Privacy is important to everyone and there are many things that we choose to keep private or that we choose to only share with those close to us. However, whether it’s about personal finances, our health condition, family, or relationship matters, the truth is that nowadays, we end up sharing way too much personal and “private” information on the internet.

That can sometimes have far-reaching consequences. We have a recent example of this in the case of Cambridge Analytica.

But many entities also use our data in an attempt to sell us products and services or steer our decisions based on our selection on race or health status. Also, when you trade cryptocurrencies, your identity, wealth, and freedom may also be in danger.

But cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are private and anonymous, right?

Not at all. Did you know that Bitcoin is traceable?

However, there are alternatives to give users the power to carry out operations in a truly secure, private, and anonymous way: privacy coins. Today, let’s talk about Monero ZCash and Dash. The 3 Best Privacy Altcoins.

The importance of privacy to protect your personal identity, transactions, sovereignty, and personal wealth

All our digital activities leave their mark, whether when making calls, surfing the web or when making payments with our credit cards. The worst part is that the companies that provide these services store this information and use it in many ways without our prior consent.

Privacy is the power we have to decide who knows what we do in our daily lives, and who does not. Having privacy protects our finances, our health and our peace of mind in ways you may not have imagined:

1.- Personal identity

Privacy is respect for individuality and the freedom to be ourselves, make our own decisions – and have them respected – and be responsible for our actions. The problem is that many times, others may not see our privacy as important when it somehow interferes with other “more relevant” matters. It’s in those moments when different organizations will put aside our privacy say:

“It is for the common good.”

Or:

“It is for our nation.”

Another important aspect of privacy for individual identity is the right to change. As humans, we can make mistakes. After all, Allah says we are from Bani Adam, and Bani Adam (human beings) makes mistakes, so no one is born with a manual tucked under their arm called, “How to be perfect.”

But you have the right to put the past behind you, learn from your mistakes, and give your life a new start, a new direction, all in the interest of maturity and personal growth. Having the means to control your own privacy online can most certainly help you with this.

2.- Transactions

Many times, people will see many of our actions as if they were something strange, simply due to a lack of context and understanding about our motivations.

Nobody wants to explain each act – often insignificant – that they perform day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute, so privacy allows us to perform many of our daily activities in peace.

On the other hand, many types of relationships are based on privacy or confidentiality, which in turn is backed by trust. In many professional, business, or government relationships, when confidentiality is broken, trust is broken and the relationship is damaged.

Unfortunately, many organizations do not respect this factor and end up abusing the trust you give them, spying on your transactions, and using this information for their own benefit.

3.- Sovereignty

Privacy helps you limit the power that others might have over you, including large companies and governments. The manipulation that many organizations perform on your personal data for different purposes can influence a good part of the decisions you make – when making a purchase, for example.

You also have the right to meet privately with people who share interests and opinions similar to yours, whether in business, politics, or religion. This is very important as many times, third parties who may not share such ideas may also try to interfere to change those points of view. This is a threat to your freedom and sovereignty.

4.- Personal wealth

The vast amount of data that companies generate and store nowadays is used to gain greater control over processes and to create analytics-based predictive models to aid in decision-making.

All this data must be collected with the guarantee that no access has been violated or that there has been no manipulation that can influence the results of the data which can lead to negative economic outcomes for the organization.

Cybersecurity is in charge of taking care of the storage and privacy of this data to prevent that nothing and nobody can alter it or consult it without permission. Of course, when it comes to personal finances, the protection and privacy of your passwords, as well as the use of your money, is vital to preventing malicious agents from trying to scam you and steal your hard-earned money.

How privacy altcoins are taking lead when it comes to protecting user privacy

Cryptocurrencies have several features that make them ideal to be used as money on the internet. Security and privacy are two of these characteristics, but the reality is that the technology behind some cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC), only protects users up to a point.

During the early years of Bitcoin, people believed that transactions were totally private and anonymous but in reality, it’s possible to trace all of Bitcoin’s transactions in its public ledger known as blockchain.

Realizing this, some groups of developers decided to create alternative cryptocurrencies to BTC that focused on protecting these aspects when carrying out operations on the blockchain; these are the so-called “privacy coins.”

The developers of these altcoins have tried to equip them with new advanced cryptography methods to maximize their ability to guarantee anonymity, to the point where some are still truly untraceable.

Although today, the number of privacy coins has increased significantly, the following three remain the most popular and important in the crypto ecosystem.

