What is Verge? (XVG)

Verge (XVG) is a cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy and gives users the option to conduct private and anonymous transactions. Verge makes it hard to track transactions and find out who is using it by hiding users’ IP addresses and encrypting transaction data with tools like TOR and I2P. It is renowned for its quick transaction speeds and minimal transaction costs, in addition to its privacy features. The Verge blockchain can complete transactions in only 30 seconds, which is far quicker than the processing times of many other cryptocurrencies. Because of this, Verge is a good choice for frequent purchases and minor transactions and could be an alternative to traditional payment systems and for its active and supportive community.

Overview and Consensus Mechanism

Source: vergecurrency.com

Before going deep into Verge’s benefits and features, let’s give it an overview. Launched in 2014 as “Dogecoin Dark,” Verge (XVG) is a cryptocurrency that focuses on anonymity. Because of its emphasis on privacy and anonymity, it was relaunched as Verge in 2016 and has since acquired a devoted fanbase. Verge protects user privacy through a variety of mechanisms.

Verge is a cryptocurrency that emphasizes privacy and decentralization, building upon the innovations introduced by Bitcoin. The Verge network has been designed to offer a range of unique features, such as multi-algo proof-of-work, tailored transactional applications, simple transactions, stealth transactions, and anon transactions. These features cater to different user needs, making Verge a versatile and secure cryptocurrency.

With its multi-algorithm proof-of-work system, Verge ensures that various mining devices have equal access to earning coins, enhancing security by involving a diverse range of people and devices in the mining process. By offering tailored transactional applications, Verge focuses on user identity obfuscation, providing multiple transaction methods with inherent obfuscation through the TOR network.

Simple transactions on the Verge network, much like Bitcoin, are stored publicly and permanently on a public blockchain, allowing users to maintain pseudo-anonymity as long as they use different addresses for each transaction. Stealth transactions, on the other hand, provide additional obfuscation by employing dual-key stealth addresses, making it nearly impossible to link transactions to the recipient’s published address.

For users seeking comprehensive personal privacy, Verge offers anon transactions, which combine dual-key stealth addresses, RingCT (Ring Signatures and confidential transactions), and TOR to maintain the anonymity of both the sender and receiver. These features make Verge an ideal cryptocurrency for those who value privacy, security, and decentralization.

History of Verge (XVG)

An anonymous developer using the alias “Sunerok” introduced Verge (XVG) for the first time in 2014 under the name DogeCoinDark. The cryptocurrency at the time had a tiny user base and was based on the Dogecoin codebase. In 2016, the project went through a lot of changes to improve its privacy and security. It was then relaunched as Verge. In order to improve user privacy, the Verge development team adopted a number of technologies, such as the usage of the Tor and I2P networks, Dual-Key Stealth Addressing, and Ring Confidential Transactions.

When the cryptocurrency industry saw a spike in interest and investment in late 2017 and early 2018, Verge attracted a lot of attention. Verge hit an all-time high price of $0.30 per token during its peak in December 2017, when its market cap was over $4.5 billion.

However, Verge has also encountered criticism and obstacles throughout its history. The Verge network was the target of a 51% attack in April 2018, which led to the loss of XVG valued at about $1.7 million. The attack raised questions about the decentralization and security of the Verge network.

Since then, Verge’s security and privacy features have undergone more enhancements. The project has also made partnerships with businesses in different fields, such as adult entertainment, e-commerce, and gaming, which has helped increase the number of people who accept and use XVG.

Features of Verge Network

Source: vergecurrency.com

TOR Integration

The Onion Router (TOR) is an IP obfuscation service that facilitates anonymous communication across a multi-layered circuit-based network. TOR helps users protect their privacy and conduct confidential communication by routing internet traffic through a global volunteer overlay network with over 7,000 relays. This process obscures users’ locations and usage, making it difficult for anyone to conduct network surveillance or traffic analysis. TOR’s encryption occurs at the application layer of a communication protocol stack, with layers resembling an onion, hence the name.

