Spotlight on Cryptocoins -- PIVX -- 7th feature "private" coins

Hello Steemians

In this series of articles I want to put a spotlight on a specific cryptocurrency and write about the details in all these aspects:

• Aim of the currency

• Technical details

• Market position

• Forecast

The cryptocurrency in focus currently will be one of the so-called "private" coins. Coins that create the possibility to be more or less in private while doing transactions. How private you are is one of the main questions to be answered in this articles.

In this 7th article of the series, the spotlight will be on PIVX.

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Aim of the Currency

What is this currency about? What does it do differently than the rest?
Where is the unique selling point and at what audience is this coin targeted.

All that questions and more will be answered in the following paragraph.

PIVX is one of the bigger players on the private coins' market and has been founded under the name Darknet/DNET back in November 2015. It is based on the original Bitcoin Core which has been updated to Bitcoin Core 0.12.1 in 2016.
Originally, PIVX has been a PoW(Proof of Work) Coin, but since August 17, 2016, PIVX is a PoS Coin, with a Masternode system attached.
PIVX is mainly focused on keeping transaction data private using the zerocoin protocol and is the only PoS coin that has implemented this protocol currently.

Technical Details

PIVX has wallets that support Linux, Max, and Windows as well as a mobile app for Android devices.

PIVX features a PoS Concept and also a Masternode approach. Every 60 Seconds 5 new PIVX are created and distributed according to the following rules:

• 10% is going to the reward pool for running new projects
• 90% is getting divided between the stakers and the Masternodes, by an algorithm that is constantly balancing the rewards between the two parties. Currently, the rewards are a bit in favor of the Masternodes to compensate higher costs of operation.
• There is no mining in PIVX since August 17, 2016.

Privacy of transaction is achieved using the zerocoin protocol, which means that for a private transaction you can create out of your normal PIV into untraceable zPIV, if you are sending this to a receiver again normal PIV without history will appear in his wallet. The link between sender and receiver is severed using a protocol level mixing service with zero knowledge proofs, making the transaction fully private.
Transactions costs for either private or transparent transactions, that are possible as well, are very low compared to other private coin implementations.
Transactions times in PIVX are very fast compared with other Cryptocurrencies, this is because a protocol named SwiftTX has been implemented which is using the confirmations of the Masternodes and therefore does not need to wait on other confirmations.

Market Position

At the time of writing this article (01/09/2018) PIVX is placed 59th in market capitalization, with the total value of $664.134.175 USD. The 24h Volume was $12.139.500 which is a high number compared to the last month.

The team around PIVX is also extremely active and they are delivering updates and new software quite regularly. The marketing team is creating new campaigns and adds quite often and they are constantly raising awareness.

Most of the Cryptocurrencies have had a massive boost of price in the last month and *PIVX from this tendency as well.
Looking back one month into the past, we see that the price is now 3 times what it was beginning of December. 12$ today versus 4$ on Dec,10 .

GraphSource

If we are looking back one year into the past we see that PIVX was traded for 1 cent until March 17, making it an impressive and massive increase until today.

GraphSource

Forecast

Just like all the other private coins PIVX for sure has a valid point in trying to keep the privacy of the sender and receiver.
PIVX has secured quite a good spot within the top 100 Cryptocurrencies, a strong position for further growth.
The forecast is very positive, the roadmap features a encrypted chat as well as Multi-Sig Addresses and the integration of I2P Network Nodes (in addition to TOR Network) to have another option for IP Adress privacy.

Conclusion

PIVX is keeping your transaction details mixed and therefore completely private, IP privacy is guaranteed using the TOR Network Nodes.
PVIX is developed by a ** community-based **, following the statement PIVX will work towards a ‘Community Designed Governance’ system that changes the distribution of votes, to include the entire PIVX community which has been signed of by the Masternode owners.

Last but not least there are also some drawbacks and they should not be unmentioned:

• Masternode cost is high needing 10000 PIVX, worth 120,000 USD currently.
• Privacy of transaction has been also viewed with criticism.
• PoS can also be seen as the rich getting richer because of the need to have a stake.

Authored by: @jedigeiss





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