 3: Checking balance
uint64_t balance = wallet.balance();
uint64_t unlocked_balance = wallet.unlocked_balance();

Getting Started

To get started with Monero development:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/monero-project/monero.git

Install dependencies (Ubuntu example):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libboost-all-dev libssl-dev libzmq3-dev libunbound-dev libsodium-dev libunwind8-dev liblzma-dev libreadline6-dev libldns-dev libexpat1-dev doxygen graphviz libpgm-dev

Build Monero:
```
cd monero && make
```
Run the Monero daemon:
```
./build/release/bin/monerod
```

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Monero GitHub repository and the official Monero documentation.

Competitor Comparisons

bitcoin

78,874

Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree

Pros of Bitcoin

Larger developer community and more extensive codebase
Greater adoption and wider ecosystem of tools and services
More battle-tested security with longer history in production

Cons of Bitcoin

Less privacy-focused than Monero, with transparent blockchain
Fixed supply cap may lead to deflationary issues long-term
Slower to implement new features and upgrades

Code Comparison

Bitcoin (src/validation.cpp):

bool CChainState::ConnectBlock(const CBlock& block, CValidationState& state,
                               CBlockIndex* pindex, CCoinsViewCache& view,
                               const CChainParams& chainparams,
                               bool fJustCheck)
{
    // ...
}

Monero (src/cryptonote_core/blockchain.cpp):

bool Blockchain::add_new_block(const block& bl, block_verification_context& bvc)
{
    // ...
}

Both projects use C++ for core functionality. Bitcoin's codebase is more extensive, with more complex validation logic. Monero's code focuses more on privacy features and ring signatures. Bitcoin has a larger number of contributors and more frequent commits, while Monero has a smaller but dedicated development team.

zcash

4,940

Zcash - Internet Money

Pros of Zcash

Optional transparency: Zcash offers both shielded and transparent transactions
zk-SNARKs: More advanced zero-knowledge proof technology
Faster block times: 75 seconds compared to Monero's 2 minutes

Cons of Zcash

Trusted setup: Initial parameters generation requires trust
Lower adoption rate: Less widely used and accepted than Monero
Selective disclosure: Optional privacy may lead to reduced anonymity set

Code Comparison

Zcash (C++):

CAmount GetBlockSubsidy(int nHeight, const Consensus::Params& consensusParams)
{
    CAmount nSubsidy = 50 * COIN;
    return nSubsidy / 2;
}

Monero (C++):

uint64_t get_block_reward(size_t median_size, size_t current_block_size, uint64_t already_generated_coins, uint8_t version)
{
  static_assert(DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V2%60==0&&DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V1%60==0,"difficulty targets must be a multiple of 60");
  const int target = version < 2 ? DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V1 : DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V2;
  const int target_minutes = target / 60;
  uint64_t base_reward = (MONEY_SUPPLY - already_generated_coins) >> EMISSION_SPEED_FACTOR_PER_MINUTE;
  base_reward /= target_minutes;
  return base_reward;
}

go-ethereum

47,370

Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol

Pros of go-ethereum

Larger community and more active development
Supports smart contracts and decentralized applications
More extensive documentation and resources

Cons of go-ethereum

Higher resource requirements for running a full node
More complex codebase due to advanced features
Less focus on privacy compared to Monero

Code Comparison

Monero (C++):

bool Blockchain::add_new_block(const block& bl, block_verification_context& bvc)
{
  LOG_PRINT_L3("Blockchain::" << __func__);
  crypto::hash id = get_block_hash(bl);
  CRITICAL_REGION_LOCAL(m_blockchain_lock);
  // ...
}

go-ethereum (Go):

func (bc *BlockChain) InsertChain(chain types.Blocks) (int, error) {
    n, events, logs, err := bc.insertChain(chain, true)
    bc.PostChainEvents(events, logs)
    return n, err
}

Both repositories implement blockchain functionality, but go-ethereum focuses on Ethereum's specific features like smart contracts, while Monero emphasizes privacy and fungibility. go-ethereum has a larger codebase and more contributors, reflecting its broader scope and ecosystem. Monero's codebase is more focused on maintaining privacy features and ASIC-resistant mining algorithms.

dogecoin

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very currency

Pros of Dogecoin

Simpler codebase, making it more accessible for new developers
Faster block time (1 minute vs. Monero's 2 minutes), allowing quicker transactions
Larger community and more widespread adoption

Cons of Dogecoin

Less focus on privacy features compared to Monero's robust anonymity
Limited development activity and fewer regular updates
Inflationary supply model, unlike Monero's fixed supply

Code Comparison

Dogecoin (simplified mining function):

int64_t GetBlockValue(int nHeight, int64_t nFees)
{
    int64_t nSubsidy = 10000 * COIN;
    if (nHeight == 1)
        nSubsidy = 100000000 * COIN;
    return nSubsidy + nFees;
}

Monero (simplified mining function):

uint64_t get_base_reward(uint64_t median_weight, uint64_t current_block_weight, uint64_t already_generated_coins, uint8_t version)
{
    const uint64_t base_reward = (MONEY_SUPPLY - already_generated_coins) >> EMISSION_SPEED_FACTOR_PER_MINUTE;
    const uint64_t full_reward_zone = get_min_block_weight(version);
    if (current_block_weight <= full_reward_zone)
        return base_reward;
    // ... (additional logic for reward calculation)
}

This comparison highlights the simplicity of Dogecoin's mining reward structure compared to Monero's more complex approach, which factors in additional variables like block weight and emission speed.

