Verge ruen

Verge is a cryptocurrency which goal is compliance of high standards of security and anonymity of data transfer. Verge team intends to introduce the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday life, making transactions fast and confidential.

Verge cryptocurrency appeared in 2014 and was originally called DogeCoinDark. In February 2016, the coin was renamed to Verge and by 2017 it began to actively gain popularity among users.

Bright distinctive features of Verge include:

• Combination of multiple privacy mechanisms: Tor, i2p, Wraith Protocol.
• Use of 5 hashing algorithms.
• Open-source and community-funded.

In 2018, Verge network was under 51% attack several times for various reasons, which affected both the cost of cryptocurrency and the formation of skepticism in the community regarding the reliability of Verge.

Verge project did not conduct ICO. Verge tokens have limited emission and are mined with PoW mining.

Verge native token is XVG.

The maximum number of tokens is 16,6 billion.

On October 5, there are 15.172 billion tokens in circulation.

It is assumed that all tokens will be mined by 2025 - 2027.

Distribution of reward for the block, which determines emission speed, is as follows:

• 0 to 14’000 blocks: 200,000 XVG;
• from 14’000 to 28’000 blocks: 100,000 XVG;
• from 28’000 to 42’000 blocks: 50,000 XVG;
• from 42’000 to 210’000 blocks: 25,000 XVG;
• from 210’000 to 378’000 blocks: 12,500 XVG;
• from 378’000 to 546’000 blocks: 6,250 XVG;
• from 546’000 to 714’000 blocks: 3.125 XVG;
• from 714’000 to 2’124’000 blocks: 1,560 XVG;
• from 2’124’000 to 4’248’000 blocks: 730 XVG.

On May 9, 2018, the block 2’124’000 was mined, therefore, since that time, miners receive 730 XVG for the block.

Verge didn't have official premine, but the first 450 blocks were mined extremely quickly due to the low difficulty of the network. Some users call this a kind of premine/instamine. However, a similar situation is quite typical at an early stage and, according to the analysis of supposed premine on github, it is unlikely that this was intentionally hidden by the developers premine.

Verge uses the PoW (Proof of Work) consensus building mechanism. Block time is 30 seconds.

Verge differs in that it uses 5 hashing algorithms at once: Namely, Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, myr-groestl and blake2s. Thus, users with different types of mining equipment can mine Verge. Calculation of difficulty is determined by the global hashrate for each algorithm, the used algorithms usually replace one another in each block.

It is assumed that this approach improves the network resistance to 51% attack (the attacker has more power than the rest of the network). The task of mining a block is solved by different algorithms independently, so for a successful attack, the attacker needs to capture more than half of the power for each algorithm.

A list of mining pools and mining instructions can be found on the official website.

There is little information about the original DogeCoinDark (now Verge) coin, which led to the formation of several opinions regarding the basic cryptocurrency code.

Most users believe that Verge is a fork of DogeCoin, because of similarity of coins’ names.

DogeCoinDark (Verge) cryptocurrency appeared in October 2014, while a month earlier another cryptocurrency with the same name appeared — DogeCoinDark, the code of which was based on Bitcoin, Novacoin and PPcoin.

According to Jordan Earlz's entry on github, AXIS, RC patches and Shibecoin code elements were used in DogeCoinDark (Verge). Therefore, the cryptocurrency is neither a Bitcoin fork nor DogeCoin, but a separate blockchain that combines technologies from both PoW and PoS protocols.

On the official Twitter, the developers also responded that Verge is not a fork of DogeCoin. The rebranding of the project in February 2016 was also associated with the incorrect direct association with DogeCoin cryptocurrency.

Due to several successful attacks on Verge network, it was announced at the end of June 2018 that Verge code will be updated to Bitcoin v.0.13., as it uses modern security protocols. On September 1, 2018 the update took place and the developers noticed that the process was time consuming, as it was necessary to correctly integrate Bitcoin database with the functionality of Verge. Next, the team will work on updating the code to version 0.17.

