What is MoneroV and how do I claim my tokens?

Monero, for those who don't know, is a crypto currency centered around private transaction. It is in fact, likely the most popular privacy coin currently circulating, depending on who you ask of course. MoneroV is a new privacy coin about to be created via a hardfork / airdrop at block 1529810 of Monero blockchain. The devs of this new project are hoping to solve some of the issues with Monero they feel will only be possible, in a timely manner, if they fork from the parent chain. You can learn more about how they intend to do this at https://monerov.org There is also a telegram group for those so inclined @MoneroV

Now, for how the fork works. At the specific block, 1529810, on the Monero blockchain, a "snapshot" will be taken, this is equivalent to taking a picture of every Monero (XMR) wallet that exists at that moment and exactly how many XMR coins/tokens are in each one. This picture then becomes, essentially, the first block in the new MoneroV blockchain, with every wallet address (key pair) being recognized from the XMR block chain as having 10 XMV for every 1 XMR they contained at the instant of the snapshot. Sounds complicated right? It's not, let me explain. You now hold a private key, assuming you hold your private keys, that can unlock 2 wallets; the Monero (XMR) wallet and the newly created MoneroV (XMV) wallet. The key here is that you must control the private keys to the XMR wallet at the time of the fork. If your coins are sitting in an exchange, the exchange holds those private keys, and you will just have to hope they decide to give you the XMV you are entitled to. I would not take this chance personally. You have two solid choices for wallets to store in prior to the fork. Download the Monero GUI and sync the entire XMR blockchain and place your coins in this wallet, or use the mymonero.com to create a key pair and place the XMR you hold in this wallet. This site also allows for paper wallet creation for offline security.

So how do you retrieve your newly created XMV? The safest way, again assuming you have your private keys, is to move all your XMR from the wallet where you held them at the time of the snapshot to another wallet you create and hold the private keys to. At this point you have (2) wallets; the now empty wallet where your XMR was at time of snapshot, and the new one that you just created and moved your XMR to, both of which, YOU & ONLY YOU should hold the private keys to. So your XMR is completely safe and can not be stolen by anyone (assuming you take the security of your private keys seriously).

Last step, is to wait for the MoneroV wallet to be released, which will be open source. At this point you can check over the code to assure it is safe to use -or- allow some time for other programmer types to do this. Then when you are confident in the general consensus that the code is secure and well written, download and install it. Now remember the empty wallet you still have the private keys to? The one that held your XMR at the time of snapshot? You are going to use these keys to import this address into the newly downloaded MoneroV wallet. This is not something I am going to detail in this piece, but will make a separate write up for how to accomplish this when the wallet is available to take screenshots of the process. There will be plenty of tutorials on this process.

The important thing to know is that there is no rush to take this step until you are 100% comfortable in your knowledge of how to do it. The snapshot will never change, your XMV will not disappear, they are on the new blockchain until you (the ONLY person with that address's private key) chooses to interact with them. It can be immediately after the MoneroV wallet is released, or a year from now. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE PRIVATE KEYS to the wallet the XMR was in at time of snapshot, they are 100% in your control. So breathe, relax, learn, and when you are 100% confident you understand, then and only then take action.

peace
jax