litecoin

4,356

Litecoin source tree

Pros of Litecoin

Faster block generation time (2.5 minutes vs. Monero's 2 minutes)
Larger market cap and wider adoption in the cryptocurrency ecosystem
Simpler codebase, potentially easier for developers to understand and contribute

Cons of Litecoin

Less privacy-focused compared to Monero's advanced anonymity features
Uses SHA-256 algorithm, which is more susceptible to ASIC mining
Limited smart contract capabilities compared to Monero's more flexible approach

Code Comparison

Litecoin (mining.cpp):

int64_t GetBlockSubsidy(int nHeight, const Consensus::Params& consensusParams)
{
    int64_t nSubsidy = 50 * COIN;
    int halvings = nHeight / consensusParams.nSubsidyHalvingInterval;
    // Force block reward to zero when right shift is undefined.
    if (halvings >= 64)
        return 0;

Monero (cryptonote_basic_impl.cpp):

uint64_t get_base_reward(size_t median_size, size_t current_block_size, uint64_t already_generated_coins, uint8_t version)
{
  static_assert(DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V2%60==0&&DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V1%60==0,"difficulty targets must be a multiple of 60");
  const int target = version < 2 ? DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V1 : DIFFICULTY_TARGET_V2;
  const int target_minutes = target / 60;

The code snippets show differences in reward calculation approaches between Litecoin and Monero, reflecting their distinct design philosophies and consensus mechanisms.

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README

Monero

Development resources
Vulnerability response
Research
Announcements
Translations
Coverage
Introduction
About this project
Supporting the project
License
Contributing
Scheduled software upgrades
Release staging schedule and protocol
Compiling Monero from source
- Dependencies
- Gitian builds
Internationalization
Using Tor
Pruning
Debugging
Known issues

Development resources

Web: getmonero.org
Mail: dev@getmonero.org
GitHub: https://github.com/monero-project/monero
IRC: #monero-dev on Libera
It is HIGHLY recommended that you join the #monero-dev IRC channel if you are developing software that uses Monero. Due to the nature of this open source software project, joining this channel and idling is the best way to stay updated on best practices and new developments in the Monero ecosystem. All you need to do is join the IRC channel and idle to stay updated with the latest in Monero development. If you do not, you risk wasting resources on developing integrations that are not compatible with the Monero network. The Monero core team and community continuously make efforts to communicate updates, developments, and documentation via other platforms â but for the best information, you need to talk to other Monero developers, and they are on IRC. #monero-dev is about Monero development, not getting help about using Monero, or help about development of other software, including yours, unless it also pertains to Monero code itself. For these cases, checkout #monero.

Vulnerability response

Our Vulnerability Response Process encourages responsible disclosure
We are also available via HackerOne

Research

The Monero Research Lab is an open forum where the community coordinates research into Monero cryptography, protocols, fungibility, analysis, and more. We welcome collaboration and contributions from outside researchers! Because not all Lab work and publications are distributed as traditional preprints or articles, they may be easy to miss if you are conducting literature reviews for your own Monero research. You are encouraged to get in touch with the Monero research community if you have questions, wish to collaborate, or would like guidance to help avoid unnecessarily duplicating earlier or known work.

The Monero research community is available on IRC in #monero-research-lab on Libera, which is also accessible via Matrix.

Announcements

You can subscribe to an announcement listserv to get critical announcements from the Monero core team. The announcement list can be very helpful for knowing when software updates are needed.

Translations

The CLI wallet is available in different languages. If you want to help translate it, see our self-hosted localization platform, Weblate, on translate.getmonero.org. Every translation must be uploaded on the platform, pull requests directly editing the code in this repository will be closed. If you need help with Weblate, you can find a guide with screenshots here.

If you need help/support/info about translations, contact the localization workgroup. You can find the complete list of contacts on the repository of the workgroup: monero-translations.

Coverage

Type	Status
Coverity
OSS Fuzz
Coveralls
License

Introduction

Monero is a private, secure, untraceable, decentralised digital currency. You are your bank, you control your funds, and nobody can trace your transfers unless you allow them to do so.

Privacy: Monero uses a cryptographically sound system to allow you to send and receive funds without your transactions being easily revealed on the blockchain (the ledger of transactions that everyone has). This ensures that your purchases, receipts, and all transfers remain private by default.

Security: Using the power of a distributed peer-to-peer consensus network, every transaction on the network is cryptographically secured. Individual wallets have a 25-word mnemonic seed that is only displayed once and can be written down to backup the wallet. Wallet files should be encrypted with a strong passphrase to ensure they are useless if ever stolen.

Untraceability: By taking advantage of ring signatures, a special property of a certain type of cryptography, Monero is able to ensure that transactions are not only untraceable but have an optional measure of ambiguity that ensures that transactions cannot easily be tied back to an individual user or computer.

Decentralization: The utility of Monero depends on its decentralised peer-to-peer consensus network - anyone should be able to run the monero software, validate the integrity of the blockchain, and participate in all aspects of the monero network using consumer-grade commodity hardware. Decentralization of the monero network is maintained by software development that minimizes the costs of running the monero software and inhibits the proliferation of specialized, non-commodity hardware.

About this project

This is the core implementation of Monero. It is open source and completely free to use without restrictions, except for those specified in the license agreement below. There are no restrictions on anyone creating an alternative implementation of Monero that uses the protocol and network in a compatible manner.

