What is Verge and why do some people call it “Monero Slayer”?
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What is Verge #XVG and why do more and more investors jump on it. In the last couple of days we could see a massive jump of the Verge cryptocurrency up to a new ATH of USD 0.09 which seems now to be in a healthy and good to see consolidation process before the next heights are reachable.
Cryptocurrency Verge has already reached the Top 30s on the cryptocurrency market and analysis proof that Verge might be all the way up towards USD 0.10 for now. The big question is whether Verge is a good investment opportunity or not. Well, to answer that, it’s very important that you do your own research before you decide whether or not you should invest in any cryptocurrency. The potential of Verge seems to be massive and still underestimated as it could make its way up to the top10.
The last push we have seen was definately influenced by statements of Mr. Cyber Security himself – John McAfee. On Twitter, John stated:
Understanding the Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is not only an improved process of transfering data from a to b but a better and more innovative way to protect privacy and security of the users. In fact, the blockchain technology is changing our lives as we know it. It is a huge innovation and some people call it even a new era and compare it with the beginning of the internet. Blockchain and Cryptos havebeen and a real break from the usual type of data transacting that we are used to.
It is all about decentralization! Decentralization gives us so many benefits, but we don’t understand all of them yet because the concept is still growing. Although blockchain is rather young, a lot of companies have already vastly benefited from this technology. For instance, there have been a number of community projects that have benefited because the companies or organizations behind the projects were able to connect with other parties involved easily and securely. Information and even money can be transferred back and forth quickly without going through any third party. This allows companies or organizations to complete their projects without delay and lessens the possibility that some entity is tracking their information. Blockchain technology is the new wave of technology and is in some way, a sign of evolution in the society.
Many of the so called financial “experts” call Cryptocurrencies a new hype and a bubble because they are a new concept without knowing that cryptocurrencies have been around since about 2009, but it was only just recently that companies have started digging into it. Many thought that cryptocurrencies weren’t a big thing back then. However, many people see the potential of cryptos nowadays. Many big parties are following the crypto news, creating businesses that involve cryptos, and most importantly, investing in them. We can see many traditional businesses trying to catch up!
The main thing that blockchain technology addresses are privacy concerns with regards to social engagement. However, many cryptocurrencies that are run by blockchain technology are not completely private and secure. This might be also the reason why John McAfee sees a very high potential in Verge as it covers most of the privacy gaps other coins simply don’t!
Nobody really knows where Verge #XVG will fly to but it looks like a very promising opportunity.
This is why Verge #XVG was created.
This is why Verge #XVG was created.Verge is the coin of the people that was developed for the daily use and fast transactions. It puts heavy emphasis on privacy and anonymity when it comes to online transactions. Verge seems to honestly be the best solution when it comes to privacy and daily usage. It claims to be an anonymous cryptocurrency (although not truly anonymous) that is truly innovative and has a vision for the future. The aim of Verge is to simply take privacy and anonymity to a whole new level, a notch higher than what is already offered by other coins.
The core of digital currency lies in the public ledger of the Blockchain. The public ledger allows you to see all the transactions that people have with Verge. Of course, you won’t be able to see who transacts to who. That’s where the concept of anonymity comes in. Verge seems to be going in the right direction because it shows the public how many users are transacting the coin and how many coins are distributed in the ledger. However, you can’t see who distributes them, and that’s a great thing for individuals who value privacy so much.
But Still, What Exactly Is Verge and What Does It Do?
In order to understand what Verge makes so different to most of the other coins, we need to understand the basics. Verge is a so called Altcoin, backed by Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency on the market. However, unlike Bitcoin, the main focus of Verge is to highlight the privacy of the transactions. We can say that Verge is a privacy centered cryptocurrency which makes it special.
When you create a cryptocurrency, you have a specific purpose in mind. The crypto has a purpose for which it will be used, there is always a story behind each coin. For example, Bitcoin is used for moving big amounts of money and Ethereum is used for smart contracts. However, it seems like Verge hasn’t given us any proper introduction as of the moment. People don’t really know the message that Verge wants to give to the public yet. This might be because there aren’t too many people contributing yet. In any case, it is still in its early stages and needs time to be fully developed.
Let’s have a quick look at the specifications of Verge:
Main Competitors of Privacy Cryptocurrencies (as of 2017/12/18):
- Dash – Rank: 8, MC: $8.504.711.754
- Monero – Rank: 10, MC: $5.476.418.111
- ZCash – Rank: 22, MC: $1.551.914.136
- PIVX – Rank: 47, MC: $415.639.574
- Ticker Symbol: XVG
- Max. Coin Supply 16bn
- Block Transfer Time: 30 Seconds (Compared to Monero with 2min. PIVX with 1min.)
