The Bitcoin Meme - Privacy Coin Review: Bytecoin, Dash, Monero, PIVX, BitcoinDark, Komodo, Zcash

My strategy is ICOs. Yes, I know I can hold one of the top 10-20 coins and get good gains, but 1000x? You gotta be there early. So, my personal strategy is to invest in ICOs, even if 4 out of 5 should fail, I only need the one to take off to be way up. And you can usually get a discount so even if the value drops immediately after the ICO, you can afford it to drop quite a bit before you are technically at a loss. But of course, I’m picking ICOs that I feel will be game changers long term.

Bytecoin, the original anonymous cryptocurrency. Implemented Bitcoin Core developer Greg Maxwell, it is the founder of the anonymous technology cryptonote, the same used by Monero. Despite being the first and the original anonymous cryptocurrency, Bytecoin is relatively unknown to the modern cryptocurrency community, in comparison to Monero. This is because Monero is a forked and evolved version of Bytecoin, which deviated from the original Bytecoin software and Cryptonote over time.

Dash - Dash is an open source digital currency, released in 2014, formerly known as Darkcoin. The network uses Darksend to help anonymize the transaction process by mixing coins. Darksend has implemented a few variations but is originally conceived from the CoinJoin concept. The creator of Dash, Evan Duffield, said he created the coin because he realized Bitcoin wasn’t anonymous enough. This exact method of obfuscation is likely to be adopted by Bitcoin in the future.

Monero utilizes the CryptoNote technology within the currency’s network. The method used stealth addresses mixed with one-time ring signatures, which work to cloak transactions. Ring signatures gave cryptography a new type of key process. The method is similar to group signatures, but there is no way to reveal the anonymity of single users within the group of users. Monero says that it has improved upon the CryptoNote feature and the currency offers an opaque Blockchain with a system called view key. The team says this makes the system optionally transparent and unlike any digital ledger out there today.

PIVX - PIVX is the acronym for Private Instant Verifiable Transaction. PIVX was forked from Dash but has added staking, Masternodes, changed the algorithm to Quark, and is upgrading the privacy tech from a simple CoinJoin to what they call the zerocoin protocol. Which simply is, better privacy.

Bitcoin Dark. Strange this one. Their reddit is dead. Checking out their website reveals http://bitcoindark.com/ BTCD can be swapped for Komodo coin after the ICO has ended. Everyone will have one full year to do the swap.

Komodo uses the same encryption zk-SNARKs, as of filming this they have an announcement on their website with a big timer: https://komodoplatform.com/ Speculators love things like this.

Zcash - Zcash transactions are untraceable because it uses encryption called zk-SNARK developed by the startup’s team. The transaction metadata within the network is encrypted, and zk-SNARKs are utilized to stop double spends.

From an investment perspective, the primary value of privacy-focused cryptocurrencies is their usefulness for money laundering and facilitating darknet transactions. Their primary growth sector is kidnapping ransoms, ransomware and the possible return of alphabay, the silk road of today.