As with many development projects, the repository on GitHub is considered to be the "staging" area for the latest changes. Before changes are merged into that branch on the main repository, they are tested by individual developers in their own branches, submitted as a pull request, and then subsequently tested by contributors who focus on testing and code reviews. That having been said, the repository should be carefully considered before using it in a production environment, unless there is a patch in the repository for a particular show-stopping issue you are experiencing. It is generally a better idea to use a tagged release for stability.

Anyone is welcome to contribute to Monero's codebase! If you have a fix or code change, feel free to submit it as a pull request directly to the "master" branch. In cases where the change is relatively small or does not affect other parts of the codebase, it may be merged in immediately by any one of the collaborators. On the other hand, if the change is particularly large or complex, it is expected that it will be discussed at length either well in advance of the pull request being submitted, or even directly on the pull request.

Supporting the project

Monero is a 100% community-sponsored endeavor. If you want to join our efforts, the easiest thing you can do is support the project financially. Both Monero and Bitcoin donations can be made to donate.getmonero.org if using a client that supports the OpenAlias standard. Alternatively, you can send XMR to the Monero donation address via the donate command (type help in the command-line wallet for details).

The Monero donation address is:
888tNkZrPN6JsEgekjMnABU4TBzc2Dt29EPAvkRxbANsAnjyPbb3iQ1YBRk1UXcdRsiKc9dhwMVgN5S9cQUiyoogDavup3H
Viewkey:
f359631075708155cc3d92a32b75a7d02a5dcf27756707b47a2b31b21c389501
Base address for restoring with address and viewkey: 44AFFq5kSiGBoZ4NMDwYtN18obc8AemS33DBLWs3H7otXft3XjrpDtQGv7SqSsaBYBb98uNbr2VBBEt7f2wfn3RVGQBEP3A

The Bitcoin donation address is:
1KTexdemPdxSBcG55heUuTjDRYqbC5ZL8H

Core development funding and/or some supporting services are also graciously provided by sponsors:

There are also several mining pools that kindly donate a portion of their fees, a list of them can be found on our Bitcointalk post.

License

See LICENSE.

Contributing

If you want to help out, see CONTRIBUTING for a set of guidelines.

Scheduled software/network upgrades

Monero uses a scheduled software/network upgrade (hard fork) mechanism to implement new features into the Monero software and network. This means that users of Monero (end users and service providers) should run current versions and upgrade their software when new releases are available. Software upgrades occur when new features are developed and implemented in the codebase. Network upgrades occur in tandem with software upgrades that modify the consensus rules of the Monero network. The required software for network upgrades will be available prior to the scheduled network upgrade date. Please check the repository prior to this date for the proper Monero software version. Below is the historical schedule and the projected schedule for the next upgrade.

Dates are provided in the format YYYY-MM-DD. The "Minimum" is the software version that follows the new consensus rules. The "Recommended" version may include bug fixes and other new features that do not affect the consensus rules.

Software upgrade block height	Date	Fork version	Minimum Monero version	Recommended Monero version	Details
1009827	2016-03-22	v2	v0.9.4	v0.9.4	Allow only >= ringsize 3, blocktime = 120 seconds, fee-free blocksize 60 kb
1141317	2016-09-21	v3	v0.9.4	v0.10.0	Splits coinbase into denominations
1220516	2017-01-05	v4	v0.10.1	v0.10.2.1	Allow normal and RingCT transactions
1288616	2017-04-15	v5	v0.10.3.0	v0.10.3.1	Adjusted minimum blocksize and fee algorithm
1400000	2017-09-16	v6	v0.11.0.0	v0.11.0.0	Allow only RingCT transactions, allow only >= ringsize 5
1546000	2018-04-06	v7	v0.12.0.0	v0.12.3.0	Cryptonight variant 1, ringsize >= 7, sorted inputs
1685555	2018-10-18	v8	v0.13.0.0	v0.13.0.4	max transaction size at half the penalty free block size, bulletproofs enabled, cryptonight variant 2, fixed ringsize 11
1686275	2018-10-19	v9	v0.13.0.0	v0.13.0.4	bulletproofs required
1788000	2019-03-09	v10	v0.14.0.0	v0.14.1.2	New PoW based on Cryptonight-R, new block weight algorithm, slightly more efficient RingCT format
1788720	2019-03-10	v11	v0.14.0.0	v0.14.1.2	forbid old RingCT transaction format
1978433	2019-11-30	v12	v0.15.0.0	v0.16.0.0	New PoW based on RandomX, only allow >= 2 outputs, change to the block median used to calculate penalty, v1 coinbases are forbidden, rct sigs in coinbase forbidden, 10 block lock time for incoming outputs
2210000	2020-10-17	v13	v0.17.0.0	v0.17.3.2	New CLSAG transaction format
2210720	2020-10-18	v14	v0.17.1.1	v0.17.3.2	forbid old MLSAG transaction format
2688888	2022-08-13	v15	v0.18.0.0	v0.18.1.2	ringsize = 16, bulletproofs+, view tags, adjusted dynamic block weight algorithm
2689608	2022-08-14	v16	v0.18.0.0	v0.18.1.2	forbid old v14 transaction format
XXXXXXX	XXX-XX-XX	XXX	vX.XX.X.X	vX.XX.X.X	XXX

X's indicate that these details have not been determined as of commit date.