1.- Monero

Monero is currently positioned as the most notable private cryptocurrency in the ecosystem – it’s the one with the most market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap.

Monero (XMR) was launched in 2014 as one of the first altcoins not based on the Bitcoin code, as it’s actually based on the CryptoNote protocol.

The Monero protocol uses confidential transactions and ring signatures to demonstrate ownership of unified cryptocurrencies in a group of transactions, without revealing which of these transactions was cryptographically signed.

In this way, it mixes the signed transaction with other operations, so it isn’t possible to know which transaction belongs to which person. It’s also noteworthy that in Monero, all transactions are private and anonymous by default.

Monero makes it possible to shield transactions against spies – such as analytics companies – but users can also use blockchain explorers to obtain information about the transactions.

Although the use of Monero has usually been linked mainly to black markets and unauthorized web mining, some web portals have implemented Monero mining as an alternative to generating income without resorting to invasive advertising.

You can learn more about Monero in this article, Why Monero is Better Than Bitcoin at Privacy.

2.- DASH

Dash or Digital Cash is a cryptocurrency launched in 2015 developed from the Litecoin code, and it’s an altcoin that has gained wide acceptance in several Latin American countries.

Unlike what happens with Monero, in the Dash protocol, private transactions – known as PrivateSend – are optional. These transactions are carried out between three users who wish to use this service, generating new addresses belonging such users. These transactions are mixed between the participants to erase the trace they leave on the network, something that can be repeated up to eight times automatically.

This task is carried out by the master node system of the Dash network, which mixes the transactions that have requested the PrivateSend service.

Masternodes are the governing figures of the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that runs the Dash network and a masternode is a network member that proves to have at least 1,000 DASH.

Dash is a fairly complete ecosystem that offers its users tools to make private transactions, as well as a desktop wallet, a lightweight desktop wallet, an app and even a paper wallet. Dash is positioned as the second privacy coin in the ecosystem by market capitalization. You can get more information here, Dash Crypto: A Privacy Coin with a Promising Future.

3.- ZCash

Based on the principle of Zero-knowledge Proof, ZCash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency launched in 2016. The ZCash protocol uses parameters called, zk-SNARKs (Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge), which allow users to prove the possession and validity of certain information without the need to reveal identity or interact with other users.

As with DASH, ZCash supports two types of transactions, shielded (with z addresses) or transparent (with t addresses), and users can choose the type of transaction they want at any time.

It’s odd, but it seems that nowadays t-addresses are more used, which means that most ZCash users ignore the possibilities of anonymous transactions.

Even so, the developers of ZCash are constantly implementing improvements to the network and currently, the cryptocurrency is positioned the 57th most popular cryptocurrency by way of market capitalization compared to all other cryptocurrencies in the market in general. It is also the the third favorite altcoin of users focused on privacy. Learn more here, What are the Benefits of ZCash?

Some reasons to underline the importance of privacy while transacting with cryptocurrencies

At first, these cryptocurrencies went unnoticed by a good portion of cryptocurrency users and investors. This was due in many cases to the bad reputation that has been created around them by calling them “criminal coins” – as some of their features are suitable for illegal activities.

However, in recent months, their popularity has been growing gradually, as more and more investors are interested in speculating with them. Even so, the main intention is still to take advantage of the anonymity and privacy they provide online because it turns out that more and more users are interested in hiding their payment history and keeping their transactions untraceable.

Another important reason is tax evasion by investors; as government authorities in different countries seek to tax the use of cryptocurrencies as investment assets, investors migrate to privacy coins that allow them to hide their operations and profits.

Fungibility goes hand in hand with privacy

Today, there are a large number of cryptocurrency exchanges available on the web. This, on the one hand, expands the number of options available to all types of users.

On the other hand, a large number of cryptocurrencies move in many exchanges whose previous use is unknown most of the time by users.

These traceable cryptocurrencies could have been used in illegal activities and be part of a judicial investigation that could end up causing problems for the final holder of such coins.

With a privacy coin this doesn’t happen because its activity cannot be traced, so the cryptocurrency is visible to everyone, totally free of any guilt; it’s equal to all other currencies. This is called fungibility.

Avoid surveillance by powerful organizations

Large companies and financial organizations keep a record of your activities on their networks. This allows them to have the power to block your operations if for some reason they consider that there is something suspicious about them, even if there is nothing strange – how many complaints are there out on the web about PayPal regarding this matter?

