Verge is one of the famous privacy-centric cryptocurrencies with many controversial stories. Verge used to be one of the more popular coins in the crypto rankings by market cap, but now it is struggling outside the top 50.
With this article, we are going to discuss whether i is worth it to invest in Verge (XVG) in the long-term or not. Let’s find out more about their technology, all the history behind it, the team profile, and from there we can decide together.
Verge - Summary
Verge is one of the popular privacy coins alongside Monero, ZCash, and DASH. In the previous years, Verge was actually more popular than today, but it has slipped down the crypto rankings after it got hit by several controversies, which we will address later in this article.
Due to its nature as a privacy coin, Verge serves a similar purpose to ZCash or Monero. It tries to make its transactions as untraceable as possible. And in order to do that, Verge uses the combination of I2P (Invisible Internet Project) and Tor.
Verge also utilizes Wrath protocol to enhance the user transactions’ privacy even more. With all these technologies, Verge is hoping to attract the attention of crypto fanatics who are often concerned about public transactions.
In the earlier days, Verge promoted itself for Darknet usage. At the time of its creation, Verge was simply named “DogeCoinDark”. The name was already a controversy from the very beginning. First of all, DogeCoinDark was not a fork of Dogecoin. Secondly, there was another DogecoinDark that was launched a month earlier.
Nobody knew if Verge creator intentionally used the name DogeCoinDark to confuse people. One thing for sure, though, the “Global Darknet” branding successfully attracted some people’s attention.
Due to the rising popularity of the project, the creator rebranded DogeCoinDark to Verge in February 2016. With a simpler and more professional name, Verge wanted people to know that it tried to distance itself from the Darknet branding that was “attached” to DogeCoinDark name.
The biggest success of the Verge coin happened just around two years from its rebranding. At the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, Verge successfully broke through the top 50 crypto rankings, and it kept gaining more popularity due to its partnership with the popular porn streaming website, Pornhub.
So, how does Verge work, and what are its biggest selling points compared to similar privacy solutions? Well, the core of Verge technology utilizes I2P and Tor.
Tor is short for “The Onion Router.” Tor browser is actually quite popular to surf the deep web. The concept of Tor utilizes multiple layers of encryption to deliver data. Unlike standard web browsers, Tor uses connection bouncers among volunteer relay computers on the P2P (peer to peer) network.
The IP addresses on the Tor network always change at least several times before it eventually reaches its final destination. With this method, Tor claims that it is far more difficult for government institutions and private investigators to trace your connection.
And then, we have I2P, which is short for Invisible Internet Project. So, I2P becomes a bridge for its users’ anonymous internal connections. I2P utilizes two different tunnels for incoming and outcoming messages, and every message is encrypted within two different bundles.
Not only that, but I2P also utilizes dynamic routing to hide IP addresses of its users. Overall, it’s extremely difficult to crack messages that are being broadcasted through I2P.
Verge knows the advantage of both I2P and Tor network. That’s why Tor transactions can be rerouted via Tor or I2P to conceal them.
Since two years ago (2017), Tor created another privacy feature to enhance the transactions even more. This feature is called the Wrath protocol, where you can instantly switch from public to private blockchain or vice versa. The idea of using a private blockchain network in the Wrath protocol helps users to become completely anonymous from the public eyes.
Verge And Controversies
While Verge’s technology is quite decent but unfortunately, the project itself is not far from multiple controversies. As I have written above, Verge was already controversial from the very beginning. It was started as DogeCoinDark, and it promoted Global Darknet usage.
After the rebranding to Verge, the coin was hit by another controversy. In November 2017, 84.5 BTC worth of Verge coins were stolen from CoinPouch (a popular Verge wallet app service). It was controversial because Verge’s main man Sunerok (aka Justin Vendetta, aka Justin Erok Valo), previously endorsed CoinPouch.
After the hacking incident, however, Sunerok completely changed his position about CoinPouch. He blamed everything on CoinPouch core developers for its API failure. Many individuals believed Sunerok should have never endorsed CoinPouch in the first place.
The third controversy about this coin (and perhaps the biggest one) happened in early-to-mid 2018. So, back in April and May 2018, the Verge blockchain got hit by three 51% attacks. Not just one, they got hit by three different 51% attack.