Thus, the latest version of Verge is based on Bitcoin code.

To ensure the anonymity of Verge cryptocurrency, several technologies are used: Tor, I2p, Wraith Protocol.

Tor (The Onion Router) — a software, a network of proxy servers that obfuscate IP data. Tor provides an anonymous network connection by encrypting user data before it enters the network using special multi-level encryption algorithms. Data packets are sequentially encrypted with several keys and transmitted through several Tor servers, which sequentially decrypt them in layers. Thus, the sender’s IP data remains anonymous. It is worth noting that in 2014 a study was published on the use of Tor to perform Bitcoin transactions, which demonstrated the presence of certain vulnerabilities in the approach.

I2p — a software that allows to create an anonymous network running over the Internet. I2p is a tunnel service that provides an anonymous and secure data transfer mechanism using Kademlia distributed hash table. Unlike the centralized server directory in Tor, i2p uses a distributed network model. Tunnels (data paths) in i2p are unidirectional, so incoming and outgoing traffic is split, improving anonymity.

Wraith Protocol — a technology that allows users to switch between using the private and public blockchain register. In case of use of private register, no transaction data will be displayed in the explorer. It is worth noting that the launch of the protocol was repeatedly postponed.

Despite the fact that the team presents Wraith Protocol as a relatively new solution, it is based on the Stealth Addresses technology, which allows the sender to generate a unique recipient address without direct interaction with him using Diffie-Hellman cryptographic protocol.

Verge documentation states that Wraith Protocol combines a private and public blockchain. However, according to representatives of the team, they later abandoned this idea and all transactions are on the public network, but their data is open to varying degrees.

On April 4, 2018, a 51% attack was made on Verge network, during which an attacker was able to get XVG cryptocurrency for more than $1 million. The vulnerability in retargeting code allowed the miner to create blocks with a fake timestamp, of which one of the users reported on bitcointalk and described the attack in detail. The hacker managed to mine blocks every second, instead of set in Verge value of 30 seconds. Verge uses several hash algorithms, and a different algorithm is used for each subsequent block. It was assumed that for 51% attack, a hacker would need to gain more than half of computing power for each algorithm. The attacker forged a timestamp, indicating the time changed one hour back, and the network “thought” that the last block was created an hour ago using this algorithm. The next block will have the correct timestamp, and since the network “thinks” that the last block was added an hour ago, it will add it to the network. Despite the many records in the media, it is impossible to rightfully call this attack a 51% attack, since in addition to mining power, the attacker used a vulnerability in the code.

Representatives of the team said that the attack lasted about 3 hours and was insignificant. However, ocminer, the user of bitcointalk, reported that the attack was renewed in the following days. After the attack, hardfork was performed in the network, which updated the protocol code, imposing a limit on the maximum number of blocks for algorithm. Innovation had to solve the problem of network capture using a single algorithm.

On May 22, 2018, representatives of supernova mining pool reported about another 51% attack on the network. Earlier that day, representatives of Verge reported about a possible Ddos attack on the mining pools and a delay in confirmation of blocks. It turned out that the attack had the same nature as the first, and the hardfork held by team in April was not a sufficient solution to the protocol problem. A detailed analysis of the second attack can be found at the link.

On May 29, 2018 a similar attack on the network happened again.

51% attacks are one of the main fears of the blockchain community. Performing several successful attacks on the network in a short period, carrying out hardfork, which in fact did not solve the problem of code vulnerability, significantly worsened the project’s reputation and made users doubt the team’s proper attitude to the technical component of the project and competencies to check the code. The community was surprised that vulnerabilities were not identified considering the existence of the project since 2014.

According to official statements, the development and marketing of the project is carried out by the community on a non-commercial basis.