Performing financial operations in privacy coin networks, allows users to enjoy great freedom without fear of being blocked or ending up with their accounts banned for unfair reasons.

Protect you from data loss

Every month we see in the news, how large companies report data breaches that result in the theft of valuable information from millions of users, such as passwords, social security numbers and credit cards. This happens because cyber criminals are able to keep track of information in traditional centralized computer systems.

In modern decentralized systems based on blockchain – including those of privacy coins – it’s much more difficult for this to happen, since privacy and anonymity protect user information.

Conclusion

Privacy coins represent a natural evolution of first-generation cryptocurrencies; altcoins that solve the privacy problems of users and that offer a new range of possibilities thanks to this. Developers know this and for that reason, they are implementing privacy and anonymity features in the new generations of cryptocurrencies.

It’s very likely that in the future, as the adoption of blockchain increases and with it also restrictions, taxes and threats to security and privacy, more and more people will see privacy coins as the best alternative to have privacy and freedom when operating in the crypto world.

It’s true that cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular, but it’s also true that a large number of cryptocurrency projects are following a path in which certain values are sacrificed in exchange for profitability or growth. Today, it’s probable that one area that routinely is sacrificed is privacy.

This was the reason for the creation of ZCash (ZEC), the first cryptocurrency that, for several years, has been striving to maintain maximum security, privacy, and anonymity for its users using high-level cryptographic technology.

Since everyone is not comfortable with the fact that their cryptographic addresses, their balance, and the data of each transaction are publicly available to everyone, ZCash is presented as an excellent option to solve these problems.

Let’s explore ZCash and see what its benefits are for us common cryptocurrency users.

What is ZCash?

ZCash is a cryptocurrency based on a decentralized blockchain that was born as a fork of Bitcoin, with the objective of providing a privacy solution for the crypto ecosystem.

This cryptocurrency guarantees the anonymity of its users and the transactions that occur on its blockchain, using a model based on “zero-knowledge proofs” to verify transactions while at the same time hides its users’ personal information as well as the data of their operations.

Although it has many similarities to Bitcoin, ZCash offers greater anonymity, privacy, and fungibility than its big sister: ZCash has continued the model on which Bitcoin is based by using a public ledger, but with the important difference that it encrypts information about transactions and users.

This means that the transaction log is only visible to authorized users, thus solving a major problem for thousands of cryptocurrency users around the world who care about the security of their data and their privacy when operating in the crypto world.

History of ZCash

ZCash began in 2013-2014 as a joint venture between Johns Hopkins University students Matthew D. Green, Ian Miers, and Christina Garman.

They were the minds behind the design of Zerocoin, a protocol to improve the privacy and anonymity of Bitcoin. However, this first project had several points of failure.

Some months later, and in order to solve several of Zerocoin’s problems, they implemented the Zerocash protocol, which already featured the use of zk-SNARKs to increase the overall performance of this new cryptocurrency – more on this later.

Thanks to this, users could make direct payments to each other using a much more efficient cryptographic protocol that concealed not only the origin but also the amount of the payments.

It was then that on January 20, 2016, Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn would make the official announcement presenting ZCash as a fork of Bitcoin to which support for the Zerocash protocol would be added. The rest is recent history.

How does ZCash work?

Basically, ZCash uses two types of addresses to carry out transactions, private addresses identified with the letter “z” and public addresses identified with the letter “t”.

Any transaction of the type z -> z will appear reflected in the blockchain, so it’ll be possible to know that this transaction was actually carried out.

However, the addresses, the transaction amount, and the memo field will remain encrypted and won’t be publicly visible, unless the users involved so decide.

This means that the participant of a transaction can choose to disclose the z address and details of that transaction with other people. This is possible thanks to the use of view and spend keys, which enables the display of transactions to trusted third parties for various purposes, such as audits, for example.

On the other hand, transactions of the type t -> t, work in the same way as transactions on the Bitcoin network.

Note that both z and t addresses are interoperable, so it is possible to transfer ZEC between z addresses and t addresses without any problem.

zk-SNARKs, the key protocol behind Zcash

zk-SNARKs means “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge,” and it has to do with the elaboration of a test in which the possession of certain information can be demonstrated, without revealing the information as such, and without the existence of any type of interaction between users of a given transaction.

The main feature of zk-SNARKs is that their generation and verification are very efficient since their computational cost is very low. This increases its execution speed while promoting scalability.

