Monero is weird in a way most people miss There’s no founder story No origin myth No person to subpoena It begins quietly 2014 Bitcointalk An anonymous account posts a coin called BitMonero Username: thankful_for_today No interviews No roadmap threads No grand vision The community doesn’t like where it’s headed So they do the most Monero thing possible They fork it Immediately BitMonero becomes Monero “coin” in Esperanto The original creator disappears and never reappears And the tech itself Also anonymous CryptoNote, 2013 Author: Nicolas van Saberhagen A name that doesn’t exist Ring signatures Stealth addresses Privacy by default No founder, no foundation, no ownership The early years weren’t glamorous A handful of developers Mostly volunteers Some pseudonymous Keeping the chain alive week to week No VC money No marketing push Just slow, careful development Eventually a public maintainer emerges Riccardo Spagni — fluffypony Not a founder Never claimed to be Just someone willing to do the work Monero matures without central control 2020: Network-layer privacy lands Dandelion++ obfuscates transaction propagation IP leaks addressed quietly 2022: Main emission ends Tail emission begins 0.6 XMR per block. Forever People panic “Unlimited supply” headlines everywhere Devs explain it’s about miner incentives and security Monero chooses stability over narratives Then comes the crackdown era Privacy becomes a dirty word Tornado Cash sanctioned Developers targeted Centralized teams collapse Monero doesn’t flinch No leader to arrest No company to pressure No server to seize 2025 tests it again Hashrate concentration fears Community reacts Mining decentralizes further Chain keeps producing blocks January 2026. Still running Still upgrading Still private New releases FCMP++ on the horizon New ATHs Satoshi vanished monero made sure no one ever needed to(Justin Wu)