Verge is a cryptocurrency that emphasizes privacy, aiming to deliver a swift, efficient, and decentralized payment system as an enhancement over the original Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. This digital currency incorporates extra privacy features like the integration of the Tor anonymity network into its wallet, known as vergePay, and offers the capability to send transactions to stealth addresses.
The project portrays itself as being driven by the community, relying on volunteers and taking pride in its open-source nature.
Initially introduced in October 2014 under the name DogeCoinDark, it was a fork of Peercoin (PPC). By February 2016, it underwent a rebranding to Verge to simplify its adoption in the mass market and to differentiate itself from Dogecoin (DOGE), with which it has no direct ties. The project is now founded on Bitcoin's source code.
Who Are the Founders of Verge?
Verge was established in 2016 by Justin Valo, who is also known by the pseudonyms "Justin Vendetta" or "Sunerok." Valo is a developer with more than 20 years of expertise in network security and nearly ten years in blockchain technology. He started the cryptocurrency as a fun and passionate project designed to give individuals worldwide a stronger sense of privacy.
Valo has mentioned that he began programming at the age of 8 and followed his interest into network administration after finishing high school, working for a Fortune 500 company. After a few years, he decided to launch his own network security firm.
His interest in Bitcoin began in 2011, and he became involved with Dogecoin shortly after its release in late 2013. Valo embarked on the Verge project because he felt that none of the altcoins available at the time were effectively functioning as digital currencies. He found the existing privacy-focused coins, Bytecoin (BCN) and Monero (XMR), to be inadequate.
In 2017, Valo joined the advisory board of TokenPay (TPAY), another privacy-centric cryptocurrency.
What Makes Verge Unique?
Verge was introduced as a means to realize Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto's vision of a decentralized, trustless electronic payment system, while also enhancing the privacy features that Bitcoin lacks.
To achieve this, Verge incorporates several critical privacy elements. It routes all traffic associated with its vergePay wallet through the Tor network, which masks IP addresses and anonymizes traffic. Additionally, it provides dual-key stealth addressing, allowing senders to generate one-time wallet addresses for recipients to safeguard their privacy. Verge also utilizes atomic swaps to enable trustless peer-to-peer cross-blockchain transactions.
Verge aims for widespread adoption, and the Verge Core team actively seeks strategic partnerships to boost its visibility and usage. The project sponsors professional athletes and collaborates with platforms like MobiePay, a payments and rewards ecosystem, the crypto payments platform and ATM provider MeconCash, and the blockchain-based online gambling platform Crazy8Token, among others.
To grow, market, and forge partnerships, the Verge Core team often depends on crowdfunding and community backing. In April 2018, the project raised 75 million XVG, roughly valued at $7 million back then, to fund integration with a significant payment processor.
How Many Verge (XVG) Coins Are There in Circulation?
The total supply of Verge is capped at 16.5 billion XVG. The team intentionally set this high supply ceiling to keep the value of individual tokens low, which helps users avoid fractional payments. This also makes it harder for any single entity to control a large amount of XVG and manipulate the market.
Verge did not conduct an initial coin offering, nor was there any premining of tokens. Consequently, the Verge development team states that they do not hold a substantial amount of XVG. All XVG currently in circulation was distributed through Verge's proof-of-work mining process, which is multialgorithmic, supporting Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, Myr-groestl, and Blake2s algorithms.
Verge experiences periodic halving events, which cut miners' block rewards by 50%. According to the current emission schedule, these rewards are halved every 500,000 blocks.
How Is the Verge Network Secured?
The Verge network maintains its security through a proof-of-work consensus mechanism, akin to that of Bitcoin, upon which Verge's code is built. For a transaction to be added to the blockchain, at least 51% of all full nodes in the network must validate its authenticity. New blocks come into existence through mining, where users compete to solve complicated, energy-demanding problems. Unlike Bitcoin, Verge supports five distinct mining algorithms. The development team claims this diversity in algorithms enhances network security by enabling more individuals to participate in mining.
In April 2018, the Verge network faced an attack exploiting the Scrypt mining algorithm to instamine about 20 million XVG. To address this, the project implemented a hard fork to fix the vulnerability. Although widely described as a 51% attack, founder and lead developer Valo refuted this, asserting it was actually a timewarp attack, which involves altering block timestamps to lower mining difficulty.
Where Can You Buy Verge (XVG)?
You can purchase XVG on various exchanges such as Binance, HitBTC, Bittrex, and Huobi Global. It is available for trading against fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar and euro, along with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), as well as the stablecoin Tether (USDT).
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