Equihash, a different PoW algorithm

Although originally ZCash used the same algorithm as Bitcoin (SHA-256), it was changed in 2014 to Equihash.

Equihash is a Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm based on a cryptographic and computing problem called the Generalized Birthday Problem. This problem refers to the probability that in a group of 23 people there is a 50.7% probability that at least two of them have a birthday on the same day.

Based on this math problem, Equihash provides a very efficient verification that is ideal for thin clients on less powerful devices. At the same time, its high memory consumption makes it very resistant to specialized mining with ASICs and FPGAs, preventing the centralization of mining power by powerful groups.

What are the benefits of ZCash?

Although ZCash inherited some of the essential features of Bitcoin, it also brings some unique benefits that allow it to gain some ground against its elder sister. These are the most important:

Focus on anonymity

The Zero-knowledge Proof technology used by ZCash, which allows the network to process and verify transactions without revealing their information, such as payment addresses and the amount of the transaction, is a great advance in the crypto space.

In addition, the use of two different types of addresses – private and transparent – and their ability to interoperate with each other, provides great versatility to this cryptocurrency.

Fungibility

A currency that you can exchange for another that has exactly the same characteristics, regardless of whether it was used in legal or illegal operations – since it is impossible to trace – is a fungible currency.

The advantage of this is that if someone else did something “bad” with the coins you now have, it doesn’t necessarily affect you.

Scalability

Maintaining a good speed when processing transactions as the volume of these on the network increases, is a determining factor for a cryptocurrency to be considered as money for daily use. ZCash has managed to solve this problem with great efficiency, but it is something that Bitcoin is still struggling with.

Very, very low fees

Carrying out money sending and receiving transactions with ZCash is very affordable since the average transaction fee is very close to zero; in fact, most of the time the transactions have a cost close to 0.0001 ZEC. Even in situations where the network experiences a high volume of transactions and the blockchain is very active, fees don’t increase significantly.

Disclosure of information

The sender or recipient of a transaction have the option to disclose specific details of their operations to other people

Thanks to the use of view keys, users can reveal their information to a third party in cases of regulatory audits. This allows them to maintain their privacy while staying within the margins of the law.

Private memoranda

Another very useful feature of ZCash is its ability to send encrypted memos. This is especially useful for including messages such as instructions for the use of funds.

Decentralization

Since the ZCash blockchain is truly decentralized, the network is “naturally” very resistant to censorship and cyberattacks. Nor is there a central authority that has influence over the network operation.

Expiration of transactions

ZCash allows transactions to have an “expiration date” in order to minimize the impact on the network of unexploited transactions. By default, transactions that have not been processed after 50 minutes, will expire automatically and the funds will be returned to the sender.

Multi-signature transactions

Another interesting security feature of ZCash is that it supports transactions that require multiple signatures. This implies that some transactions, under certain circumstances, may require the authorization of two or more parties before funds can be sent. However, multi-signature transactions cannot be private, only public.

Acceptance in the real world

ZCash is a viable monetary alternative accepted by many merchants around the world, including service providers, vendors, retailers, and NGOs. You can find more information about this at the following Pay with ZCash link.

Easy access

Being one of the top cryptocurrencies on the market, ZEC is widely available in the main cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers that you can find on the Web. On top of that, it is easily accessible from multiple platforms, both desktop and mobile.

Conclusion

The evolution of the crypto ecosystem doesn’t stop, and as problems arise throughout this process, it’s important to focus on solutions with an open mind.

ZCash is one of those projects that offers practical solutions to problems that have arisen; a cryptocurrency to protect the sensitive data of its users without the need to trust any centralized data center or custody mechanism, in addition to being a guarantee of privacy.

When creativity is coupled with a vision, and people’s needs are taken into account, almost anything can be successfully accomplished. ZCash is the current proof of this.

Even though today, the interest of the general public in cryptocurrencies has increased considerably, there is still a need for projects to focus on ease of use in order to increase mass adoption of this new technology.

Dash is a cryptocurrency that was born with this idea in mind; a solution to make person-to-person payments in a quick, easy, and effective way, differentiating itself from other projects by presenting interesting and new features for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.

The great effort that the team behind Dash has been making to promote this cryptocurrency in regions heavily hit by economic and political crises, such as Latin America, has resulted in a growing popularity of its cryptocurrency.

In this guide, you’ll learn what is special about Dash and why we think it has a promising future. Let’s get started….bismillah. (In the name of Allah).

What is Dash crypto?

