What is Verge?
Verge is a unique cryptocurrency that was specifically designed to be integrated into everyday usage. It is built following Bitcoin, and therefore it is an improvement of it. Verge also shares most of the objectives that Bitcoin has, including the ability to provide entities, enterprises, and users a blockchain platform that is decentralized, efficient, fast, and allows them to go about their businesses without worrying about privacy.
The mission behind Verge is to empower people all over the world to help them embrace the beauty of blockchain technology. Verge aims to make blockchain a normal thing, and not just a preserve of a few individuals who are well adept in blockchain technology knowledge.
Through Verge currency, users are, therefore able to conduct their transactions free from the normal bottlenecks that are associated with fiat currency transactions, and the common challenges that have been mentioned adversely about Bitcoin.
Through Verge, all users are in a position to enjoy flexibility when sending or receiving payments from time to time. There are useful tools and integrations on the platform that make it possible to handle large transactions on Verge, while at the same time supporting smaller transactions with ease too.
The idea behind Verge is to make all transactions untraceable. This is possible by obfuscating the user’s geolocation and IP address. The goal is to eventually allow prompt confirmation of transactions, while at the same time facilitating a high throughput.
What is the problem that Verge Solves?
The blockchain platform has been quite a revelation. However, even with the benefits that it can bring, a lot of people are still not in the loop.
Most people see the blockchain as a preserve of those few individuals who have proper working knowledge of cryptocurrency, the geeks, and the nerds. This is one of the challenges that affect the deployment and wide adoption of blockchain platforms and technology all over the world.
Another concern that has existed in the blockchain ecosystem is the issue of vested interests. This is a case where projects are funded by companies or ICOs or pre-mined coins. In such cases, there is always another angle to activities on the platform, because the persons behind the project have their own interests to look after, including profitability.
Other than these, Verge is built to find a response to some of the challenges that affect Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been largely useful. However, there are some obvious challenges, such as very slow speed of processing transactions, and a high cost of doing business.
How does Verge solve the problem?
There are different ways through which Verge addresses the issues that have been raised. First of all, Verge makes an improvement on what the Bitcoin blockchain is all about. Verge has a workaround for the slow speed of processing transactions on the blockchain, making it a better alternative to Bitcoin. Other than that, this has also opened avenues to challenge traditional financial institutions like banks who have a lot of control over the way their clients use and access their networks.
In order to bring blockchain into our everyday lives, Verge has put in place measures that encourage direct transactions between senders and recipients. By eliminating the need for third parties, this has also made a lot of transactions cheaper and more efficient. This does away with unnecessary delays that are often associated with third party involvement in transactions.
Verge is not a privately held company, neither is it backed by an ICO or pre-mined coins. This is a community-supported project, and all the development on Verge is open source.
What makes Verge better than the competitors?
The mention of cryptocurrency usually elicits the idea of Bitcoin in the minds of a lot of people. However, there is so much more to cryptocurrency than Bitcoin.
In fact, Verge is one of the projects that have come out to improve on some of the weaknesses that are inherent in Bitcoin. Here are some factors that give Verge an edge over Bitcoin.
Electrum
Verge uses Electrum to boost the utility value. Electrum is all about simplicity and speed, with an emphasis on very low resource utilization. Electrum makes use of remote servers to run some of the challenging aspects of the Verge ecosystem. It is also through Electrum that users are able to recover lost wallets by using a secret seed phrase.
Other than that, Electrum provides Verge users an easy to use and simple cold storage platform. This allows them to keep some or all of their coins offline. There are very few wallet providers that offer I2P and Tor support, and Electrum is one of them. Whether using the mobile or desktop wallet, Electrum makes sure that all transactions cannot leak to any of the connecting servers, thereby enhancing the user’s privacy.
Complete Anonymity
The concept behind Verge is complete anonymity. This is a blockchain platform that promises to make the internet a safe and anonymous place for all who intend to use it. There are several structures in place to make sure that the users are able to go about their transactions completely anonymous. This is a plus, especially when you realize that in most cases, banks, for example, leave a trail of information that can be used by anyone for whichever reason they deem fit. When using Verge, therefore, you can be certain that your information is safe from financial regulators, bank officials, and any other third party.
Usage and Ownership
A lot of the payment platforms that we use today have users as passive members. Your work is to follow their rules, however prohibitive they are and give them your money. Verge does things differently. Other than using the platform, users are also able to own the platform. In essence, therefore, when using Verge, you are not just sharing or transferring value, but you are also becoming a part of an innovative network. Therefore, you take part in decision making, and from time to time, you can be called upon to cast your vote on some of the important concerns that take place on the network.
