Monero ("currency" in Esperanto) is a cryptocurrency much talked about the last few weeks. What is so special compared to other altcoins?

First, it is not based on the bitcoin code - it is based on the Cryptonote technology, a technology developed by academic cryptographers apparently (I say apparently, because, true to the tradition of cryptography, they wish to remain anonymous). You could retort me and you'd be right that there is a lot of cryptos without Bitcoin code: Timekoin, Ripple or more "classically" NXT and the ones which followed are all cryptos not based on Bitcoin. If you expect me to answer you yes, but Monero is different you will be disappointed :) This does not mean that there is not enough to entice you.

Monero (originally Bitmonero) was launched 18 April 2014 as a fork, a fork of Bytecoin (BCN nothing to do with Bytecoin BTE, which is a classic altcoin). Bytecoin is the first implementation of the Cryptonote technology but it suffers from two serious, very serious flaws: one is that is is 80%premined (debate is still ongoing whether it was was secretly mined in the deep web for 2 years or if it's just a blockchain manipulation - I won't dwell into it) and secondly the code has been deliberately obsfuscated and unoptimised (probably with an optimized version available only for some people). In the end, the same way that Litecoin was created as a fair version of Tenebrix, Monero was created as a fair version of Bytecoin.

Cryptonote Monero technology has several advantages over Bitcoin.

It is double spending-proof, no 51% attack for this one.
It uses ring signatures ring signatures, an extremely powerful anonymization technology (decentralised mixing), more powerful than Darkcoin since it is totally decentralized and free (excluding transaction costs). Actually, the only technology capable of competing with Cryptonote may be zero knowledge technology (ZKP zero-knowledge proof), but it has not been tested; ring signatures exist for 10 years and are widely known and used in the cryptographic mode. The anonymity provided allows for greater fungibility than Bitcoin since it is impossible to tax on the gain, since we can not know when a particular monero was purchased.
Its design is free of hard limits, unlike Bitcoin (and therefore absolutely all forks) which is inherently limited in its ability to evolve.
The last point (also not technically Cryptonote), the hash algorithm CryptoNight is designed to be particularly difficult to use on something other than a CPU (more so than scrypt or X11). The aim is that anyone can mine (fair mining), not just an oligarchy of miners with GPU farms or ASICs. It is not certain that the GPU mining does not eventually happen (or ASICs), but then they should not be that overwhelming superior to CPU. Again, the goal is that it is a "people's currency ", not a currency for an oligarchy of miners - replacing central banks with "central miners" no thanks.
I invite you to read the Cryptonote white paper for more details.

The first selling point of Monero is that it is the first fair Cryptonote crypto.

Its second selling point is that it brings together a team of highly skilled individuals including: academics in the cryptography and mathematics fields; core developers from other cryptocurrencies (mc2 and Vertcoin, specifically); economists with a strong interest in the cryptocurrency economy; expert-level C and C++ developers; and several businesspeople who have many years of financial and legal knowledge.

The third selling point for Monero, and partly a consequence of former, is the recognition the money received from the community. I'm not speaking of valuation (the world of alts is one of pump and dump, everyone competing to scam each other with meaningless prices). I could give you a long list of supporters, but I will restrict to just one: the influential Risto Pietela, known to have no confidence in the alt, spoke highly of Monero and bought some.

Two clones in three weeks (three if you count Boolberry), it necessarily means something, right?

A the moment, Monero is at the stage Bitcoin was a few years ago: everything is command-line and habits must be changed. We are working on it, of course. But we do not want to do it quickly. We know that today's choices will have consequences for years to come. Again, do not judge Monero with the criteria of the alt du jour, you would be disappointed. If you want to make money with Monero, I encourage you to follow the extended 10/200 strategy.

Monero does not aim to succeed quickly. Litecoin was dying at a point and so was Bitcoin, repeatedly. The Monero infrastructure, as we are building it, is planned for the long term. The logo (which is not yet finalized, despite what you may see on one site or another) is designed by professional designers and advertisers. Academicians mathematicians are studying protocol. The website is static to prevent DDoS, until we set up a website designed to last long not only on a technical level (the easy part) but also on a human level (signal to noise ratio). The GUI wallet is designed for maximum abstraction to allow maintainability and scalability therefore, any things that bear fruit especially in the long term. In addition, we are instauring MIP (Monero Improvement Proposal), the same way Bitcoin as BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal), themselves based on the internet's RFC and we have launch an initiative to implement I2P without Java (with Monero, the only way to find you is the IP address, something I2P solves). If you are looking for fast and easy money, look somewhere else. Monero refuses to be a money for miners, let along a money for traders.

It wants to be a currency for people.

Contact us:

monerocurrency.com
monero on bitcointalk
IRC: # monero, # monero -dev and # monero otc on freenode
social networks: @monerocurrency / r / monero facebook.com/monerocurrency, plus.google.com/101861896996947433029