- 100 Transactions per second (Bitcoin 5, PIVX 50, Monero adaptive blocksize)
- Algorithm: Scrypt, Blake2s, X17, Groestl, Lyra2rev2
- 100% Anonymous mobile transactions
- Open Source
Verge mentioned by many independent sources and analytic guys, is expected to possibly hit the top 10 cryptocurrencies by end of 2017. Rank 10 as of 2017/12/18 is Monero (now you know why some people love the Verge nickname “Monero Slayer”) which has a MC of 5.47 billion, compared to Verge with 765 Million. Now – Do the math 😉
Worth to mention
What we see at the moment are many gamblers that joined the game to make fast money which is a bit of sad as Verge would have already again skyrocketed! Complaining on a high level, I know but I am sure we will see Verge in the top20 if not even top10 pretty soon. There is no company that manages the crypto hence, there is no central control. It is simply the people that build it and the team that develops it.
Verge is an open source cryptocurrency which makes it pretty attractive to programers who want to participate. The community behind the crypto is the main entity that drives Verge. There is no company that manages the crypto hence, there is no central control. It is simply the people that build it and the team that develops it.
Isn’t it strange you have never seen any banners or mail or whatever promoting this nice coin. Well, the answer to that lies within the marketing strategy of the coin. It seems like the developers are putting more effort into the development of the coin rather than the marketing. That is actually a good move because aggressively marketing it without it being fully developed may lead to problems in the future. These people want to be measured by what they do and by what they have accomplished, no need for any hype via fancy ads on the internet. Without the brilliant minds behind the cryptocurrency, there wouldn’t be Verge.
What about Decentralization
No doubt that e-commerce has become a part of our everyday life because it’s easier to buy stuff online than going to a store. However, e-commerce relies on third-party transaction processing with regard to payments. Of course, you have to pay fees for the use of these third-party services. Aside from that, another disadvantage of using third-party processing is that you have to trust them. If something goes wrong with your payment, it’s out of your hand. This is known as a trust-based model made by financial services.
This is actually what Bitcoin aimed to do when it started out in 2009. However, the nature of Bitcoin eventually changed because e-services have come to centralize the use of Bitcoin with their services. E-commerce systems are centrally controlled by individuals and companies. If they can control the movement of Bitcoin, then we can’t really say that Bitcoin is completely decentralized and private. In other words, Verge can do what Bitcoin wasn’t able to achieve.
Verge’s Concept of Anonymity and Its Difference From Other Cryptos
We can see most cryptocurrencies claim that they are anonymous, secure, private, and safe. However, what most people don’t know is that the IP addresses of the users are still vulnerable to theft. Most of these cryptos can’t really protect the users’ IP addresses, so it’s a bit wrong to claim that they are private and anonymous. Verge follows this concept of even protecting IP addresses. Probably the only other crypto that does the same thing is Monero.
What makes Verge a cut above the rest is its transparent ledger that lets the users see all transactions but at the same, time block all identities the same way that Tor and I2P do.
So far, Verge is the only cryptocurrency that provides P2P solutions for Slack, Steam, Twitter, Reddit, and Internet Relay Chat. This helps enhance peer to peer transfer of information from social media platforms. The idea behind it is to allow financial transactions to be made through social media platforms via a P2P network. This is something very revolutionary, so you can only guess what might happen in case Verge would be implemented on any official social media platform. Verge will be on the rise!
Verge Uses Tor and I2P? What is that?
What makes Verge very secure is that it is built on the concept of open source browser Tor and I2P services. These services allow privacy and anonymity that results in secure transactions.
Tor, also known as The Onion Router, is an anonymous IP service. Tor directs its traffic through networking that has over 7,000 relays. The purpose of Tor is to block people who want to acquire information based on the traffic. Tor can actually block off surveillance tools on the net. The reason why it’s called The Onion Router is that it makes use of a layered circuit that looks like an onion. Data must first go through all those layers of protection. ToR is still run by centralized servers, which is why I2P also has work to do.
I2P, also known as Invisible Internet Project, is also another layer of protection for your information. It’s more technical to understand, but it’s very effective. It was developed in 2003 and is used today by many people to surf the web, chat, and transfer files anonymously. It makes use of two DHTs to move in a decentralized P2P network.
Worh to mention is the upcoming “Wraith Protocol” which will be released pretty soon. In order to explain what the Wraith Protocol is I think it is better to check out following video until I release another article with a focus on Wraith Protocol:
Don’t Underestimate Privacy in Cryptocurrency
If you had asked 1000 people 10 years ago if they would give anybody their fingerprint or store the information of your fingerprint on a mobile device, they would have called you totally insane. Today this seems to be no problem at all. Think about how most of us unlock their mobile phones today!
These days, people don’t really put that much importance on identity privacy unless they’re surfing the dark web or doing some strange activity. Bitcoin had this kind of trouble in its early stages as it was considered a new way to launder huge amounts of money illegally. Even today the media tries to push Bitcoin in a kind of criminal corner. You can read that now on the news when they state “boom,bang,boom…the event was possibly financed with Bitcoins….”, which is pure BS as most of all wars around the globe and the worst crap we have seen on planet earth has been financed in US Dollars!!! That’s a fact! In general, Bitcoin is known as a revolutionary money transferring system.
