Vertcoin (VTC) is a decentralized, peer-to-peer currency similar to Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC). Vertcoin markets itself as being the “people’s coin,” and that’s true since it’s entirely owned by its users.
It uses a Lyra2RE(v2) algorithm, a Proof-of-Work method of validating transactions, and it has 84 million coins generated. The block time is 2.5 minutes, and the reward per block is 25 coins. Vertcoin also uses the Atomic Cross-Chain, a decentralized method of exchanging Vertcoins with other cryptocurrencies.
The thing that makes Vertcoin stand out from the crowd is the fact that unlike many other PoW coins, is that it’s designed to be entirely ASIC-resistant. It is distributed fairly, developed by all its community members, and funded entirely by donations.
ASIC Resistance
Its algorithm has been, therefore, designed to block miners from using any sort of ASIC hardware to mine on the blockchain. This includes custom mining hardware, as well as multipool mining. This means that miners can compete with each other in a fair fashion and that transactions are accurately validated by a distributed network. In fact, this is Vertcoin’s main selling point.
The team behind the project is adamant on providing its miners with the opportunity of competing fairly with each other and not falling victim to ASIC hardware manufacturers. The team has publicly stated that it will change the algorithm in a hard fork if things go badly and ASIC was ever to be allowed.
Vertcoin 1-Click Miner
Besides the ASIC resistance, Vertcoin has other noteworthy features such as the Vertcoin 1-Click Miner. This appropriately named application ensures that virtually anyone can get into Vertcoin mining and generate Vertcoin for himself.
The app can be downloaded directly from Vertcoin’s official GitHub repository. Once installed, you just have to enter the wallet address where your mining rewards will be transferred. The Vertcoin address should always begin with a V and should contain between 26-36 alphanumeric characters. The rest of the process is just as straightforward, as you only have to join a mining pool, and subsequently select if you will be using a GPU or CPU for the mining procedure.
Below, you can find a list of mining pools which can be used to mine Vertcoin:
Give Me Coins
Right now, the best GPUs for Vertcoin Mining are NVidia 10 Series cards. However, the team is hard at work and aims to create an efficient way of using AMD cards as well.
Wallets
Vertcoin also offers its users a web wallet, even though it’s inherently not as secure as a hardware wallet. This provides Vertcoin users with a straightforward way of securely storing and sending Vertcoins. Mobile users are left with the option of choosing Coinomi, one of the best mobile wallets with support for VTC.
If you desire a software wallet, you can choose the official client (forked from Bitcoin Core). This wallet provides you with the option of verifying the entire blockchain history all by yourself. Please note that if you want to mine Vertcoin, then this Core wallet is a must-have.
There’s also the possibility of using a VTC Electrum-based wallet. However, note that this wallet does not support the p2pool node.
Once you get the wallet up and running, you can start creating your address. Users are required to pay a very small fee in order to perform transactions. For example, to transfer 100 VTC, you are required to pay somewhere around 0.001 VTC. The fee is there to help with the network’s maintenance.
Trading Vertcoin
Just like most cryptocurrencies, Vertcoin’s trading history was not without ups and downs. After the Mt. Gox hack, the cryptocurrency has not seen much activity. The all-time high was $10.14 and it was recorded on December 2017.
As of this writing, Vertcoin is currently ranked 152 and it trades for $1.86 as listed on CoinMarketCap.
Buying Vertcoin
The easiest method of buying Vertcoin is paying for it using Bitcoins. There are multiple exchanges from which you can buy VTC. Some of the most relevant examples include Bittrex, CoinEgg, Poloniex, Trade by Trade, Upbit, and LiteBit. A complete list of exchanges is available on the CoinMarketCap.
Price Prediction
Vertcoin had a very good year in 2017. It started the year around $0.03 cents and it reached almost $10 dollars, which is quite impressive. This is a 29000% increase, if not more.
Its price in BTC has also grown substantially, passing from 0.00003437 BTC in January to 0.00086408 BTC at the end of 2017. Since then, the currency is in a bear market which does not seem to end until now.
It will be very important to follow how the general crypto market will more in the following months to see whether this virtual currency is able to grow and increase in price or not. In the case of another bull run as we experienced in the past, Vertcoin could also see important gains.
Vertcoin Team
The team behind the project is a very passionate one. While other crypto projects rely on ICOs and massive investments, Vertcoin simply relies on its users. The project doesn’t feel like a full-fledged crypto enterprise and, considering the team’s technical skill set, this is not surprising.
Some noteworthy names include James Lovejoy (lead developers), Joe Straub, Star Im, Eric Kubik, Bryan Goodson, Gert-Jaap Glasbergen, and Alex Turek, just to name a few. The project’s roadmap can be seen on Trello, allowing members of the community to stay involved and up to date with the latest developments and plans.
Conclusion
Vertcoin proves itself to be a very promising project with a lot of potential for future development. Currently, it’s a very good alternative to Litecoin and Bitcoin which have most of their mining done by large mining companies, and not their users.
The fact that Vertcoin is ASIC-resistant might prove to be one of the platform’s strengths in the long run. Vertcoin is one of the classic examples of what cryptocurrency should be, sticking heavily to the traditional crypto vision. Vertcoin is one of the simplest cryptocurrencies out there. It aims to provide its community with a truly decentralized currency that’s owned by everyone within it.
Vertcoin Contacts and Additional information:
- Website: https://vertcoin.org/
- Blog: https://medium.com/vertcoin-blog