* indicates estimate as of commit date

Release staging schedule and protocol

Approximately three months prior to a scheduled software upgrade, a branch from master will be created with the new release version tag. Pull requests that address bugs should then be made to both master and the new release branch. Pull requests that require extensive review and testing (generally, optimizations and new features) should not be made to the release branch.

Compiling Monero from source

Dependencies

The following table summarizes the tools and libraries required to build. A few of the libraries are also included in this repository (marked as "Vendored"). By default, the build uses the library installed on the system and ignores the vendored sources. However, if no library is found installed on the system, then the vendored source will be built and used. The vendored sources are also used for statically-linked builds because distribution packages often include only shared library binaries (.so) but not static library archives (.a).

Dep	Min. version	Vendored	Debian/Ubuntu pkg	Arch pkg	Void pkg	Fedora pkg	Optional	Purpose
GCC	7	NO	`build-essential`	`base-devel`	`base-devel`	`gcc`	NO
CMake	3.5	NO	`cmake`	`cmake`	`cmake`	`cmake`	NO
pkg-config	any	NO	`pkg-config`	`base-devel`	`base-devel`	`pkgconf`	NO
Boost	1.62	NO	`libboost-all-dev`	`boost`	`boost-devel`	`boost-devel`	NO	C++ libraries
OpenSSL	basically any	NO	`libssl-dev`	`openssl`	`openssl-devel`	`openssl-devel`	NO	sha256 sum
libzmq	4.2.0	NO	`libzmq3-dev`	`zeromq`	`zeromq-devel`	`zeromq-devel`	NO	ZeroMQ library
OpenPGM	?	NO	`libpgm-dev`	`libpgm`		`openpgm-devel`	NO	For ZeroMQ
libnorm[2]	?	NO	`libnorm-dev`				YES	For ZeroMQ
libunbound	1.4.16	NO	`libunbound-dev`	`unbound`	`unbound-devel`	`unbound-devel`	NO	DNS resolver
libsodium	?	NO	`libsodium-dev`	`libsodium`	`libsodium-devel`	`libsodium-devel`	NO	cryptography
libunwind	any	NO	`libunwind8-dev`	`libunwind`	`libunwind-devel`	`libunwind-devel`	YES	Stack traces
liblzma	any	NO	`liblzma-dev`	`xz`	`liblzma-devel`	`xz-devel`	YES	For libunwind
libreadline	6.3.0	NO	`libreadline6-dev`	`readline`	`readline-devel`	`readline-devel`	YES	Input editing
expat	1.1	NO	`libexpat1-dev`	`expat`	`expat-devel`	`expat-devel`	YES	XML parsing
GTest	1.5	YES	`libgtest-dev`[1]	`gtest`	`gtest-devel`	`gtest-devel`	YES	Test suite
ccache	any	NO	`ccache`	`ccache`	`ccache`	`ccache`	YES	Compil. cache
Doxygen	any	NO	`doxygen`	`doxygen`	`doxygen`	`doxygen`	YES	Documentation
Graphviz	any	NO	`graphviz`	`graphviz`	`graphviz`	`graphviz`	YES	Documentation
lrelease	?	NO	`qttools5-dev-tools`	`qt5-tools`	`qt5-tools`	`qt5-linguist`	YES	Translations
libhidapi	?	NO	`libhidapi-dev`	`hidapi`	`hidapi-devel`	`hidapi-devel`	YES	Hardware wallet
libusb	?	NO	`libusb-1.0-0-dev`	`libusb`	`libusb-devel`	`libusbx-devel`	YES	Hardware wallet
libprotobuf	?	NO	`libprotobuf-dev`	`protobuf`	`protobuf-devel`	`protobuf-devel`	YES	Hardware wallet
protoc	?	NO	`protobuf-compiler`	`protobuf`	`protobuf`	`protobuf-compiler`	YES	Hardware wallet
libudev	?	NO	`libudev-dev`	`systemd`	`eudev-libudev-devel`	`systemd-devel`	YES	Hardware wallet

[1] On Debian/Ubuntu libgtest-dev only includes sources and headers. You must build the library binary manually. This can be done with the following command sudo apt-get install libgtest-dev && cd /usr/src/gtest && sudo cmake . && sudo make then:

on Debian: sudo mv libg* /usr/lib/
on Ubuntu: sudo mv lib/libg* /usr/lib/

[2] libnorm-dev is needed if your zmq library was built with libnorm, and not needed otherwise

Install all dependencies at once on Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config libssl-dev libzmq3-dev libunbound-dev libsodium-dev libunwind8-dev liblzma-dev libreadline6-dev libexpat1-dev libpgm-dev qttools5-dev-tools libhidapi-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libudev-dev libboost-chrono-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-locale-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-regex-dev libboost-serialization-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-thread-dev python3 ccache doxygen graphviz

Install all dependencies at once on Arch:

sudo pacman -Syu --needed base-devel cmake boost openssl zeromq libpgm unbound libsodium libunwind xz readline expat gtest python3 ccache doxygen graphviz qt5-tools hidapi libusb protobuf systemd

Install all dependencies at once on Fedora:

sudo dnf install gcc gcc-c++ cmake pkgconf boost-devel openssl-devel zeromq-devel openpgm-devel unbound-devel libsodium-devel libunwind-devel xz-devel readline-devel expat-devel gtest-devel ccache doxygen graphviz qt5-linguist hidapi-devel libusbx-devel protobuf-devel protobuf-compiler systemd-devel

