The founder of McAfee Antivirus and a renowned advocate for the cryptocurrency, John McAfee recently tweeted his recommendations for investing in cryptocurrencies with a bright future. His recommendations included cryptocurrencies like Verge, Monero and Zcash and his endorsement for them have gotten a direct impact on their valuations.
But especially for the currency Verge, McAfee seemed more interested in and called it the “Best Buy”, which turned the value of Verge gone up by 427% in the past month. After this tweet alone, Verge’s value shot up 100%.
Many thought that McAfee accidentally mentioned Verge, but he clarified that he was talking about Verge.
McAfee believes that cryptocurrencies like Verge which are privacy-centric, are the future. With top cryptocurrencies having some sort of centralization and with governments trying to get a grip on cryptocurrency transactions, privacy coin could become a game changer.
Anonymity vs Privacy
There’s a difference between the two. What makes currencies like Verge so different and a “privacy” currency is that it retains your privacy. In blockchain currencies like Bitcoin, transactions can be traced. Addresses can be linked and even the transaction amounts can be traced. It is also possible to reveal someone’s identity using the linked addresses. Privacy was already an issue with blockchain currencies as you would need to fill in a lot of personal information to get a trading account.
However, with privacy cryptocurrencies, transaction details are hidden. Transaction information is hidden through various techniques that protect the privacy of the end user. Thus, although blockchain currencies keep anonymity it does not mean your privacy is secure. That’s the key difference between the two.
Why Verge?
Verge is not the most popular privacy coin, but it has a passionate community. Verge is slowly growing, and it could overtake the other leading privacy cryptocurrencies Zcash and Monero. There are many features that set Verge apart from the rest which is why it is slowly gaining traction.
Verge uses the TOR network and Invisible Internet Project to hide transaction information. With Verge, the transactions themselves are also very quick with them taking at most just 5 seconds.
The TOR and Invisible Internet Project systems are integrated into the cryptocurrency’s wallets which masks up the user’s IP address. Then the two systems add more than one layer of security through different methods of sending data securely. One such method is the Wraith Protocol.
Wraith Protocol Explained
Announced in September 2017, it is one of the main reasons responsible for the increase in popularity for Verge and what sets Verge apart from the rest of the private cryptocurrencies.
The Wraith protocol gives the user the choice whether to maintain privacy or not. If a user wishes to keep things transparent, they can simply turn the Wraith Protocol off, else turn it on if they wish to remain private. With the “off” setting, the transactions are sent to Verge’s public ledger whereas with the “on” setting they are sent to the private ledger.
A privacy coin can only function properly with a public or private ledger, the Wraith protocol gives the option to use both through the on and off settings. The Wraith Protocol is set to fully launch onto Verge’s live network in 2018.
How Wraith Protocol Works
If the setting is set to OFF, then the transaction will be sent to the public ledger. It’ll be visible which user sent whatever amount to another user. Both user’s names will be available, however, privacy is maintained here as well as apart from the names, you won’t be able to further inspect who those two people are. Nor will it be possible to track where those two users live.
When the setting is set to ON, then the transaction is sent to the private ledger. Externally, only the amount that is sent is visible, nothing else is visible. Who sent it, who received it is totally hidden to the external observer. So, it’s not possible to know who the two users were that were part of a transaction in addition to not being able to determine where they live or any chances for further inspection of who they are since the initial details are kept private as well.
P2P Bot Payments
The bot payments feature is a convenient one. You can send coins via Twitter, Telegram, and Discord. Reddit and Slack users will also be able to send each other XVG soon. One interesting advancement Verge is currently working on is the ability to send each other coins through text. That would allow for verge owners to make transactions almost like regular currencies with the bonus of sending through websites like Twitter.
Atomic Swaps
This feature will allow Decentralized exchanges to become a reality, which will eliminate the need for third-party centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Bittrex, etc. Atomic Swaps will allow trade between different blockchains with trust not being a problem anymore due to smart contacts. To kick things in another gear, the Wraith Protocol could be turned on which would make the Atomic Swap on Verge’s end totally private and secure.
Future developments
The Verge development team has been very active in giving their community updates regarding what they intend to bring for the future. They have promised a new roadmap in the first quarter of 2018.
According to the roadmap given, expect to see these developments by the first quarter of 2018:
- TOR and i2p Android Wallet
- OSX Wallet
- Core Wallet release
- Merchandise store
- Steam integration
- Multi-algorithm mining
There’s a lot to look forward to for Verge users.
Verge has had a great 2017 with its value growing by over 17000%! According to Verge’s main developer, Sunerok:
“Verge has a very big year ahead. 2018 is going to be filled with new releases, partnerships, and privacy software.”
Verge, so far delivered whatever they had promised to deliver. With a committed team of developers striving to improve and features giving it an edge over its competing cryptocurrencies, Verge looks to be one of the cryptocurrencies for the future which one should definitely look out for. You can start trading Verge (XVG) now at Binance.com