According to the data from linkedin the company's headquarters is located in Florida, USA. It is interesting, that the stated company’s founding date is 2012, however, activity data from 2012 to 2014 (the year when DogeCoinDark project, now Verge, was launched) is missing.

Verge is an anonymous cryptocurrency, which can lead to additional difficulties in relations with the regulators. It is worth noting that the name of the initial thread on bitcointalk cryptocurrency forum clearly indicates its scope — darknet: “DogeCoinDark [POD] - Scrypt - Global Darknet is LIVE! UNTRACEABLE!”. And if confidentiality as a feature is perceived by the majority positively, then cryptocurrency advertising as a tool for illegal market is doubtful. Confidentiality of transactions can be combined with legal regulations, for example, in the context of personal and commercial secrets. However, if additional risk factors are identified, anonymous transactions can be treated as suspicious activities. For example, in Japan, anonymous cryptocurrencies began to be delisted from exchanges in accordance with the requirements of FSA of Japan, since anonymous transactions are contrary to Money Laundering Act. It is also worth considering that the anonymity of transactions in Verge is optional.

Information about the interaction of representatives of the team with the regulatory authorities is not available. The “Legal” section of the official website contains the only phrase that the website does not collect any information about the user and does not provide any information about the user to third parties.

In the context of Howie test, it is unlikely that XVG token can be considered as security.

The current implementation of the network allows to perform up to 100 transactions per second, while transaction performance takes from 5 to 10 seconds depending on the load.

Verge is planning to integrate with Rootstock platform (for more information, see “Built-in mechanisms and functions” section), which should improve network’s performance and scalability. It is assumed that the number of transactions per second can reach 2000.

The main function of Verge is performance of cryptocurrency transactions by users in everyday life. Verge allows to perform transactions relatively quickly, anonymously and, like other cryptocurrencies, decentralized.

As mentioned above, an important feature of Verge cryptocurrency is the use of mechanisms to ensure anonymity of transaction performance: Tor, i2p, Wraith Protocol. It is worth noting that ensuring anonymity in Verge mainly consists in hiding ip addresses of users. Verge does not yet provide “default” tools that would complicate the restoration of connection between the address in blockchain and user's identity, which he could reveal, for example, when registering on exchange with KYC.

Verge is in the process of implementing ring signatures (RingCT) as another mechanism for securing anonymous transactions.

Another current global development direction for Verge is integration with Rootstock (RSK) platform. Rootstock is a platform for executing smart contracts connected to Bitcoin blockchain using side-chain technology. In addition to the ability to create smart contracts, Rootstock can improve the performance and scalability of the network. It is planned that the integration will be completed in December 2018.

Verge supports atomic swaps — a mechanism that ensures the execution of one cryptocurrency to another without the need to trust a third party. Atomic swaps can be used on decentralized exchanges. The developers say that introducing atomic swaps to Verge is the first step towards the Lighting Network.

In Verge, users can use Visp p2p chat for instant send of encrypted messages.

Verge is integrated with Telegram, Twitter and Discord social services. Users can send and receive XVG tokens using social networks even without an installed wallet, which greatly simplifies the acceptance of cryptocurrencies. Instructions can be found on the official website.

To use Verge cryptocurrency, a variety of wallets are created, which can be downloaded from the official website:

• Core QT Wallet.
  Verge thick wallet with Tor, i2p, Wraith Protocol built-in support. Available for Windows, OSX, Linux.
• Electrum wallet.
  Fork of light Electrum wallet for Bitcoin. Electrum supports Simple Payment Verification (SPV) function, which allows the light client to verify that the transaction has been confirmed without downloading the entire blockchain. Electrum supports Tor and i2p anonymous transactions. Electrum wallet is available for Windows, OSX, Linux.
• Android wallet with Tor support.
• Paper wallet.

The official iOS wallet is under construction.

Third-party wallets, for example, Coinomi, can also be used.