Install all dependencies at once on openSUSE:

sudo zypper ref && sudo zypper in cppzmq-devel libboost_chrono-devel libboost_date_time-devel libboost_filesystem-devel libboost_locale-devel libboost_program_options-devel libboost_regex-devel libboost_serialization-devel libboost_system-devel libboost_thread-devel libexpat-devel libminiupnpc-devel libsodium-devel libunwind-devel unbound-devel cmake doxygen ccache fdupes gcc-c++ libevent-devel libopenssl-devel pkgconf-pkg-config readline-devel xz-devel libqt5-qttools-devel patterns-devel-C-C++-devel_C_C++

Install all dependencies at once on macOS with the provided Brewfile:

brew update && brew bundle --file=contrib/brew/Brewfile

FreeBSD 12.1 one-liner required to build dependencies:

pkg install git gmake cmake pkgconf boost-libs libzmq4 libsodium unbound

Cloning the repository

Clone recursively to pull-in needed submodule(s):

git clone --recursive https://github.com/monero-project/monero

If you already have a repo cloned, initialize and update:

cd monero && git submodule init && git submodule update

Note: If there are submodule differences between branches, you may need to use git submodule sync && git submodule update after changing branches to build successfully.

Build instructions

Monero uses the CMake build system and a top-level Makefile that invokes cmake commands as needed.

On Linux and macOS

Install the dependencies
Change to the root of the source code directory, change to the most recent release branch, and build:
```
cd monero
git checkout release-v0.18
make
```
Optional: If your machine has several cores and enough memory, enable parallel build by running make -j<number of threads> instead of make. For this to be worthwhile, the machine should have one core and about 2GB of RAM available per thread.

Note: The instructions above will compile the most stable release of the Monero software. If you would like to use and test the most recent software, use git checkout master. The master branch may contain updates that are both unstable and incompatible with release software, though testing is always encouraged.
The resulting executables can be found in build/release/bin
Add PATH="$PATH:$HOME/monero/build/release/bin" to .profile
Run Monero with monerod --detach
Optional: build and run the test suite to verify the binaries:
```
make release-test
```
NOTE: core_tests test may take a few hours to complete.
Optional: to build binaries suitable for debugging:
```
make debug
```
Optional: to build statically-linked binaries:
```
make release-static
```

Dependencies need to be built with -fPIC. Static libraries usually aren't, so you may have to build them yourself with -fPIC. Refer to their documentation for how to build them.

Optional: build documentation in doc/html (omit HAVE_DOT=YES if graphviz is not installed):
```
HAVE_DOT=YES doxygen Doxyfile
```
Optional: use ccache not to rebuild translation units, that haven't really changed. Monero's CMakeLists.txt file automatically handles it
```
sudo apt install ccache
```

On the Raspberry Pi

Tested on a Raspberry Pi Zero with a clean install of minimal Raspbian Stretch (2017-09-07 or later) from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/. If you are using Raspian Jessie, please see note in the following section.

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade to install all of the latest software
Install the dependencies for Monero from the 'Debian' column in the table above.

Increase the system swap size:

sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile stop  
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile  
CONF_SWAPSIZE=2048
sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile start

If using an external hard disk without an external power supply, ensure it gets enough power to avoid hardware issues when syncing, by adding the line "max_usb_current=1" to /boot/config.txt

Clone Monero and checkout the most recent release version:

git clone https://github.com/monero-project/monero.git
cd monero
git checkout v0.18.1.2

Build:
```
USE_SINGLE_BUILDDIR=1 make release
```
Wait 4-6 hours
The resulting executables can be found in build/release/bin
Add export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/monero/build/release/bin" to $HOME/.profile
Run source $HOME/.profile
Run Monero with monerod --detach
You may wish to reduce the size of the swap file after the build has finished, and delete the boost directory from your home directory

Note for Raspbian Jessie users:

If you are using the older Raspbian Jessie image, compiling Monero is a bit more complicated. The version of Boost available in the Debian Jessie repositories is too old to use with Monero, and thus you must compile a newer version yourself. The following explains the extra steps and has been tested on a Raspberry Pi 2 with a clean install of minimal Raspbian Jessie.

As before, apt-get update && apt-get upgrade to install all of the latest software, and increase the system swap size

sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile stop
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
CONF_SWAPSIZE=2048
sudo /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile start

Then, install the dependencies for Monero except for libunwind and libboost-all-dev
Install the latest version of boost (this may first require invoking apt-get remove --purge libboost*-dev to remove a previous version if you're not using a clean install):
```
cd
wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.72.0/boost_1_72_0.tar.bz2
tar xvfo boost_1_72_0.tar.bz2
cd boost_1_72_0
./bootstrap.sh
sudo ./b2
```

Wait ~8 hours

sudo ./bjam cxxflags=-fPIC cflags=-fPIC -a install

Wait ~4 hours
From here, follow the general Raspberry Pi instructions from the "Clone Monero and checkout most recent release version" step.

On Windows:

Binaries for Windows are built on Windows using the MinGW toolchain within MSYS2 environment. The MSYS2 environment emulates a POSIX system. The toolchain runs within the environment and cross-compiles binaries that can run outside of the environment as a regular Windows application.

