Monero Vets Launch New ‘Confidential-by-Default’ Crypto Network Tari

A new layer-1 blockchain focused on privacy and mining accessibility is now live with the launch of Tari mainnet. 

Led by a group of former Monero developers, Tari’s mainnet follows the network’s testnet launch in September 2024, placing it in a crowded field of layer-1 networks that includes heavyweights like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. But the developers see Tari differently than the pack.

“Our hot take: Existing chains are missing key ingredients needed for them to succeed in becoming the foundation for a new global financial system,” Tari contributor Naveen Jain told Decrypt, citing the difficult onboarding and “1984-level surveillance systems” he claims are present in other networks. 

(Disclosure: Tari contributor Naveen Jain is an investor in DASTAN, Decrypt’s parent company.)

Tari aims to improve on those shortcomings by including what the developers say is crypto’s easiest onboarding experience, requiring just three steps to become an on-chain user. And by being confidential by default, the network automatically hides transaction amounts and the addresses of the sender and receiver on-chain. 

“By keeping transactions and balances confidential, users are kept safe,” said Jain. “No third-party can monitor, profile, or track their financial behavior. Keeping users safe is a key part of creating a world-class user experience.”

“For developers, building on a default confidential system means they can have more ownership of their user base,” he said. “For end users, it’s about safety and freedom.” 

Though often heralded as a positive, the transparency of blockchain can has rear its head in negative ways if account balances are readily available for anyone to see, potentially drawing unwanted attention from malicious actors.  Physical attacks against digital asset holders have been on the rise, with a database built by Jameson Lopp, the co-founder and CTO of Bitcoin security firm Casa, showcasing 21 such attacks this year alone—including one in the last week. 

“Default surveillance blockchains create a world where anyone can see how much money you have, and your entire transaction history from the beginning of time,” said Jain. “Why should they use a system that makes them objectively less safe, and doesn’t match their understanding of how financial systems work in the non-crypto world?”

Since its testnet launch in September, the company claims it has garnered more than 700,000 participants in its Tari airdrop program and nearly 100,000 testnet miners using its Tari Universe app. The Mac and Windows app allows users to participate and visualize the proof-of-work mining process.

On day one, users will be able to mine via Tari Universe, send or receive the network’s native XTM token, and earn rewards by inviting their friends to join the network. And in the future, the Tari ecosystem aims to host a robust set of decentralized protocols and applications.

“As the Tari miner base grows, and the native Tari layer-2 and app store launches, we believe developers will prefer to build novel apps on Tari versus other chains,” Jain told Decrypt. 

“The goal of the Tari network is to reward users who put in the hard work of securing the network, not bots, ‘KOLs,’ or airdrop farmers,” he said. “And the goal of the network is to enable them to live their lives in joyous anonymity. We reject the idea that the future financial system has to look like something out of ‘1984’ or ‘Minority Report.’”

Edited by Andrew Hayward