PivX, short for Private Instant Verified Transaction, is a privacy focused project that was originally launched in 2015 as DarkNet, before rebranding to PivX in 2017. PivX is actually a code fork from DASH, another once privacy focused project that is now focusing on payments.

There are several approaches to ensure transaction privacy, and different projects are employing these different solutions. PivX uses a customized version of the Zerocoin protocol to shield sender and recipient data. It converts tokens in zPIV, a second tier token, that unlinks transactions to the addresses.

Utilizing a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol for consensus, PivX uses MasterNodes so that high priority network functions are covered. The team has said that 60% of coins staked in masternodes.

The team is quite transparent in providing development updates. In 2019, the team has been working on a new wallet, which has been released, as well as a new MasteNode Tool that has the Trezor hardware wallet support.

Development goals for the rest of 2019 and 2020 focus primarily on the Core Wallet, lightnode wallets for mobile and desktop with Ledger and Trezor support, and multi-sig transaction supports. Most of these are in the testing phase, and consequently should see a full release by the end of the year. Another important feature is the Dandelion protocol, still in the planning phase, which would make the sender’s IP address untraceable. Tor Network Nodes and I2P support is also in development.