Monero Users Noticed Unusual Fees; Here’s Why This Might Be Alarming
Monero (XMR) enthusiasts identified potential malicious activity and issued a warning to all privacy advocates
Contents
Monero (XMR), the most popular privacy-focused blockchain network, warns XMR holders about abnormal transaction fees and yet again recommends rolling out self-hosted nodes.
Here’s why increased transaction fees might be dangerous
According to the statement released in the largest Monero (XMR) account, some network users reported the suspicious increase in transaction fees.
We’ve received reports that some users are being prompted to send txs with unusually high network fees.
Make sure to use a remote node you trust! Malicious nodes can try to learn about you and mess with you.
The devs are mitigating. If you see this error, use another node!
— Monero (XMR) (@monero) April 28, 2022
If this or that Monero (XMR) node asks for fees that are too big, users should try switching to another distant node. Interacting with malicious nodes might result in privacy flaws, Monero (XMR) enthusiasts stressed.
Malicious nodes can try to learn some extra information about accounts involved in transactions and their owners. This is in contrast to the decentralization and privacy ethos of Monero (XMR).
Also, to ensure the maximum level of privacy, crypto users should run their own nodes as endpoints to the Monero (XMR) network for noncustodial wallets.
Monero (XMR) fees print multi-month highs while hashrate drops
As registered by public explorers, Monero (XMR) fees spiked in recent days. On April 26, 2022, average XMR fees jumped over $0.24, while typically this metric sits below $0.05.
The last time transaction fees for Monero (XMR) were so high was in January 2021.
At the same time, the net hashrate of the Monero (XMR) network plummeted in the last five days. It dropped from 3.27 GHashes per second to 2.82 GHashes per second since April 23, 2022.