Preparing the build environment

Download and install the MSYS2 installer, either the 64-bit or the 32-bit package, depending on your system.
Open the MSYS shell via the MSYS2 Shell shortcut
Update packages using pacman:
```
pacman -Syu
```
Exit the MSYS shell using Alt+F4
Edit the properties for the MSYS2 Shell shortcut changing "msys2_shell.bat" to "msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64" for 64-bit builds or "msys2_shell.cmd -mingw32" for 32-bit builds
Restart MSYS shell via modified shortcut and update packages again using pacman:
```
pacman -Syu
```

Install dependencies:

To build for 64-bit Windows:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain make mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-boost mingw-w64-x86_64-openssl mingw-w64-x86_64-zeromq mingw-w64-x86_64-libsodium mingw-w64-x86_64-hidapi mingw-w64-x86_64-unbound

To build for 32-bit Windows:

pacman -S mingw-w64-i686-toolchain make mingw-w64-i686-cmake mingw-w64-i686-boost mingw-w64-i686-openssl mingw-w64-i686-zeromq mingw-w64-i686-libsodium mingw-w64-i686-hidapi mingw-w64-i686-unbound

Open the MingW shell via MinGW-w64-Win64 Shell shortcut on 64-bit Windows or MinGW-w64-Win64 Shell shortcut on 32-bit Windows. Note that if you are running 64-bit Windows, you will have both 64-bit and 32-bit MinGW shells.

Cloning

To git clone, run:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/monero-project/monero.git

Building

Change to the cloned directory, run:
```
cd monero
```
If you would like a specific version/tag, do a git checkout for that version. eg. 'v0.18.1.2'. If you don't care about the version and just want binaries from master, skip this step:
```
git checkout v0.18.1.2
```
If you are on a 64-bit system, run:
```
make release-static-win64
```
If you are on a 32-bit system, run:
```
make release-static-win32
```
The resulting executables can be found in build/release/bin
Optional: to build Windows binaries suitable for debugging on a 64-bit system, run:
```
make debug-static-win64
```
Optional: to build Windows binaries suitable for debugging on a 32-bit system, run:
```
make debug-static-win32
```
The resulting executables can be found in build/debug/bin

On FreeBSD:

The project can be built from scratch by following instructions for Linux above(but use gmake instead of make). If you are running Monero in a jail, you need to add sysvsem="new" to your jail configuration, otherwise lmdb will throw the error message: Failed to open lmdb environment: Function not implemented.

Monero is also available as a port or package as monero-cli.

On OpenBSD:

You will need to add a few packages to your system. pkg_add cmake gmake zeromq libiconv boost libunbound.

The doxygen and graphviz packages are optional and require the xbase set. Running the test suite also requires py3-requests package.

Build monero: gmake

Note: you may encounter the following error when compiling the latest version of Monero as a normal user:

LLVM ERROR: out of memory
c++: error: unable to execute command: Abort trap (core dumped)

Then you need to increase the data ulimit size to 2GB and try again: ulimit -d 2000000

On NetBSD:

Check that the dependencies are present: pkg_info -c libexecinfo boost-headers boost-libs protobuf readline libusb1 zeromq git-base pkgconf gmake cmake | more, and install any that are reported missing, using pkg_add or from your pkgsrc tree. Readline is optional but worth having.

Third-party dependencies are usually under /usr/pkg/, but if you have a custom setup, adjust the "/usr/pkg" (below) accordingly.

Clone the monero repository recursively and checkout the most recent release as described above. Then build monero: gmake BOOST_ROOT=/usr/pkg LDFLAGS="-Wl,-R/usr/pkg/lib" release. The resulting executables can be found in build/NetBSD/[Release version]/Release/bin/.

On Solaris:

The default Solaris linker can't be used, you have to install GNU ld, then run cmake manually with the path to your copy of GNU ld:

mkdir -p build/release
cd build/release
cmake -DCMAKE_LINKER=/path/to/ld -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ../..
cd ../..

Then you can run make as usual.

Building portable statically linked binaries

By default, in either dynamically or statically linked builds, binaries target the specific host processor on which the build happens and are not portable to other processors. Portable binaries can be built using the following targets:

make release-static-linux-x86_64 builds binaries on Linux on x86_64 portable across POSIX systems on x86_64 processors
make release-static-linux-i686 builds binaries on Linux on x86_64 or i686 portable across POSIX systems on i686 processors
make release-static-linux-armv8 builds binaries on Linux portable across POSIX systems on armv8 processors
make release-static-linux-armv7 builds binaries on Linux portable across POSIX systems on armv7 processors
make release-static-linux-armv6 builds binaries on Linux portable across POSIX systems on armv6 processors
make release-static-win64 builds binaries on 64-bit Windows portable across 64-bit Windows systems
make release-static-win32 builds binaries on 64-bit or 32-bit Windows portable across 32-bit Windows systems

Cross Compiling

You can also cross-compile static binaries on Linux for Windows and macOS with the depends system.

make depends target=x86_64-linux-gnu for 64-bit linux binaries.
make depends target=x86_64-w64-mingw32 for 64-bit windows binaries.
- Requires: python3 g++-mingw-w64-x86-64 wine1.6 bc
- You also need to run:
  update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++-posix && update-alternatives --set x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc-posix
make depends target=x86_64-apple-darwin for macOS binaries.
- Requires: cmake imagemagick libcap-dev librsvg2-bin libz-dev libbz2-dev libtiff-tools python-dev
make depends target=i686-linux-gnu for 32-bit linux binaries.
- Requires: g++-multilib bc
make depends target=i686-w64-mingw32 for 32-bit windows binaries.
- Requires: python3 g++-mingw-w64-i686
make depends target=arm-linux-gnueabihf for armv7 binaries.
- Requires: g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf
make depends target=aarch64-linux-gnu for armv8 binaries.
- Requires: g++-aarch64-linux-gnu
make depends target=riscv64-linux-gnu for RISC V 64 bit binaries.
- Requires: g++-riscv64-linux-gnu
make depends target=x86_64-unknown-freebsd for freebsd binaries.
- Requires: clang-8
make depends target=arm-linux-android for 32bit android binaries
make depends target=aarch64-linux-android for 64bit android binaries

The required packages are the names for each toolchain on apt. Depending on your distro, they may have different names. The depends system has been tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04.

