Introduction

I'm probably not the only person who jumped on the crypto hype train in 2017.
And as many other people, I bought some coins without doing too much research.
One of the coins i bought was the Ark coin.

A couple of years have passed where i didn't really pay much attention to the crypto world.
But recently i started taking it more seriously. 
While i was browsing my phone, i noticed the ARK wallet app that was still installed.
I took a while, but i eventually got back into my wallet.
My wallet contained 50 ARK coins and i was wondering whether i should keep or sell them.
This post summarizes my findings and maybe can help some people in similar situations to decide what they could do.

Brief history

The ARK ecosystem was first launched in November 2016. The headquarters are located in France.
The goal of ARK is to provide easy to use / easy to implement blockchain solutions.
It tries to achieve this by providing tools so that any person that wants to get into blockchain development, can do so.

During the hype of 2017 this coin could be found in the top 30 most popular cryptos.
But since than, popularity has slowly been on a decline.

ARK can be found on multiple exchanges including Binance.

What is ARK.

At the core of ARK we find the ARK public network (APN). This is a scalable and lean blockchain network.
The way this blockchain validates transactions is via "Delegated Proof of Stake" (DPoS).
This means that users (In this case people who have ARK coins) can vote on "Delegates".

These delegates are than responsible for the validation of the different transactions.
In case of ARK only the top 51 delegates are responsible for reaching consensus and adding new blocks the the network.
On top of this ARK also provides additional tools for both users and developers.

User Tools

The user tools are bundled under what they call the "ARK Blockchain Platform".
This platform consists out of the following items.

• ARK Desktop Wallet & ARK Mobile Wallet
  These are self-explanatory. These are slick looking wallets with support for multiple coins/exchanges. These also allow the user to vote for a delegate. The general public seems to be fairly positive with these wallets.
• ARK Explorer
  A useful tool for looking through the data passing on the blockchain

Developer Tools

The developer tools are bundled under what they call the 'ARK blockchain Framework'.
These are built on typescript with support for integration with other popular programming languages and technologies.
This framework is also known as ARK Core.

Open source

There aren't that many truly open source blockchains, but ARK is one of them.
Open source is always a double-edged sword. At the one end it means that more people can help improve the project.
But at the same time more people with malicious intent have direct access to the source code.

Nonetheless, ARK has a security program, where they pay bounties to developers who find and report vulnerabilities.
These bounties can go as high as $10.000 depending on the type of vulnerability found.

Delegate Voting

Something i personally wish I've known sooner, but it's extremely easy to slowly increase your ARK holdings via delegate voting.
These steps are the only steps you need to do if want to gain some passive income:

1. Open your wallet via the ARK mobile or Desktop wallet
2. Vote for a delegate (That's in the top 51)
3. Profit!

I won't go into much more detail on this, but there are a lot of resource available that will go a bit more in depth. 

Free ARK ?!

As with many other coins, ARK also has faucets which provide you with some free ark.
Examples are faucet1 and faucet2.
These faucets will give you some free ark, but they both have a fairly high payout limit.
So be aware that i might take a couple of times, before you will receive them.

Current Project Status

While researching i found that the hype surrounding ARK has quiet down a bit.
The subreddit and discord seems to be still active, but the amount of active users doesn't seem that high.
However the ARK core currently has a release candidate for V3 meaning it's in the final stages before it will go live.
This could potentially boost ARK popularity again.

Conclusion

I think the project is still one with many great aspects. But all depends on the eventual adaption.
It's part of a large group of alt coins with great ideas, but only a few will survive. 

As for me, I've decided to continue HODLing my ark coins and passively growing them via the delegate voting. I'm in no rush to sell:)

None of this is meant as financial advice, do your own research!
Also don't invest anything you don't wanna lose!

Feedback is appreciated.