It is worth noting that in November 2017, a third-party CoinPouch wallet recommended by Verge developers was hacked. As a result, 125 million XVG were stolen. Project representatives blamed each other, but it is still unclear who is responsible for the incident. The address, which made the attack, still remains in top 100 richest addresses lists of the project.

Vendors can use CoinPayments cryptocurrency processing solutions that provide a large number of modules for e-commerce sector.

Developers can use github repositories with APIs and the necessary libraries for Python 2.7, Python 3, and Node.js.

As of October 8, 2018, according to coinmarketcap XVG cryptocurrency is represented at 21 platforms, while the distribution by trading volume is as follows:

It is worth noting that the availability of anonymization has a potential risk of delisting the cryptocurrency from some platforms on demand of regulator.

On October 8, 2018, according to coinmarketcap, 15’172’086’051 XVG are in circulation, which is about 91.6% of the maximum quantity. The total capitalization in this case is $245.022.634/36.902 BTC, which puts Verge in 40th place in the general top.

The gradual increase in capitalization and gaining of popularity began in the spring of 2017. In early December, rapid growth began, correlating with the general mood of cryptocurrency market. Capitalization maximum was reached on December 24 and was about $3.86 billion. The daily trading volume on October 8 is $7,038,1693/1,060 BTC.

According to coinmarketcap as of October 8, 2018 1 XVG = $0,016299/0.00000245 BTC.

The first tangible, albeit temporary, increase in value happened in February 2016 and coincided with rebranding period from DogeCoinDark to Verge, which was positively perceived by users. Over the past year, the behavior of the cost of Verge cryptocurrency was extremely volatile due to many factors. In the summer of 2017, interest in Verge begins to rise, in September 2017, the development of Wraith Protocol was announced, which sparked interest in the project. It was planned that the development will take about a month, but the release did not take place, which was perceived negatively and affected the cost of XVG. The release date was postponed several times and even the final deadline — December 31 was missed, which led to a sharp fall in value. The overall increase in interest and excitement to cryptocurrency issues contributed to the growth of value in early December 2017. Also on December 13, McAfee wrote a Twitter post that supports anonymous cryptocurrencies Monero Zcash and not so well-known at that time Verge project, which also affected the sharp increase in value.

Later, there were suspicions that the post was made specifically for manipulation of the course (for more details, see “Confidence Index” section). Hacker attacks, partnership with Pornhub website negatively affected the value of the currency. Even in spite of the periods of growth and stabilization caused by the positive news background, a rather steady downtrend is being observed since the beginning-mid of April 2018.

Unlike the traditional name White Paper, the main Verge document is called Black Paper. The document has primarily technical nature and contains basic information on operation principles and capabilities of Verge, usage scenarios. The document is periodically updated and now its third version is available.

In addition to Black Paper, the project has Wiki, where the structured information on various aspects of the project can be found. Information on the legal and economic component of the project is not available. Their absence can be partially explained by the non-commercial open-source project structure.

Road Map is presented on the official website and contains a list of work directions for 2018 with notes in percentage of readiness degree. The previous version of Road Map can be found, for example, in blog on Medium. Verge team has repeatedly demonstrated a lag behind the stated plans, that can be seen even from a comparison of two versions of Road Map.

In mid-July 2018, the team began to publish development reports every two weeks in blog on Medium. It is worth noting that until the spring of 2018, the official Medium blog was located on different address.

The official resources of the project indicate that Verge is not controlled by a specific company, but is managed by community. All participants work on a voluntary basis. The official website shows the the main project team structure consisting of several departments: development team — 7 people, Business Development Team — 4 people, advisors — 13 people, marketing team — 9 people, technical support — 1 person.

The team structure is given on the site with the nicknames of participants in social networks. Personal data with which the professional background can be explored is missing for the majority of participants.

