Vertcoin: The Next Litecoin?

When analyzing an asset it is important to ask particular questions. First, how much value does accessibility give to an asset? Second, what kind of unique value does the asset provide relative to its competitors? Most cryptocurrency investors are familiar with the Coinbase effect: Once a previously uncommon coin reaches a mainstream exchange, its value increases drastically. We have seen this happen with Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash within the last few months. The accessibility of Vertcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are gaining more mainstream availability. The Vertbase development team has announced that they will be creating their own USD – VTC exchange know as Vertbase.

This 2018 project is exciting, and if it is executed effectively it will make Vertcoin much more accessible for the mainstream population. However, Vertbase is still in its beta phase of production, which implies concern when addressing issues such as scaling and security, especially after the NiceHash debacle. Overall, the motives behind the project are good, but nearly every other cryptocurrency will become more accessible throughout 2018, so how will Vertcoin distinguish itself among the many other alt coins?

Community

Vertcoin has a distinguished community. To many in the crypto world Vertcoin is known as the people’s coin. This interesting nickname is derived from Vertcoin’s mining system. For most mainstream coins such as Bitcoin each block requires one algorithm for a block to be solved on the blockchain. However, Vertcoin’s blockchain requires five algorithms to be solved in order for a block to be executed. As a result of this technological architecture, the Vertcoin blockchain is ASIC miner resistant. An ASIC miner is a hardware system specifically created to mine cryptocurrency with an accelerated hash rate. Whichever system has the higher hash rate, the larger portion of the block fee it receives upon completion. Hash rate is measured in MH/sec.

From this, many have realized mining can be a business and the market has become flooded with ASIC systems. Genesis Mining is one major company that has done this and although executing blocks stabilizes the blockchain, it has many negative repercussions because it gives too much power and centralization to companies such as Genesis Mining. ASIC systems also have been a negative implementation due to the extreme amounts of electricity they consume. This is the reason why 2017 global Bitcoin mining was equivalent to 159 countries around the world including developed nations such as Ireland. This kind of mining setup is not sustainable for a energy-efficient future. Large mining companies have made it uneconomical for the average person with a standard gaming NVIDIA GPU to mine because it cannot compete with the accelerated hash rate of an ASIC system.

Since Vertcoin is ASIC miner resistant it is one of the most profitable coins to mine. Any PC gamer with a NVIDIA GPU can use their system to mine whenever they are not using it for gaming or video purposes. This is one of the reasons why Vertcoin has such a strong community backing it. Vertcoin has one of the largest sub-Reddits relative to its ranking on coincheckup.com or coinmarketcap.com, which may lead some to think it is undervalued.

Vertcoin has many user-friendly features such as a one-click miner and a core wallet which is based off of the same software that was developed in order to create the Bitcoin core wallet. This is nice because the Vertcoin core wallet enjoys the same updates that the Bitcoin core wallet does. However, one of the more interesting concepts Vertcoin is going to implement is the development of atomic swaps in their currency. An atomic swap is essentially code that replaces the need for a third party exchange. More specifically, it allows users to exchange different cryptocurrencies without relying on a third party such as Shapeshift. Hypothetically, if user A has Litecoin, and user B wants Vertcoin, they can agree to a fixed trading price and complete the transaction immediately. This idea is critical for keeping cryptocurrencies decentralized. Once an atomic swap is implemented it will eliminate the need for a third party which will ultimately decrease transaction fees and save more time per transaction.

Vertcoin has been experienced hype in the past because of its implementation of atomic swaps with Charlie Lee and Litecoin. But there is also attention because of the mining community and Vertbase project expected in 2018, but who is ultimately to say where the coin will end up? As of now a Vertcoin is priced around $2 and with a relatively low market cap of $84,155,966, this currency is worth monitoring over the course of 2018 – 2019.