What’s the difference?

Great question, I was in that position too when I first started figuring it out, https://tradebrains.in/features/whats-the-difference-between-bitcoin-and-monero/ helped me with that. I’ll try to explain in more detail. To begin with, bitcoin and monero are two cryptocurrencies with completely different philosophies and technologies, although they both use blockchain. At a basic level, bitcoin (BTC) is essentially the first cryptocurrency designed to be a decentralized, digital currency for exchange. That said, in bitcoin, despite its decentralization and theoretical anonymity, transactions are still traceable. That’s because every transaction is recorded on a public blockchain, and anyone can see the addresses of the sender and recipient, as well as the amount of the transfer (though, of course, bitcoin isn’t directly tied to a user’s personal data). But due to its public data, bitcoin transactions don’t offer complete privacy. Unlike bitcoin, monero (XMR) was designed with an emphasis on anonymity and privacy. It is essentially a cryptocurrency focused on hiding all the details of transactions. Monero utilizes several technologies such as Ring Signatures, RingCT (Ring Confidential Transactions), and Stealth Addresses. Thanks to these mechanisms, a monero transaction can hide not only the amount of the transfer, but also the identity of the parties to the transaction.