Using depends might also be easier to compile Monero on Windows than using MSYS. Activate Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with a distro (for example Ubuntu), install the apt build-essentials and follow the depends steps as depicted above.

The produced binaries still link libc dynamically. If the binary is compiled on a current distribution, it might not run on an older distribution with an older installation of libc. Passing -DBACKCOMPAT=ON to cmake will make sure that the binary will run on systems having at least libc version 2.17.

Trezor hardware wallet support

If you have an issue with building Monero with Trezor support, you can disable it by setting USE_DEVICE_TREZOR=OFF, e.g.,

USE_DEVICE_TREZOR=OFF make release

For more information, please check out Trezor src/device_trezor/README.md.

Gitian builds

See contrib/gitian/README.md.

Installing Monero from a package

DISCLAIMER: These packages are not part of this repository or maintained by this project's contributors, and as such, do not go through the same review process to ensure their trustworthiness and security.

Packages are available for

Debian Buster

See the instructions in the whonix/monero-gui repository
Debian Bullseye and Sid
```
sudo apt install monero
```

More info and versions in the Debian package tracker.

Arch Linux (via Community packages):
```
sudo pacman -S monero
```
NixOS:
```
nix-shell -p monero-cli
```
GuixSD
```
guix package -i monero
```

Gentoo Monero overlay

emerge --noreplace eselect-repository
eselect repository enable monero
emaint sync -r monero
echo '*/*::monero ~amd64' >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
emerge net-p2p/monero

Alpine Linux:
```
apk add monero
```
macOS (homebrew)
```
brew install monero
```

Docker

# Build using all available cores
docker build -t monero .

# or build using a specific number of cores (reduce RAM requirement)
docker build --build-arg NPROC=1 -t monero .

# either run in foreground
docker run -it -v /monero/chain:/home/monero/.bitmonero -v /monero/wallet:/wallet -p 18080:18080 monero

# or in background
docker run -it -d -v /monero/chain:/home/monero/.bitmonero -v /monero/wallet:/wallet -p 18080:18080 monero

The build needs 3 GB space.
Wait one hour or more

Packaging for your favorite distribution would be a welcome contribution!

Running monerod

The build places the binary in bin/ sub-directory within the build directory from which cmake was invoked (repository root by default). To run in the foreground:

./bin/monerod

To list all available options, run ./bin/monerod --help. Options can be specified either on the command line or in a configuration file passed by the --config-file argument. To specify an option in the configuration file, add a line with the syntax argumentname=value, where argumentname is the name of the argument without the leading dashes, for example, log-level=1.

To run in background:

./bin/monerod --log-file monerod.log --detach

To run as a systemd service, copy monerod.service to /etc/systemd/system/ and monerod.conf to /etc/. The example service assumes that the user monero exists and its home is the data directory specified in the example config.

If you're on Mac, you may need to add the --max-concurrency 1 option to monero-wallet-cli, and possibly monerod, if you get crashes refreshing.

Internationalization

See README.i18n.md.

Using Tor

There is a new, still experimental, integration with Tor. The feature allows connecting over IPv4 and Tor simultaneously - IPv4 is used for relaying blocks and relaying transactions received by peers whereas Tor is used solely for relaying transactions received over local RPC. This provides privacy and better protection against surrounding node (sybil) attacks.

While Monero isn't made to integrate with Tor, it can be used wrapped with torsocks, by setting the following configuration parameters and environment variables:

--p2p-bind-ip 127.0.0.1 on the command line or p2p-bind-ip=127.0.0.1 in monerod.conf to disable listening for connections on external interfaces.
--no-igd on the command line or no-igd=1 in monerod.conf to disable IGD (UPnP port forwarding negotiation), which is pointless with Tor.
DNS_PUBLIC=tcp or DNS_PUBLIC=tcp://x.x.x.x where x.x.x.x is the IP of the desired DNS server, for DNS requests to go over TCP, so that they are routed through Tor. When IP is not specified, monerod uses the default list of servers defined in src/common/dns_utils.cpp.
TORSOCKS_ALLOW_INBOUND=1 to tell torsocks to allow monerod to bind to interfaces to accept connections from the wallet. On some Linux systems, torsocks allows binding to localhost by default, so setting this variable is only necessary to allow binding to local LAN/VPN interfaces to allow wallets to connect from remote hosts. On other systems, it may be needed for local wallets as well.
Do NOT pass --detach when running through torsocks with systemd, (see utils/systemd/monerod.service for details).
If you use the wallet with a Tor daemon via the loopback IP (eg, 127.0.0.1:9050), then use --untrusted-daemon unless it is your own hidden service.

Example command line to start monerod through Tor:

DNS_PUBLIC=tcp torsocks monerod --p2p-bind-ip 127.0.0.1 --no-igd

A helper script is in contrib/tor/monero-over-tor.sh. It assumes Tor is installed already, and runs Tor and Monero with the right configuration.

