A bit more than a decade since the launch of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency universe has seen the creation of an enormous number and variety of cryptocurrencies. One of these coins is the Verge cryptocurrency.
Launched in 2014 as a privacy coin with everyday users in mind, Verge is a cryptocurrency project that places high value on the confidentiality and security of its users’ transactions. As with the Bitcoin and Ethereum projects, the privacy-optional native token of the Verge blockchain is constructed on the foundation of a distributed, open-source network, thus resembling the BTC or ETH models.
Up to here, perhaps this part of the Verge’s history was more or less expected. But, did you know that this token saw the light of the day under a different, rather cartoonish name? Here’s the whole story on this cryptocurrency, along with some advice on how you can buy and where you can safely store your XVG coins.
The Verge (XVG) Cryptocurrency Project
The Verge cryptocurrency project’s journey began in October 2014, with the introduction of the new DogeCoinDark token to the crypto community. However, it wasn’t a smooth start for the new coin, since another crypto project under the same name was launched only a month before. Also, the developers felt that the name of the coin indicated a connection to the infamous dark web, which was not the case and completely against their intentions. As a result of the controversy, Verge’s development team immediately rebranded the DogeCoinDark currency into the present Verge coin (XVG).
Justin Erik Valo, the founder and lead developer of the Verge crypto project (also known as Justin Vendetta and Sunerok), constructed it for everyday usage. He promoted his concept as a superior version of the original Bitcoin blockchain, one that was faster, more effective, and safer in terms of trading activities, among other things. Verge, in Valo’s words, was created to be an “entertaining, privacy-focused digital currency” built upon the basis of the Bitcoin blockchain.
What Is Verge?
A pioneering project in the privacy coin realm, Verge (XVG) is the native coin of the Verge blockchain network. Verge is a cryptocurrency and blockchain that was developed with the primary goal of enhancing the privacy features of the Bitcoin network. It is designed to be user-friendly and privacy-focused.
The development team behind the Verge crypto project made this possible by incorporating the anonymity network Tor and I2P protocol into the Verge blockchain’s vergePay digital wallet.
TOR and I2P are proof-of-work algorithms integrated into the Verge blockchain. These two digital mechanisms successfully obscure the user’s IP address by passing it through several servers. Furthermore, the developers have enabled users to send their payments to stealth addresses, which increases the security and privacy of both the user and the transaction data transmitted to them.
The Concept Behind the Privacy Coins
Privacy coins are a form of cryptocurrency that facilitates hidden and confidential transactions by concealing the path of the private and sensitive input data and cryptocurrency exchanges on a blockchain.
Anyone may inspect public addresses and follow the transaction trail in their network since Bitcoin and other altcoins are transparent and accessible to everybody. This characteristic categorizes them as non-private coins. The developers of privacy coins are primarily concerned exactly with the anonymity and non-traceability of digital money.
In this regard, privacy coins provide anonymity in transactions by hiding the identities of both the senders and receivers of digital currencies, while the non-traceability feature of the privacy coins prevents unauthorized users from following the blockchain transaction paths.
To achieve the highest level of anonymity and privacy of its users, privacy coins employ several strategies, including stealth addresses, CoinJoin, and zk-SNARKs.
Stealth Addresses
Stealth addresses are a cryptographic method used to conceal public blockchain transactions. This method, in particular, ensures anonymity for both the sender and the recipient by creating one-time addresses for each transaction.
CoinJoin
The ConJoin, a coin mixing process, is a mechanism utilized for heightened protection of the blockchain users while they conduct transactions on the blockchain network. With the CoinJoin multi-party transaction process, all parties contribute and receive the same quantity of coins. However, the transaction addresses are jumbled during the process, thus making it very difficult to trace the route of the digital money.
zk-SNARKs
Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge, or zk-SNARKs, are a method of cryptography used by the privacy coin developers to fully encrypt the transaction data on the blockchain. This verification technique generally needs knowledge of the existence of a certain hash number, without the need to divulge the number.
