At press time, interest in Monero had increased 400% over the past hour. Five US states lead the charge, according to Google Trends:
Top 5 US States for Monero
The five states listed are:
• Indiana
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Louisiana
Interest in Indiana came primarily from Terre Haute, while curiousity in Arkansas came mainly Little Rock and this reporter’s city of Pine Bluff. (Note: the author doesn’t use Google as a default search engine and hasn’t been researching Monero today.) Regional metrics aren’t exact, but more attributed to the Internet Service Providers being used.
The metric is interesting because major US states like New York and California are not represented on the list. However, Colorado, the marijuana capital of the nation, is on the list. Arvada, Colorado had some of the most interest happening.
What’s Driving Renewed Interest in Monero?
The increase in interest leads us to question what’s going on with Monero that people might have a sudden interest in it. One of the top queries around Monero relates to its acquisition. Monero has had strong momentum during the bull dance of recent days, going from $53 on March 31st to over $66 today. Some of these gains can be attributed to increases in Bitcoin itself, while it has gained about .001 in Bitcoin value as well.
We did find that Monero’s Riccardo Spagni has changed up his profile in apparent solidarity with a user called Hodlonaut, whose account is no longer active on Twitter:
Hey @CalvinAyre, is it possible to get a 4-for-1 deal on those lawsuits so that the whole @magicalcrypto team can get sued together? That way we can sync up our lawsuit timing. cc @WhalePanda @SatoshiLite @Excellion
— fluffynaut (@fluffypony) April 11, 2019
According to Calvin Ayre’s Coingeek, Hodlonaut is a current recipient of legal action by Craig Wright. Coingeek’s Bill Beatty writes:
As Wright’s attorneys makes clear, Wright “has not fraudulently claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. He is Satoshi Nakamoto. He produced the report Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System in October 2008, sent the first Bitcoin to Hal Finney in January 2009 and played an integral part in the development of Bitcoin. He has explained his role in detail on previous occasions.”
In an exciting turn of events, Wright is reportedly offering a $5,000 reward for the true identity of @hodlonaut, whose account is no longer active on Twitter. Calvin Ayre says that others will soon receive similar legal demands. It would seem that @hodlonaut chose to delete his Twitter account instead of publicly apologize to Craig Wright.
more letters coming so more Trolls can show the size of their nauts soon 🙂
— Calvin Ayre (@CalvinAyre) April 11, 2019
Craig Wright Offers $5,000 Reward for Twitter User’s Identity
Spagni and others have openly deemed Craig Wright to be a fraudulent poser, rather than the true inventor of Bitcoin. Craig Wright deleted his Twitter account last month, but not before threatening to sue everyone who had called him a fraud. Spagni, a notable programmer who’s worked on Monero since its early days, appears unfazed by this proposition.
Monero itself recently became the subject of Craig Wright’s delusions of grandeur when the billionaire technologist claimed he could deanonymize it.
So, what’s driving increased interest in Monero? We’re not exactly sure. Markets are up from last week, we can report that much. The usual crypto drama is playing out, we can confirm that is very status quo. But according to Google, 400% the usual amount of people are interested in the subject – which is likely a great sign for the OG privacy coin.
