Vertcoin is a payments focused cryptocurrency that was launched in 2014 by David Muller. The project compares itself to Bitcoin, highlight the areas where it believe itself to be better.

While Vertcoin does use a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm, like Bitcoin, it is far more GPU friendly and Vertcoin emphasizes the capacity for miners to use GPUs instead of ASICs. Block times are similar to litecoin, at 2.5 minutes, compared to Bitcoin’s 10. The team has also made the mining process extremely convenient, which could explain the project’s surges in popularity. 

Vertcoin’s primary selling point is its ASIC resistance, an alternative that is GPU friendly. It takes a little inspiration from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to put together what the team thinks is best. 

The team is currently focusing on several promising features: a new mining algorithm called VertHash, a multicoin lightning wallet, an iOS wallet, and expanded support on exchanges and wallets. These milestones are expected to arrive by the end of 2019 or during the early months of 2020. Progress achieved from the beginning of the year include updates to the one click miner, Vertcoin Core and the core wallet.