Security
Security is always a priority on a network where money and data exchange hands. The same applies to Verge. On Verge, one of the last things you will ever have to worry about is the risk of third-party seizure. Take the case of banks, for example. All it takes is an order from some authority figure and your accounts can easily be frozen.
A lawsuit is enough to lock away your funds until someone feels you can now gain access to them. For people or entities that hold a lot of money in their accounts, this is a risk that you cannot afford to take. Besides, you become an easy target.
Investing in Verge, however, allows you to keep your money away from some of these external influences. A blockchain platform is an anonymous place. No one even knows that you own an account in the first place. The same applies to the content of your account or the nature and level of transactions that are involved with your account. This is one of the best ways to enjoy complete financial freedom to access and use your money.
Blockchain Benefits
Verge was primarily built to help in advancing some of the key principles of the blockchain platform and leveraged on Bitcoin. To do this, Verge has had to make improvements on some of the inherent challenges that Bitcoin has.
Verge specifically offers users an efficient, fast and reliable platform where they can send money and value across different networks cheaply. It is a P2P blockchain platform, allowing users to send money directly to recipients without having to involve third parties like banks, who eventually add their fees to the transaction and make it more expensive. Wherever you are, as long as the sender and recipient are on the same network, Verge can be quite a useful resource for transactions.
Growth Potential
Verge has enjoyed a fairly stable growth potential ever since it morphed from DogeCoinDark. The community around Verge has been growing exponentially since then, as has the value. In fact, it is expected that Verge will keep growing and become a key player in the blockchain space over the coming years.
How can Verge be categorized?
Verge is a privacy-backed cryptocurrency. The idea behind Verge is to make transactions between users and entities on the platform untraceable and anonymous, while at the same time championing the case for fast confirmation times and high throughput.
One of the interesting things about Verge is the fact that it is purely a community-driven, open-source project. This means that there is no foundation or company with vested interests in the Verge project. It is all about decentralization, anonymity and a strong commitment to privacy.
What’s Verge’s Vision on Security?
Verge, like any other blockchain platform, has to make sure that security is a priority. There have been claims and concerns about security in cryptocurrency. Since 2016, the team at Verge has been working round the clock to make sure that they can deploy some of the best techniques to keep the ecosystem safe from attacks.
One of the obvious attacks that affect all blockchain platforms is a >50% attack. This is a situation where an individual manages to gain more than 50% stake on the platform, granting them the ability to control the core functions of the platform.
To avoid this, there are some protocols that Verge has put in place. To protect the Verge network, the following are some of the security techniques that are currently in place:
Verge uses multiple algorithms to help achieve even distribution of miners. This is an important step because it helps them overcome so many challenges that miners experience on Bitcoin. There is the obvious factor, that those who have supercomputers have an advantage over the rest of the users on the network. On Verge, this does not happen. Through even distribution, everyone has a fair chance of mining the next block. This is also a good way of mitigating the risk of >50% attacks.
One of the strongest security points for Verge is that they have a very good development team. The development team is very responsive and is constantly reviewing the network to identify security flaws, gaps and apply fixes where and whenever applicable. Other than the development team, Verge also has an active community of users, who help highlight challenges that they experience when they use the platform, raise these and get the development team to work on it.
Verge is an anonymous network. This blockchain platform deploys enhanced anonymity through stealth addresses, I2P integration, and Tor integration, making it a safe place for anyone who would wish to conduct their business online without worrying about privacy.
The Tor project helps to employ more than 7,000 relays, which eventually conceal not just the location of the user, but also the usage statistics and specifics. The relays break down data into stages. At each stage, the data is encrypted in such a manner that no amount of surveillance can reveal the details of their transactions.
The I2P integration is another security feature that has worked wonders. This is the same protocol that companies often use to conceal the location of their servers, for obvious security concerns. It is also through this integration that users are able to generate different addresses when they are sending some value on the blockchain. As a result, it is impossible to triangulate the location of the sender or recipient.
Information and data that is shared through Verge are private and protected through advanced cryptography. This level of encryption makes sure that access to the data is restricted only to those for whom the data was intended.
Examples of Verge use cases/applications
There are several companies/brands that appreciate the level of anonymity and the security protocols that are championed on Verge and have come on board, implementing Verge in their daily operations. These include the following:
- Nutaku
- Fractal Visuals
- Traffic Junky
- Dioxyme
- Pex Peppers
- Bim Trainings
- Tree of Life Guitars
- Wooden Timepiece
Resources
https://coincheckup.com/coins/Verge
https://medium.com/verge-currency-xvg
https://vergecurrency.com/faq/
https://vergecurrency.com/static/blackpaper/Verge-Anonymity-Centric-CryptoCurrency.pdf