Monero Monthly

No Price, Just Privacy | MONERO MONTHLY 13: Riccardo Spagni

January 19, 2026 · 01:06:49 · Max BBB, Seth For Privacy, Riccardo Spagni

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In our first live Monero Monthly, Max and Seth are joined by Riccardo “fluffypony” Spagni for a candid tour through Monero’s origin story and culture. Riccardo dives into the chaotic Bytecoin days, how a secret fork birthed Monero after a contentious merge-mining push, and why missing comments, odd code obfuscations, and a deliberately crippled miner set off everyone’s spidey senses.

Riccardo shares the serendipitous formation of the Monero Research Lab—hiring Sarang and Surae via a Reddit post—and a hilarious Utah road-trip mishap that bonded early contributors. They also explore how Monero’s antifragile culture emerged from a strict no-price-talk ethos, pseudonymous contribution, and a relentless focus on usable privacy that’s helped real people in difficult situations.

They close with reflections on delistings, decentralised access, level-headed responses to network “attacks,” and how Tari aims to provide privacy-first smart contracts without compromising Monero’s design. Listener Q&A covers delistings pushing P2P adoption, cultural decisions that made Monero durable, handling selfish-mining FUD, practical privacy in tightening EU regs, and what Tari brings to the table.

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(00:00:01) INTRO

(00:04:35) First Impressions of Bytecoin

(00:08:49) The Birth of Monero Research Lab

(00:12:54) The Trip to Utah

(00:18:21) Forking BitMonero

(00:24:18) Mining in the Early Days

(00:32:07) State of the Project

(00:39:44) Are Delistings a Net Positive?

(00:43:30) Design Decisions and Cultural Norms

(00:49:08) WIll You Contribute as a Dev in the Future?

(00:49:39) Handling Network Attacks

(00:53:14) EU Dystopia Arbitrage