So, basically, an anonymous hacker successfully exploited a bug in the Verge blockchain code, and he escaped with more than 20 million XVG coins. At the time, this hacker submitted mined blocks with fake timestamps, and he mined multiple blocks within one-second intervals to exploit the algorithms.
After the first 51% attack, the core developers of Verge promised to fix the blockchain. However, they did not actually fix it. As a result, two other 51% attacks happened within an interval of one month. All of these attacks have successfully damaged Verge’s reputation, and many whales have moved on from XVG and chose to invest in other altcoins.
Last but not least, the founder of Verge coin himself, Sunerok, was involved in many different personal controversies from 2003 to 2010. His public records show that Sunerok had multiple fake names, drug possessions, and he was even recorded of trespassing.
Analyzing Verge Team
When it comes to investing in cryptocurrencies, we need to learn more about the core team’s background. After all, more often than not, cryptocurrency investment is more about having faith in the core team’s ability to deliver their promises.
So, how about the Verge team? In the beginning, this coin was only developed by one guy. He’s Sunerok aka Justin Vendetta aka Justin Erok Valo. After the coin itself became more popular, slowly but surely, other developers started to pay interest in it.
Currently, the Verge core team includes Marvin (marpme), Swen, Manuel, Jeff, and Damien (Maxius). Sunerok also hired a lot of other professionals to help in marketing and business development departments. You can see the full list of the Verge team here.
Even though the core team looks decent and capable of delivering a good blockchain network, but the truth remains that Verge founder (Sunerok) is full of controversies. Add the fact that the Verge blockchain itself got hit by multiple 51% attacks last year; it does not look like most crypto enthusiasts still have faith in this project.
Verge Future And Potential Roadblocks
How about the future of Verge coin? Well, if this question was asked in the early or mid-2017, perhaps my answer would be different. Verge actually uses promising privacy technologies to help its users conceal their traces. However, nowadays, the future does not look that good anymore.
Due to multiple controversies that were outlined above, it’s hard for the Verge team to regain trust from crypto enthusiasts. The multiple 51% attacks in 2018 have clearly damaged the reputation of the Verge blockchain.
However, the crypto market often acts very irrationally. It’s possible that some whales would pump this coin, and other crypto traders would follow their actions afterward. Nobody can tell. But once again, looking at the current situation and reputation of Verge coin, the future does not look that good.
The Verge marketing team has a lot of burdens to regain market confidence in the coin. Whether they can do it or not, it’s up to their strategies.
And even if the Verge can get some of its reputation back, it would be hard to compete with the bigger privacy coins such as ZCash and Monero. Most people prefer a cleaner, and less-controversial privacy coins, and the Verge has a lot to prove in that specific department.
External Factor and XVG Price
We have learned a lot about Verge coin, its controversies, its fundamentals, and its core team. But, is it enough to make a decision to invest in XVG coin? Unfortunately not. Just like all the other altcoins, there’s one big external factor that can affect XVG coin price.
That factor is called Bitcoin price. Everybody knows that altcoin prices often move in one same direction. When Bitcoin pumps, altcoins often pump as well. When Bitcoin dumps, altcoins often dump even harder.
Many crypto analysts predict Bitcoin price would go up significantly in 2020 following the mining reward halving event. If Bitcoin repeats its price action in 2016 (the previous halving event), Bitcoin might go up significantly in price next year.
However, some other analysts actually think it would be the opposite. They believe crypto traders' reaction to the halving event was already “priced in” this year when Bitcoin price kept pumping from below $4000 to above $12000.
Either way, you need to pay attention to Bitcoin developments and price action. Because whether you like it or not, the Bitcoin price would most likely affect XVG coin price.
Conclusion
The Verge coin was one of the most famous privacy coins, but it is no longer considered one of the best options after it got hit by multiple controversies in 2017 and 2018. While nobody knows for sure what will happen in the future, but I do think there are many better altcoins out there than XVG.
If you want to invest in privacy-centric coins, there are other options that you might want to consider. If you want to invest in speedy cryptocurrencies, you also have better options than Verge.