I2P Integration

Invisible Internet Project (I2P) was initially designed to offer hidden services and allow users to host servers at undisclosed locations. While I2P shares some similarities with TOR, such as anonymous online access and layered encryption, it differs in that it operates as a “network within the internet.” I2P uses packet-based routing instead of circuit-based routing like TOR does. This gives the network more reliability and redundancy by routing around congestion and service interruptions.

Source: Verge’s blackpaper

Electrum Integration

Electrum is a lightweight wallet solution with a focus on speed, simplicity, and low resource usage. By using secure remote servers to handle complex parts of the Verge network, Electrum allows users to recover their wallets using a secret seed phrase. The wallet also offers cold storage options, native TOR and I2P support, and multi-signature transactions, which require signatures from multiple parties before coins can be transferred. These features contribute to enhanced privacy and security for users on the Verge network.

TOR Android

The Verge TOR Android wallet delivers IP obfuscation on mobile devices, ensuring user data privacy during transactions. Leveraging Simple Payment Verification (SPV), the wallet enables near-instant payment confirmations without downloading entire blocks. Standard security features, such as 4-digit PIN codes and biometric locking, provide additional protection. The wallet also supports P2P QR code scan transactions and allows users to import QR codes from paper wallets for cold storage transfers.

Encryption

Verge’s Encrypted Messaging offers a secure and private P2P instant messaging system using advanced encryption technology. Messages are encrypted with the AES-256-CBC algorithm and distributed across nodes to prevent attackers from inferring recipients through traffic analysis.

The messaging system employs the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) to ensure message integrity and confirm the sender’s identity. Utilizing the Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman key exchange, a secret encryption key is shared between the sender and recipient, allowing for secure message distribution.

Verge’s encrypted messaging relies on curve secp256k1 for elliptic curve functions, the same curve used by Bitcoin and most altcoins. Additionally, the messaging system takes advantage of the LZ4 and xxHash algorithms for fast, efficient compression and hashing, ensuring minimal impact on compute and network resources.

Message propagation in the Verge network involves duplicating encrypted messages on every participating node, which helps prevent adversaries from uncovering recipients through network traffic analysis. Messages are stored on each node for a maximum of 48 hours before being deleted. To avoid missing messages, it is recommended that users connect to the network daily.

Dual-Key Stealth Addressing

Dual-Key Stealth Addressing is a privacy feature that allows senders to generate unique, one-time addresses for recipients without any interaction between them. It provides an added layer of privacy by making it difficult to link transactions to a recipient’s published or generated addresses.

The process involves Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) cryptography, which allows two parties who know each other’s public keys to calculate a shared secret that cannot be linked to either party’s public keys. Stealth addresses work by using two pairs of cryptographic keys, known as the scan and spend keys, to compute a one-time payment address for each transaction.

For example (image below), Marvin (the receiver) has two private/public key pairs, and Swen (the sender) generates a temporary key pair. Both parties can calculate a shared secret using ECDH, and Swen uses this secret to create an ephemeral destination address for sending the payment. Marvin monitors the blockchain and checks if a transaction has been sent to this address. If there’s a match, Marvin can spend the payment using the corresponding private key, which only he can compute.

Source: Verge’s blackpaper

This method ensures that even if an auditor or proxy server exists, they can’t compute the ephemeral private key and spend the payment, maintaining privacy and security in the transaction process.

Atomic Swaps

Atomic Swaps also known as Atomic Cross-Chain Trading, are cryptographically enabled Smart Contracts that enable peer-to-peer (on-chain) interoperability between Verge and other cryptocurrencies without the requirement for a reliable third party. An atomic swap enables users to exchange multiple cryptocurrencies without depending on centralized middlemen, much like how individuals would transmit money to one another. Atomic Swaps are fundamentally based on Check Lock Time Verify (CLTV), sometimes referred to as Hash Time-Locked Contract (HTLC). What is a Hash Time-Locked Contract?