Some participants can be listed:

• Justin Erik Valo / Justin Vendetta / Sunerok — the creator and leading  developer of the project. Different resources indicate that Justin has an extensive experience in the field of blockchain technologies and computer security, but there are no official confirmations in the network. Justin has been developing Verge since it was found, which, of course, confirms the presence of skills in the industry, but there is no more comprehensive information. It is known that Justin was arrested several times because of minor incidents.
• CryptoRekt @cryptorekt — CMO / Technical writer / Adviser.
  According to Verge official resources, he is a senior engineer at Cisco Enterprises, the author of Verge Black Paper, the founder of Core Management Team Verge. He has experience in the field of cryptocurrencies and system development.
• Swen van Zanten — Product Developer.
  He has experience in web development and development for iOS.
• Marvin Piekarik — Product Developer.
  Young programmer.

Earlier in the blog on Medium posts about the project team were published, but according to comparison of the information in them with the actual one, the team structure changes significantly. In the post of October 31, 2017, only 7 people were named, of whom only two are present in the current team structure. However, it is worth noting that the number of people in the team significantly exceeds previous data.

Previously, Kieran Daniels @kierankyle worked in the project. Screenshots of the dialogue were published, where Kieran Daniels writes that only the founder of the project actually works on the project, and all the other participants have left the project. An impressive experience in the marketing industry was noted in Kieran's biography, including an increase in the number of Instapage users from 25 to 250 thousand. Later, Instapage CEO has appeared on reddit and said that Kieran significantly exaggerated his achievements and was an ordinary employee.

Among the main competitors of Verge, anonymous cryptocurrencies are considered, such as Dash, Monero, ZCash, ZenCash. In these cryptocurrencies, different anonymization mechanisms are used: ring signatures in Monero, improved implementation of CoinJoin in Dash, Zero-knowledge proof in ZCash and ZenCash. In all the above projects, except Monero, transactions are anonymous not by default, that is, the user can choose whether he wants to send the transaction anonymously or publicly.

In addition to these cryptocurrencies, other projects also use methods for anonymously sending transactions, but this is more an option than the main feature. For example, in Byteball, tokens are divided into two types, one of which — Blackbyte — allows to perform anonymous transactions.

Verge's initial anonymization mechanisms rely on existing technologies. Of course, it is convenient to have Tor built into the wallet, but this does not negate the fact that user can take advantage of it with the help of Tor browser.

In the context of the possibility of sending transactions not to the address in the blockchain, but using social networks, etc., many projects are also moving in this direction: a bot is created in NANO that allows to send transactions to Twitter accounts, Byteball can be sent via email or to various messengers accounts, Litecoin can be transferred by SMS and in Telegram messenger, etc.

Talking about smart contracts that are planned to be integrated using Rootstock platform, this will add opportunities to the project, but will not make it unique. An increasing number of smart contract platforms with their own specifics and audience appear on the market: Ethereum, Neo, Byteball, Cardano, Hyperledger Fabric, Qtum, etc.

Globally, any cryptocurrencies that serve as a means of payment can be considered as competitors.

Citation, social networks

Verge project began to gain mass popularity in the fall of 2017. Verge stands out for its solid community, which is called Verge Fam (Verge family) or Verge Army. Ideology of the project, which consists in the openness of source code, non-commercial principles of work, interaction with community, confidentiality of transactions, has formed a large circle of cryptocurrency fans. As for the posts in media, there were more than enough informational reasons during the year: McAfee tweet in December 2017 caused a surge of excitement, then the release of Wraith Protocol, partnership with PornHub, 51% attacks, etc. Despite the ambiguity of many reasons, all crypto community's attention was repeatedly focused on the project in 2018.

“Verge” query statistics according to Google Trends:

Number of subscribers in social networks on October 11, 2018:

• Telegram Official — 29.7 thousand
• Twitter — 306 thousand
• Facebook — 34.4 thousand
• Youtube — 5.85 thousand.
• Medium — 808.