Where Can You Buy Verge Coin?
According to CoinmarketCap, Verge has a market cap of $330,618,008 US dollars, with a maximum supply of 16,555,000,000 (16.5 billion), exceeding Bitcoin’s supply limit of 21 million coins.
You can buy Verge (XVG) currencies through some of the most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges on the market. Binance, HitBTC, and Bittrex are some of the many exchanges that list Verge coin (XVG) for trade.
How to Buy Verge Coin
Any cryptocurrency investor can buy Verge coin (XVG) in some of the crypto exchanges with a debit or credit card. Prior to purchasing your Verge coins, you must first create a digital wallet that supports Verge currencies in order to store them after purchase.
Can You Buy XVG Cryptocurrency Directly With USD Fiat Currency?
There are two ways to buy Verge (XVG) currencies. One method is to deal directly with fiat currency, most notably US dollars. For investors that prefer this alternative, the HitBTC exchange offers a XVG/USD pairing.
You may also exchange your XVG coins for other cryptocurrencies (like BTC, BCH, LTC, DOGE, ETH, USDT, DASH), which is the other alternative. For this, you’ll need an account on the cryptocurrency exchange of your choice, as well as a digital wallet that supports XVG coins.
The Best Verge Wallets For Safe Storage of Your XVG Coins
The types of crypto wallets available are numerous and include:
- Desktop wallets (full or light node wallets),
- Paper wallets (cold storage wallets),
- Hardware wallets (USB stick wallets),
- Mobile wallets (light node wallets),
- Online wallets (cloud-based, hot storage wallets).
In order to keep your XVG tokens safe, the Verge crypto project’s development team suggests the Verge QT wallet, Tor Verge wallet, and Electrum wallet.
Verge QT Wallet
The Verge QT wallet is a full-node wallet that supports cryptocurrency. Because it will download the whole blockchain, it will take up a significant amount of space on your device. In order to enhance user privacy, this crypto wallet is multi-platform compatible and incorporates a variety of security algorithms, including the Tor Network, SSL encryption, and open-source code.
The Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, and Mac OS X operating systems are fully compatible with this Verge wallet.
Tor Verge Wallet
Due to the fact that it makes use of the Tor network, this mobile wallet is compatible with Android operating systems and provides great privacy options for its users. It is largely regarded as one of the best wallets for storing your Verge coins, and for a good reason.
When it comes to cryptocurrency trading activities, its customers primarily appreciate the fact that it allows for anonymous and private transactions to take place.
Electrum Wallet
Because the light node Electrum wallet employs the Simple Payment Verification standard, it is not required to download the whole blockchain in order to use it. The SPV standard is the rapid mechanism that underpins light node wallets and is used to validate transactions while requiring only a fraction of the data needed by full nodes.
To ensure extra protection, the Electrum XVG wallet employs two layers of encryption. A seed phrase backup is also used, which is a system that allows users to access their private keys by using a collection of phrases only known to them and that they have created exclusively for this purpose.
A Few Words Before You Go…
The Verge cryptocurrency project was established in 2014 with a one-of-a-kind moniker that generated controversy. This owes to the fact that another cryptocurrency project with the same name had been announced only a month earlier. The developer of the DogeCoinDark coin quickly renamed it the Verge coin and blockchain, in an attempt to focus solely on solving the specific privacy concerns that he perceived as a significant flaw in the Bitcoin blockchain technology.
Namely, the lead developer of the Verge crypto project, popularly known as Sunerok, thought that the Bitcoin blockchain technology did not provide a sufficient level of user privacy at the time. According to him, the major objective of creating an anonymous and undetectable cryptocurrency for everyday use was to make it such that anyone looking at the blockchain would have no idea who was moving tokens from their digital wallets and where. Considering all the functional security and privacy mechanisms implemented in the Verge blockchain, it looks like its developers have hit the right spot.
