My Crypto Portfolio - Privacy Coins

Here, in part two of my crypto series, I'll briefly discuss the privacy coins that I am betting on.

If digital currencies are supposed to take power away from banks, privacy coins might be able to that and also take power away from governments. Bitcoin was the original privacy coin but newer coins are more private than ever. Most experts are predicting a big year for privacy coins. There is some fascinating tech in this realm so let's jump right in.

1. Monero - XMR
   
   Monero was one of the first coins to be dubbed a "privacy coin" and of course was created with just that in mind. Monero's privacy features include stealth addresses, hidden transaction amounts, and the ability to mask your transaction among other transaction outputs. What I like most about Monero, to be honest, is that it is well established. Eventually privacy coins will start dying but XMR has already solidified itself. The supply isn't too high at 15,709,399.

2. ZCash - ZEC
   
   ZCash is one that many people are still skeptical about. There seems to be a lot of FUD around this coin. In addition to the privacy features Monero uses, ZCash offers transactions to be part of a "shielded pool" using "non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs." If you want to offer proof of transactions you have that option too...so I suppose ZCash could be used nefariously or not! Some speculate that ZEC is not sound or private enough and that there is too much hype around it. Once again this coin is somewhat well established. The supply is the same as Bitcoin.

3. PIVX
   
   PIVX is a DASH fork. It was originally called Darknet. What I like about PIVX is that, like DASH, it focuses on: staking and self-governance. An investor has the ability to set up a node to help govern and receive rewards (more PIVX). Roughly 2.5 million PIVX is generated each year through these nodes and nowhere else. The privacy aspect of the transactions is, of course, sound. Granting rewards to investors and encouraging them to HODL is a good thing. If the price of Dash seems too crazy for you as well, consider PIVX.

4. Verge - XVG
   
   There's a TON of FUD around Verge. I do consider this coin to be more of a gamble than the others. Verge integrates Tor and I2P to hide IP addresses...not cryptography. Verge calls this the "Wraith Protocol." There is a huge supply of XVG; currently about 14,582,971,349 with a max supply of 16,555,000,000. Verge is indeed fast and cheap. It remains to be seen if there will be mass adoption of XVG but to me it is quite intriguing.

I am no expert so please, do your own research and invest responsibly. Hopefully 2018 is a monster year for the crypto market!