What is CloakCoin?
CloakCoin is a cryptocurrency and a platform created to help facilitate anonymous, secure and decentralized transfers of value on a peer2peer basis. It is a hybrid network that employs both proof of work (PoW) and proof of stake (PoS) consensus algorithms. The design was aimed at creating the basis for future developments and providing a platform for running decentralized applications.
The CloakCoin was launched in 2014 as a fraudulent pump and dump scheme. It looked a very convincing idea and even grew rapidly to hit $5 before the developers abandoned the project. As the initial developers took to their heels, the community that had progressively grown around the network took over. New developers, community leaders, and investors are now at the helm and helping the platform to enchant a new path. Indeed, almost everything except the name has changed.
At first, CloakCoin would have appeared as good as dead. But its original idea of focusing on total privacy could not be simply overlooked. Indeed, even many cryptocurrencies being generated today still have issues on how to address privacy. The determination of the team has made CloakCoin a new force again. Despite this, only time will tell whether CloakCoin can weather the high competition being witnessed in the market today.
What is the problem that CloakCoin Solves?
CloakCoin seeks to address the problem of anonymity in the blockchain industry. When cryptocurrencies were released, many people thought that they had finally found a reliable anonymous solution to send and save funds in the utmost privacy. However, a closer look at most of the networks reveals that they are not completely private. Take the example of Bitcoin.
When Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin in 2009, the community thought that the anonymity they had sought for years had finally dawned. However, a closer look at the Bitcoin system indicates that it is indeed a pseudonym digital coin. Though the system utilizes public addresses instead of the real names, linking the pseudonyms with the actual person is still possible. Some authorities have been using the technology to pull out investment data of individuals in the Bitcoin system.
The start of 2018 saw many administrations change their approach to cryptocurrencies. They shed off the hands-off approach and decided to go for regulations. Russia was the first to release the Draft Digital Financial Assets bill that makes it even more difficult for cryptocurrencies. Others are in advanced levels of creating legal frameworks to limit anonymity. The solution to operating privately and free from third-party seizures is selecting a truly anonymous cryptocurrency. This is why CloakCoin has become the new sensation in the market.
How does CloakCoin Solve the problem?
To guarantee users of optimal anonymity, the CloakCoin uses four major components; the Enigma, CloakShield, Stealth addresses, and proof of stake consensus algorithm.
- Enigma
This is one of the new technologies added during the CloakCoin network revitalization efforts. It allows users to send Cloak privately and securely. The focus is ensuring that the transactions are mixed during transfer to make them completely untraceable. Notably, the native coins are never transferred via centralized parties such as banks or credit cards the way it happens in standard fiat financial transactions.
When a user wants to send funds on the native network, an Enigma node is selected. This is the node that has the highest stake. The node is trusted to secure the network because it holds ample stake and, therefore, cannot contemplate harming the network. All the cloaking nodes apply an Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman key exchange (ECDH) that only shares the message with the initiating node. This secret is used to generate a shared secret key based on RSA-256 data encryption between the sender and cloaking nodes.
- The CloakShield
CloakShield is used to help secure the communication and make it as private as possible between nodes in the network using the RSA encryption. The advanced encryption makes it possible for the nodes to exchange information and ultimately protecting them from snoopers. The CloakShield secures the decentralized CloakCoin apps and Enigma to ensure that the data remains as anonymous as possible.
The design of CloakShield targets ensuring that no matter the targeted recipients, the data remains as private. When sending data to one recipient, the information is encrypted with ECDH shared secret. However, sending to multiple recipients involves securing the payload with a one-time key. Then, the key is encrypted with ECDH/RSA system for every recipient.
The CloakShield further employs Onion Routing, a unique anonymous communication used in computer networks. The onion network encapsulates messages in layers or advanced encryption. Then, the encrypted data is relayed via a series of nodes referred to as onion routers that peel away to uncover the next destination. The last layer peels when the message gets to the final destination.
In this system, the anonymity is enhanced because all the involved nodes only know the preceding nodes as opposed to the final destination. This implies that there is no clear path that can be followed to identify a specific node or personal details involved in the system.
- Use of stealth addresses
One of the methods used to put together transaction information and identify specific users is following multiple transactions pointing to a specific address. To keep users as secure as possible, CloakCoin also utilizes Stealth addresses. This involves the creation of random one-time addresses for different transactions. When Onion routing in the CloakCoin system is enabled, clients attempt to craft the right route for the listed data. The onion route comprises of 3 different routes towards the destinations. These multiple routes are necessary to ensure that the transactions are completed even if one of the nodes drops offline.
- Proof of Stake and coin age
To keep the CloakCoin even more private and secure, the development team adopted the Proof of Stake-3 Consensus protocol. This implies that all the users have to hold some stake to be trusted to confirm the transactions. Those with some stake are believed to be focused on improving the network and not conspiring to harm the system. Underlying proof of Stake application is the concept of coin age.