There’s a thin line between transparency and privacy. You don’t have to show everything to be transparent. You just have to show people the relevant things that they need to see to trust you. The rest of the information has to be kept private for your sake and safety. The argument “I don’t have anything to hide…”, is pretty silly because on the other side I also don’t have to present everything on a silver plate!
In fact, you can even observe some sort of trend for privacy. Aside from Verge, other cryptos on the market such as Dash, Monero, and Z-cash all focus on anonymity. Even existing cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Stratis looked into more private transactions.
Interesting facts about the past of Verge
Verge wasn’t always known as Verge. It used to be a coin named DodgeCoinDark which was created in 2014. Early in 2016, DodgeCoinDark eventually rebranded to Verge so that the community members and users will not think that it supports illegal activity. The name itself (DodgeCoinDark) does sound quite fishy if you think about it. This is most likely why a lot of users thought that DodgeCoinDark was associated with illegal activity or even the “Dark Web”. Thus, DodgeCoinDark changed its name to Verge to avoid any sort of misunderstanding. However, the development of the coin was still on the same team and the same technology was still used. Basically, it was just the name that changed.
All About Verge Mining and Current Supply
As of this moment, there are 16.5 billion Verge coins and not all have been released to the public yet. To date, 9 billion have already been released in 2014 and 1 billion is released annually until the supply is diminished. One of the most crucial factors to a cryptocurrency’s success is a big supply, which is why 16.5 billion coins were made. It is also important to never release all coins at once; otherwise, the majority of the coins can be hogged by one person or a small group of people.
With regard to mining Verge, Verge supports 5 hash functions, namely X17, myr-groestl, Lyra2rev2, blake2s, and Script. The combination of these hashes enhances the total security of the system and also allows for more people to mine.
One of the best things about team Verge is that they had to buy Verge coins like everyone else. They didn’t take a portion of themselves before releasing it to the public. This means that everyone, even the contributors themselves, had an equal chance of getting Verge coins.
Buying Verge Coins in Exchanges
Aside from mining XVG, you may also trade them in a few cryptocurrency exchanges. So far, Bittrex takes the lead as the most popular place to buy Verge (XVG). Other exchanges include Binance, Yobit, CCEX, NovaExchange, Cryptopia.
While these are the exchanges that have taken in XVG, we can expect that the smaller exchanges will also start carrying these coins in the future. With more exchanges supporting the coin, we can expect the price to go higher. In fact, Verge (XVG) is expected to be listed in either Poloniex, Kraken, or Bitfinex by the first quarter of 2018.
We can see that the price is less than a dollar at the moment. Given that fact, a lot of people are recommending to invest now as it might be the best time and a great opportunity.
The Verge Wallets
If you decide to trade XVG coins, I wouldn’t recommend keeping it in the exchange. The best place to keep your Verge coins is in a wallet. Luckily, Team Verge created a lot of wallets that you can choose to use. You can find them on the Verge official website.
Another wallet that you may want to check out is Electrum. Electrum, just like CoinPouch, also runs on Tor and I2P with both the IP addresses and the transaction data very secure.
Your Electrum wallet is only stored in your one primary computer and your smartphone. You need a signature from both devices before you can purchase anything from your wallet. This way, an attacker needs to hack both your devices if he or she wants to take your coins.
If you have any issues using one of these wallets, make sure to contact their support immediately, they do a great job (that is at least my experience after testing their wallet on OSX).
Here are some of the benefits of using Electrum:
- It uses multi key authorization.
- It offers you a private key that only you know.
- It does not keep user information.
- Available for multiple platforms such as OSX, Android, Debian, Windows
- It’s easy to recover wallet information if you lose it.
Conclusion
Verge has seen the potential of smart contracts and is now planning to develop RSK Smart Contracts to challenge Ethereum’s offerings. Though still very small, RSK is now holding 400 transactions per second. To boost this, the team is planning to create a second layer of technology known as Lumino Network Project to let the system have 2,000 transactions per second.
Talking about the vision of Verge, the development team is not the type to follow status quo. They want to create a new standard with regard to security and anonymity, which is something very hard to do. Many people and businesses actually want that. If they’re able to push through with the vision, then Verge could definitely become a market leader in the cryptocurrency market sooner as one could imagine.
The price of Verge is still extremely low if we consider its potential and take a closer look at the use-case. With this, a lot of people are excited to get into the game because they want to get a good low price. We also see that Verge is moving in the direction of the enhanced privacy and anonymity trend that many people are looking for. Dash, Monero, Z-cash are already in the privacy and anonymity game, it won’t be long until Verge joins the top20 or top10. This is NO INVESTMENT ADVICE!!!