A hash time-locked contract is a type of payment in which two people agree to a financial arrangement where one party will pay the other party a pre-determined amount of crypto. These contracts are “time-locked” which means that the receiving party has a certain amount of time to accept the payment, otherwise, the money is returned to the sender.

What are the benefits of HTLCs?

• HTLCs remove the need for third-party intermediaries when establishing a contract between two parties, thereby eliminating reliance on third-party trust.
• These contracts are time-sensitive, ensuring that the payer doesn’t have to wait indefinitely to determine if their payment is successful. If cryptographic confirmation isn’t received, funds are returned to the sender, preventing monetary loss.
• Cryptographic proof of payment is required, enabling the recipient to automatically assist in validating the payment on the blockchain.
• HTLCs are easily incorporated into blockchains, as they are based on hashes.
• The contract structure provides protection from counterparty risk for all parties involved. Participants sending and receiving payments don’t need to trust or know each other to guarantee proper contract execution.

What are the benefits of Atomic Swaps?

The capacity to exchange/trade cryptocurrency between participating parties in a trustless way without depending on a third party or an escrow service reduces default risk to zero and is the main advantage for users.

Moreover, Atomic Swaps neutralize all currencies in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, making it easier to swap between other cryptos based on their intended usage. For instance, switching from Digibyte (DGB) to Verge (XVG), or vice versa, would be a quick and straightforward procedure if you wanted to take advantage of the capabilities offered by our network (or another crypto network).

Rootstock (RSK)

Rootstock’s foundation may be understood by first comprehending what a Smart Contract is. A smart contract is a piece of software that runs on top of a blockchain and has a set of programmable rules governing how its participants will interact with one another. Smart contracts enable, validate, and enforce the predefined rules necessary to carry out decentralized and autonomous transactions.

With Rootstock (RSK), a two-way pegged sidechain, Bitcoin-based blockchains may now provide Turing-complete Virtual Machine infrastructure, or “smart contract” capabilities. Using a two-way peg, a sidechain is a separate blockchain that is connected to the main chain. The two-way peg enables the interchangeability of assets, in this example SmartVerge (SXVG) and Verge (XVG), between the main blockchain and the sidechain at a fixed rate. RSK functionality is going to enable developers outside of the Verge core development team to build exciting platforms and services on top of our network.

These platforms might include, for instance:

• dApps (Decentralized Applications)
• Retail Payment Systems
• Escrow Services
• Asset Securitization
• Decentralized Remittances
• Micro-Lending Platforms
• Voting Systems

Ring confidential transactions

Ring confidential transactions are still being developed; the material in this part is only for informational purposes, as mentioned in Verge’s blackpaper.

The main objective of secret transactions is to make sure that only the parties involved in the transaction are aware of the values being transferred back and forth while also concealing the values from the public view. The aim is that non-participants will also be able to identify fraudulent transactions. To better comprehend how anonymity is preserved through secret transactions and to be able to confirm that the amount of the outputs does not exceed the sum of the account contents of the input addresses, it is necessary to be familiar with several fundamental cryptographic ideas.

Is Verge a good investment?

Most significantly, Verge Currency was created to facilitate broad public acceptance as it spreads throughout the globe. It is quick, versatile, and secure. Every week, more and more individuals, businesses, and organizations come to understand the advantages of using Verge for transactions. One advantage is the elimination of chargeback fraud.

A Verge transaction cannot be changed. The money is in your wallet once a customer has paid for a good or service. Charges, unlike credit card payments, cannot be canceled. And unlike bank-owned payments, no waiting period is based on a third party.

The dangers associated with Verge, like those associated with all cryptocurrencies, include but are not limited to market volatility, regulatory changes, technological difficulties, and competition from other cryptocurrencies.

How can you own Verge?

Going through a centralized cryptocurrency exchange is one approach to acquiring XVG. The first step is to create a Gate.io account and complete the KYC process. Once you have deposited money into your account, follow the instructions to purchase XVG on the spot or futures market.

Take action on Verge

• Trade XVG/USDT
• Trade XVG/BTC