Applicability

Verge has several tools to get information about the work of network: explorer 1, explorer 2, and a resource that displays computational complexity. General statistics on the number of users and transactions in the network is missing.

Explorer provides the following distribution of cryptocurrency to the top 100 addresses as of October 12, 2018:

It is worth noting that if you add up the values ​​for each group from the top 100, you get 78.15%, not 95.99%. The gray zone on the chart is not displayed in any way in the table and it is not clear which group of users it represents. Thus, it is difficult to interpret and verify the data given in the explorer. During communication with representatives of the project on the official resource, it was not possible to determine the accordance of data, as well as other indicators of network activity.

Projects working with Verge

Despite an ambiguous reputation, the project is increasing the number of partners in different areas, including increasing the number of merchants.
Verge has entered into a partnership with Tokenpay, as a result of which the  issue of cryptocurrency debit cards for Verge is planned.

Uquid, one of the most popular cryptocurrency debit cards, has integrated Verge support.

CoinPayments cryptocurrency processing has added support for Verge cryptocurrency.

Verge official site contains an impressive list of partners who accept XVG as a means of payment. The loudest and most controversial partners are resources for adults — PornHub and Brazzers. In general, more than 120 partners from different areas are listed.

Verge has announced that XVG will be integrated into the Point of Sale PundiX device.

MoreFun, mobile games development startup, made the decision to integrate Verge instead of conducting an ICO.

Famous persons in the team

There are not widely known in the industry persons as a part of the project team.

The history of Verge cryptocurrency contains many controversial events.

In September 2017, Verge announced the implementation of Wraith Protocol technology (for more details, see “Architecture” section), indicating that the release will take place within the next month, that is, in September – October 2017. The announcement caused a positive response in the community. The protocol release was postponed three times, which even formed a distrust for  the presence of intentions and resources of the team to implement it. The last deadline indicated by the team — December 31, 2017 — was also missed. On January 9, 2018 the release took place. It is worth noting that the technology has been criticized for a lack of originality and low anonymization parameters.

In addition to the problems with the release of Wraith Protocol in early January 2018, an anonymous resource xvg.keff.org, appeared, which published ip-data of users who made Verge transactions. The data did not receive official confirmation, but formed a new wave of resonance, since the implementation of Wraith Protocol assumed the use of Tor by default, and the published ip-addresses were not addresses of Tor nodes. Data leakage contradicted to privacy ideology of Verge.

Another important event was the publication on December 13, 2017 of a McAfee tweet mentioning Verge in the list of promising anonymous currencies. Tweet dramatically increased the popularity and the cost of cryptocurrency. This statement was made before the formation of McAfee’s controversial reputation, associated with the advertising of ambiguous projects, however, even then the tweet caused a resonance. There was information that McAfee predicted XVG cost rise by $15, but later McAfee publicly denied any predictions. After an initial positive tweet, the vector of publications regarding Verge was replaced by a negative one with blaming in cost pump. Moreover, Twitter user XVGWhale published a record of correspondence with McAfee, in which he supposedly demanded $1 million compensation for his contribution to the promotion of the coin. Later, XVGWhale reported that his account was hacked. Despite the ambiguity of all the accusations, many community users are inclined to believe that the actions described above were a conscious pump of Verge.

As stated earlier, Verge is supported and funded by the community. On March 19, 2018 a tweet was published about the start of fundraising for the development of the project in the amount of 75 million XVG, about $3 million at that time. For comparison, the size of the previous fundraising was 1 million XVG, equivalent to about $6.5 thousand at that time. Information was also published that the funds will be needed for technical integration with a partner, which will be announced at the end of donations collection. The fundraising lasted for a week and ended successfully only thanks to the donation by a  partner of TokenPay in 66.5 million XVG, which is about 90% of the total amount of fundraising. At the end of the fundraising, the team reported that the announcement of a large partner would be postponed to April 16, and then to 17, which on the one hand raised doubts, on the other increased user interest and cryptocurrency value. The date April 16th correlates with the deadline for filing taxes. Also at the end of March it became known that the funds of the founder of the project, Justin Sunerok, are blocked on Coinbase. This fact aroused suspicions that the fundraising was needed not to develop the project, but to solve the financial problems of its founder. Also a transfer of 3.5 million XVG to Binance exchange was detected, the developers responded that the funds would be used for integration with Ledger hardware wallet, however, Ledger representatives denied this information.