Coin age is the notion of how long a user has helped a specific coin. Once a transaction is completed and the coins transferred, the new owner starts accumulating Coin Age. The Coin Age is used to calculate the stake that one holds in the network. For example, a person who has held 100 cloak coins for 50 days has a higher stake compared to another who has held them only for one day. The concept of Coin Age has attracted a lot of criticism from the CloakCoin community with some calling for its elimination altogether.
What makes CloakCoin better than it’s competitors?
With the primary focus of CloakCoin being to offer optimal anonymity to users and security, it has managed to surpass its competitors in the blockchain niche. It is also rated well ahead of conventional financial services in the market today.
- Between 2014 when CloakCoin was founded and early 2017, the performance in the market has been very poor. However, everything changed after a new development team and community took over the reign. Indeed, the price shot to with close to 60,000% by early January. This is a demonstration of the huge potential for the cryptocurrency. Though the price later shot down, the value by mid-2018 was still well above the figure that the coin had traded between 2014 and early 2017. This performance has outdone other more popular networks by a huge margin.
- CloakCoin is one of the truly anonymous cryptocurrencies in the market. This has set it well ahead of others including Bitcoin and Ethereum. As a truly private network, it implies that investors and even users can enjoy sending value without worrying about third-party discoveries or seizures.
- Though the network was initially designed as a pump and dump model, its original concept was very strong and reliable. This is what made the network and its community to hold for such a long time before taking off again in 2017. With the current development progress, users can expect CloakCoin to scale to higher levels. It is likely to be the next big thing in the market in the coming years.
- Sending value on the CloakCoin is relatively cheaper compared to other networks such as Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and even Ethereum. This low transaction cost results from the relatively low value of the coin and advanced technology that makes processing more transactions easy. The low transaction charges have been drawing users even from other networks.
- The fact that CloakCoin is truly anonymous implies that it is a better option for investment. If you save personal funds in a conventional bank, the information can easily be accessed by authorities. But it is no better even in most cryptocurrencies. However, CloakCoin system providers the peace of mind knowing that no one can easily uncover your investment.
How can CloakCoin be categorized?
The CloakCoin system is a completely anonymous and secure platform. This sets it apart from peers that have been trying to make their systems anonymous with little success. By adopting the advanced technologies and features such as Enigma, CloakShield, stealth addresses and Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, CloakCoin has succeeded in delivering optimal anonymity and security that investors have been looking for. The cryptocurrency community appears enthralled by the recent progress including regular updates on the core code.
What’s CloakCoin’s vision on Security?
The CloakCoin’s vision on security is ensuring that users on the network can enjoy highest level security for their peer2peer transactions on the network. Most of the efforts to enhance anonymity at CloakCoin were also used to promote the security of the network.
- The CloakShield application on the network helps to securely exchange data and protecting the danger of symbil and main in middle attacks. This protection is further enhanced through stealth addresses.
- The adoption of proof of stake algorithm in the CloakCopin network has been very helpful in ensuring that the native coins are distributed evenly. This is very important in protecting the network from 51% attack.
- The new CloakCoin development team has been very aggressive in delivering the original goal of the network. It is because of this focus that they have adopted a model of progressive review to identify bugs and clearing them as immediately as possible. This helps to fix bugs and keep the network extra secure from attacks.
Examples of CloakCoin’s use cases / applications.
Though the applications of CloakCoin stalled when the initial developers abandoned the network, everything started picking up rather fast starting from early 2017. The blockchain came back to the cryptocurrency limelight as more users started developing interest. Here are some of the top use cases of CloakCoin.
- CloakCoin is a reliable method of securely sending value across the globe at a lower rate. Whether you are in Japan, China, the EU or the United States, sending value is instantly and direct.
- The native CloakCoin tokens can be used to pay for transaction charges on the CloakCoin network. The native coin can also be used to pay for transaction charges when trading in the markets. Note that trading CloakCoin requires you to identify an exchange that lists the coin and pairing it with another coin such as BTC or ETH.
- More people searching for a reliable method of saving their value without getting discovered by third parties or authorities can rely on CloakCoin. Whether it is the cash you want to keep away from easy discovery especially by attorneys in the case of a lawsuit or simply holding, CloakCoin has become a highly reliable option.
- You can use CloakCoin to pay for products and services. Like other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, you can use CloakCoin to make payment in stores that accept it. A lot of stores have already expressed interest in working with CloakCoin.
- As the CloakCoin continues with the current code upgrades, its support for decentralized applications is perhaps the greatest move on top of the focus on anonymity. This will make the platform a reliable system for developers to deploy applications for expanded use. It will take CloakCoin to the level of Ethereum and Ash.
https://coincheckup.com/coins/CloakCoin
https://www.cloakcoin.com/
https://www.cloakcoin.com/blog
http://www.cloakwiki.org/index.php/FAQ
https://cloakcoin.com/user/themes/g5_cloak/resources/CloakCoin_Whitepaper_v2.1.pdf