Verge Currency Beginner’s Guide
By: Marvin Piekarek
Tags: Technology, Fintech, Verge, Tech, Bitcoin

Thanks to Desolator, one of our core members, for writing this awesome beginner’s guide! Original: https://www.reddit.com/r/vergecurrency/comments/98lr73/verge_currency_beginners_guide/

A short Background

2008 was the worst financial crisis the world had experience since the great depression. The efforts of banks worldwide were not enough to prevent its occurrence. Shortly after, someone by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto offered an alternative solution. A digital currency that removes the need for a central bank. His proposal written in the Bitcoin white paper, is summarized below:

A secure, decentralized network.

A system with economic properties.

No need for banks or rule makers.

Instant transactions without a need of a third party or government approval.

Bringing financial services to the unbanked 2.5 billion people.

Total financial freedom. No one can freeze your accounts.

Low transaction costs. No ridiculously high transaction fees.

A currency with finite amount where no one can print money whenever they want.

Bitcoin

In 2009, when Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, the network consisted of computers (in crypto terms, these are called Nodes) to approve transactions, movements of data along the chain. This allows for everyone willing to become a participant, creating a decentralized global network. Allowing for a decentralized currency, free of the control of politicians, or institutions.

The rules can only be changed if 51% of the network agrees on it. This way the network is completely democratized and resistant to hacking attacks.

Unlike today’s financial institutions, no one can freeze your account or prevent you sending money. You are the only person who truly holds your wealth.

It is an open source project. Anyone can see the code and offer or discuss changes with the community. On the other hand, anyone participating to the network with computational power gets incentives or pay, with a fractional amount of BTC.

Blockchain

The core of a secure decentralized network like Bitcoin, lies the Blockchain technology. To put it simply, the blockchain is like a series of Lego, connected to each other by linking information, called transactions. These transactions contain the following data sender, receiver and the unique signature of the sender.

The data will be converted into “hash” before being saved into a block. The bitcoin hash is generated using a set of cryptographic functions called sha256. This way the information is encrypted, is compressed and saved in the block.

Additionally, each block in the chain, contains the information from the block before it. This ensures that if someone tries to maliciously modify information in a block, all the block following this attempt will be changed, making it easier to spot.

Each block includes the information from the previous block. If someone wants to maliciously change the information in one block that change the complete result of all following blocks.

In this type of network there is only one blockchain, and all the information is kept in a public ledger which is shared amongst all the participating networks. For the blockchain to be valid, more than 50% of the participants (nodes and their computational power) must agree with it.

Bitcoin Today (2018)

Until today many, many, events have happened. The network has grown massively. The underlying code is improved in many ways. There are more and more developers and investors that have entered the cryptocurrency space.

Currently there are proposed changes being developed to the Bitcoin network that will make bitcoin rival the centralized networks of today (Visa, Mastercard), while significantly lowering the cost of these transaction.

Many alternative cryptocurrencies have been created along the way, improving some of the aspects of the bitcoin and focusing on certain applications, in the crypto-space, we call them altcoins.

Why VERGE?

The way that Bitcoin function, has severe flaws with regards to privacy:

Public Ledger: The transaction information is public, meaning, that transactions can be linked to a person.

The transaction information is public, meaning, that transactions can be linked to a person. IP Leakage: A persistent and motivated attacker will be able to associate your IP address with your bitcoin transaction.

Due to the above reasons, it was clear that there would be a need for a privacy coin. Different coins were then created that had this problem in mind. They were ‘too private’ in the sense that they completely by-passed the public ledger. The public ledger allows merchant to provide proof of transactions, which is important for bookkeeping.

Enter Verge Currency, formerly Dogecoindark; which offers transaction on the ledger, both public and private. Allowing the user to choose if the transactions are public or private.

VERGE Currency

2014 saw the birth of Dogecoin Dark; in 2016, it was rebranded to Verge Currency.

Verge improves upon the original Bitcoin blockchain and aims to fulfill its initial purpose of providing individuals and businesses with a fast, efficient and decentralized way of making direct transactions while maintaining your privacy.

What is the Verge Currency Mission?

Verge Currency aims to empower people around the globe using blockchain in everyday life and makes it possible for people to engage in transactions quickly, efficiently and privately. With Verge, business and individuals now have flexible options for sending and receiving payments.

Verge Currency also offer helpful integrations and tools that enable them to handle large scale transactions between merchants and small-scale private payments.

Is Verge Currency a private company and how is it funded?

Following in the spirit of Bitcoin, Verge is an open-source software, and a community. It is not a company, never had an ICO. The development is entirely funded by the community and the developers. Currently Verge is looking into setting up an official Verge merchandise store, and an Official Verge mining pool, for multiple algorithms.

Tech

General technical capabilities of XVG blockchain:

Protocol: PoW (Proof of Work)

PoW (Proof of Work) Algorithms: Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, myr-groestl and blake2s

Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, myr-groestl and blake2s Max Coin Supply: 16.5 billion XVG

16.5 billion XVG Circulation Supply: 15.2 billion XVG

15.2 billion XVG Minable: yes

yes Atomic Swaps: Enabled

Enabled Transaction Speed: 5–10 Seconds

5–10 Seconds Transactions per second: 100 Transactions (Will be ~2000 with RSK)

100 Transactions (Will be ~2000 with RSK) Tx Fee: minimum 0.1 XVG (and standard)

Privacy Options:

Tor + I2P Networks: fully obfuscated IP address / User’s Location is hidden

Wraith Protocol: Private and Public transactions in one blockchain according to user’s choice. Hides the sender and the receiver information.

Ring Confidential Transactions: Under development

See our blackpaper for detailed information.

Wallets

Mining

Community

Verge is a community-driven project. The community is the pillar of Verge, from the past to the future, the community built Verge. The community or Vergefam connects everyone from around the world, regardless of cultural background. The common vision is to provide everyone access to financial freedom, and the choice of privacy while transacting.

Below you can find the Verge Telegram communities from around the world;

⏬ Official Telegram

🇨🇦 Canada

🇧🇷 🇵🇹 Brasil/Portugal/

🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇩🇰 Norway/Sweden/Denmark

🇩🇪 🇦🇹 🇨🇭 🇱🇮 Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Liechtenstein

🇵🇹 Portugal

🇪🇸 Spain

🇱🇺 Netherlands

🇹🇷 Turkey

🇫🇷 FranceBalkan

🇵🇾 Croatia

🇦🇱 🇽🇰 Albania/Kosovo

🇷🇴 Romania

🇭🇺 Hungary

🇷🇺 Russia

🇮🇳 India

🇲🇾 Malaysia

🇯🇵 Japan

🇰🇷 Korea

🇨🇳 China

🇿🇦 South Africa

🔌Wallet Support

🖥️ Mining support

Mass Adoption

Low fees, quick transactions, high volume in circulation, multiplatform support, Wraith protocol are the ingredients that make Verge perfectly positioned for mass adoption. Transact on the public ledger for everyday purchases or stay private if you wish so.

Getting Started

You can find the matching instructions as below:

See the following useful links:

Official Links

Vergecurrency.com

Verge Team

Roadmap

FAQ

Github

Block Explorer 1

Block Explorer 2

Network Status

Telegram

Twitter

Facebook

Discord

Youtube

Medium

Investfeed

Verge Zendesk

VergeFora