Using Tor on Tails

TAILS ships with a very restrictive set of firewall rules. Therefore, you need to add a rule to allow this connection too, in addition to telling torsocks to allow inbound connections. Full example:

sudo iptables -I OUTPUT 2 -p tcp -d 127.0.0.1 -m tcp --dport 18081 -j ACCEPT
DNS_PUBLIC=tcp torsocks ./monerod --p2p-bind-ip 127.0.0.1 --no-igd --rpc-bind-ip 127.0.0.1 \
    --data-dir /home/amnesia/Persistent/your/directory/to/the/blockchain

Pruning

As of April 2022, the full Monero blockchain file is about 130 GB. One can store a pruned blockchain, which is about 45 GB. A pruned blockchain can only serve part of the historical chain data to other peers, but is otherwise identical in functionality to the full blockchain. To use a pruned blockchain, it is best to start the initial sync with --prune-blockchain. However, it is also possible to prune an existing blockchain using the monero-blockchain-prune tool or using the --prune-blockchain monerod option with an existing chain. If an existing chain exists, pruning will temporarily require disk space to store both the full and pruned blockchains.

For more detailed information see the 'Pruning' entry in the Moneropedia

Debugging

This section contains general instructions for debugging failed installs or problems encountered with Monero. First, ensure you are running the latest version built from the GitHub repo.

Obtaining stack traces and core dumps on Unix systems

We generally use the tool gdb (GNU debugger) to provide stack trace functionality, and ulimit to provide core dumps in builds which crash or segfault.

To use gdb in order to obtain a stack trace for a build that has stalled:

Run the build.

Once it stalls, enter the following command:

gdb /path/to/monerod `pidof monerod`

Type thread apply all bt within gdb in order to obtain the stack trace

If however the core dumps or segfaults:

Enter ulimit -c unlimited on the command line to enable unlimited filesizes for core dumps

Enter echo core | sudo tee /proc/sys/kernel/core_pattern to stop cores from being hijacked by other tools

Run the build.

When it terminates with an output along the lines of "Segmentation fault (core dumped)", there should be a core dump file in the same directory as monerod. It may be named just core, or core.xxxx with numbers appended.

You can now analyse this core dump with gdb as follows:

gdb /path/to/monerod /path/to/dumpfile`

Print the stack trace with bt

If a program crashed and cores are managed by systemd, the following can also get a stack trace for that crash:

coredumpctl -1 gdb

To run Monero within gdb:

Type gdb /path/to/monerod

Pass command-line options with --args followed by the relevant arguments

Type run to run monerod

Analysing memory corruption

There are two tools available:

ASAN

Configure Monero with the -D SANITIZE=ON cmake flag, eg:

cd build/debug && cmake -D SANITIZE=ON -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ../..

You can then run the monero tools normally. Performance will typically halve.

valgrind

Install valgrind and run as valgrind /path/to/monerod. It will be very slow.

LMDB

Instructions for debugging suspected blockchain corruption as per @HYC

There is an mdb_stat command in the LMDB source that can print statistics about the database but it's not routinely built. This can be built with the following command:

cd ~/monero/external/db_drivers/liblmdb && make

The output of mdb_stat -ea <path to blockchain dir> will indicate inconsistencies in the blocks, block_heights and block_info table.

The output of mdb_dump -s blocks <path to blockchain dir> and mdb_dump -s block_info <path to blockchain dir> is useful for indicating whether blocks and block_info contain the same keys.

These records are dumped as hex data, where the first line is the key and the second line is the data.

Known Issues

Protocols

Socket-based

Because of the nature of the socket-based protocols that drive monero, certain protocol weaknesses are somewhat unavoidable at this time. While these weaknesses can theoretically be fully mitigated, the effort required (the means) may not justify the ends. As such, please consider taking the following precautions if you are a monero node operator:

Run monerod on a "secured" machine. If operational security is not your forte, at a very minimum, have a dedicated a computer running monerod and do not browse the web, use email clients, or use any other potentially harmful apps on your monerod machine. Do not click links or load URL/MUA content on the same machine. Doing so may potentially exploit weaknesses in commands which accept "localhost" and "127.0.0.1".
If you plan on hosting a public "remote" node, start monerod with --restricted-rpc. This is a must.

Blockchain-based

Certain blockchain "features" can be considered "bugs" if misused correctly. Consequently, please consider the following:

When receiving monero, be aware that it may be locked for an arbitrary time if the sender elected to, preventing you from spending that monero until the lock time expires. You may want to hold off acting upon such a transaction until the unlock time lapses. To get a sense of that time, you can consider the remaining blocktime until unlock as seen in the show_transfers command.

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README

Monero

Table of Contents

Development resources

Vulnerability response

Research

Announcements

Translations

Coverage

Introduction

About this project

Supporting the project

License

Contributing

Scheduled software/network upgrades

Release staging schedule and protocol

Compiling Monero from source

Dependencies

Cloning the repository

Build instructions

On Linux and macOS

On the Raspberry Pi

Note for Raspbian Jessie users:

On Windows:

On FreeBSD:

On OpenBSD:

On NetBSD:

On Solaris:

Building portable statically linked binaries

Cross Compiling

Trezor hardware wallet support

Gitian builds

Installing Monero from a package

Running monerod

Internationalization

Using Tor

Using Tor on Tails

Pruning

Debugging

Obtaining stack traces and core dumps on Unix systems

To run Monero within gdb:

Analysing memory corruption

ASAN

valgrind

LMDB

Known Issues

Protocols

Socket-based

Blockchain-based

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