In April 17 the information was published about Verge long-awaited partnership. The partner turned out to be the famous PornHub porn site, which now accepts XVG as a means of paying for content. Of course, the use of anonymous cryptocurrency in this area is more than appropriate and in demand, and the site has a huge user base, but the community perceived this fact negatively, which affected the value. However, one cannot deny that this event has become the brightest marketing case. The official statement indicates that the partner is MindGeek company, which owns a large amount of resources in the adult content industry besides PornHub.

Another reason for discussion and criticism of Verge was a number of technical problems. The first of these was the hacking of the CoinPouch wallet in November 2017, which was officially recommended by Verge developers. As a result of hacking, 125 million XVG were stolen. None of the parties has taken the responsibility for the loss of funds. CoinPouch statement can be found at the link. 2018 became “significant” for Verge considering several successful 51% attacks on the network (for more details, see “Attacks on Verge” section). In addition to the fact of the attack, which demonstrated the vulnerability in Verge code, the team’s behavior caused a negative reaction. The team called it the minor incident and released a code update. However, in addition to solving the problem, this led to hardfork of network, which made all wallets and clients unusable. The situation provoked harsh criticism regarding the technical competencies of the team and their approach to solving critical situations. Moreover, as it turned out later, the problem was not solved, which led to two more similar attacks on the network. And if such global vulnerabilities in the code have not been discovered since 2014, it is unclear what other vulnerabilities can hide. There is a doubt that the development was treated with due demanding by the team.

In June 2018, it was announced that Verge would integrate the core of Bitcoin Core and, in the autumn of 2018, the first stage of integration was completed. It is necessary to monitor the stability of the network after updating the base code.

Another factor of concern is the turnover in the team and the statements of one of the former employees that only the founder is working on the project (for more, see “Analysis of the project team and affiliated persons” section).

However, it is worth noting that in June a decision was made to switch to a reliable Bitcoin Core protocol, the number of participants expanded in terms of number of participants, and activity reports started to be regularly published.

Verge project was launched in 2014 and is one of the oldest anonymous cryptocurrencies. After rebranding of the project from DogeCoinDark to Verge in February 2016 and the general growth of interest in cryptocurrency subject, the project began to develop its community. Since the fall of 2017, Verge's popularity began to grow significantly, and since the winter of 2017 it has hit the top of the most-discussed crypto projects for different reasons. Verge is positioned as an anonymous cryptocurrency and introduces new anonymity mechanisms, however, their implementation is not always properly implemented.

Verge has the following advantages:

• Long history.
• High popularity.
• Active solid community.
• Expansion of anonymization technology.
• A large number of merchants.
• Building partnerships.
• Performance is higher than many other PoW networks.
• Plans on integration of smart contracts and increase of productivity.

Disadvantages:

• Detected protocol vulnerabilities that led to a series of successful attacks.
• Unsuccessful technical solution after the first 51% attack.
• Failure to comply with the stated deadlines for technical tasks.
• Suspicion of information manipulation.
• Non-transparent organization of the team’s work and its proper competence.
• Ambiguous fundraising in March 2018.
• High volatility of rate with a general downtrend in recent months.

References

Official website: https://vergecurrency.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vergecurrency

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VERGEcurrency

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv59uw_WhHB2VxbBs0LPeeQ

Medium: https://medium.com/vergecurrency

Github: https://github.com/vergecurrency?tab=repositories