According to its White Paper, Dash is a digital currency that’s based on the fundamental idea behind the creation of Bitcoin, but providing some elements of its own, such as the use of masternodes and interfaces to access specialized services such as PrivateSend and InstantSend, which allow the sending of money privately and instantly in an easy way.

As with Bitcoin, Dash also has a limited production of coins, standing at 18,900,000 Dash units, a limit that according to its developers, will be reached around the year 2150.

The Dash network is also more “dynamic” than other blockchains, since a Dash block is generated every 2.6 minutes, and the reward within each block is reduced each year by 7.14%, much faster than what happens with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

This provides a more dynamic, fast, and stable network, ideal for day-to-day use.

The beginnings of Dash

The first version of the Dash software was named XCoin and was released on January 18, 2014, following an announcement on the famous BitcoinTalk forum from its creator, developer Evan Duffield.

The community around the project considered that the XCoin name was uncommercial and flashy, so on February 28, 2014, the name was changed to Darkcoin.

However, this name would also be short-lived, as they thought that it could give a negative perception about the coin to many users, so finally, on March 25, 2014, it was changed to Dash, a reduction of “Digital Cash.”

The cryptocurrency had a somewhat bumpy start since shortly after its launch, the network presented some technical failures that, however, were quickly resolved. After this, the development team has been growing at a constant and stable pace.

Finally, in December of 2017, and thanks to the boom in the cryptocurrency market, Dash reached an all-time high price of $1,642.22 USD, which served to place this cryptocurrency among the most desired assets in the market.

How is Dash different from Bitcoin?

As usual, let’s see how Dash compares to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency.

The consensus algorithm

Here is where we can find the main difference between both cryptocurrencies; while Bitcoin uses the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm, Dash uses X11, a combination of PoW and PoSe (Proof of Service).

This feature already makes Dash a much more scalable, dynamic, and sustainable cryptocurrency over time. Additionally, Dash uses CoinJoin mixing to facilitate private transactions within the network.

Transactions

In Bitcoin, the system requires that transactions are validated by the entire set of nodes that make up the network; this avoids requiring a central authority to perform this process.

The problem is that the PoW-based mining system requires a continuous and increasing investment in different resources like hardware, energy, and time. All this contributes to slowing down transactions within the network, but also in making them more expensive.

To solve this problem, Dash uses a masternode-based system. In this system, a subset of users that are part of a kind of staking pool, have special privileges to offer services within the network, at the same time that they receive rewards as a form of payment for their work.

Governance system

While Bitcoin requires the support of a community of academics to continue evolving, Dash has its own self-financing model. In this case, the system splits the rewards between masternodes, miners, and treasury.

Masternodes are the pieces that receive the highest percentage of rewards, and at the same time, they are the ones with the voting power to decide the future direction of the network. Another percentage of the rewards goes to the treasury which will then use the funds to finance future projects that might arise from these voting decisions.

The Dash network power resides in the masternodes

Masternodes are full nodes in the Dash blockchain whose main objective is to ensure the proper functioning of the network. Basically, it’s as if they were supervisors within the blockchain since they must control the updated consensus, the development process, and the economic system on the network.

Masternodes must verify, validate and/or reject new blocks generated by miners, but also provide services that are essential to the blockchain, such as PrivateSend and InstantSend.

Due to their importance and the work they do, masternodes must be rewarded when miners spawn new blocks. In this model, the rewards are distributed as follows:

• 45% for miners
• 45% for masternodes
• 10% is reserved for the budget fund (treasury)

All this is possible thanks to the particular mining model on the Dash blockchain.

In this model, the mining nodes try to solve the mathematical problems imposed by the X11 algorithm – specific to Dash – while the masternodes take care of the rest of the functions in the network.

It’s thanks to this system that Dash can implement many of its features, the main benefit being a great improvement in the security and scalability of the blockchain in general.

Any user can be a masternode, but there is a condition for this: each masternode must have a stake of a minimum of 1,000 Dash as collateral in order to participate. This model helps to control the number of masternodes within the network.

How Dash will improve user experience

The objective of this cryptocurrency is clearly defined on the official Dash website:

“To be the most user-friendly and scalable payments-focused cryptocurrency in the world.”

Dash Core Group, one of the organizations behind the cryptocurrency, has been promoting Dash as a digital currency focused on the transfer of value, to be used on a day-to-day basis, quickly, easily, and safely, including all types of users and institutions.

For example, in 2018, the Dash team began promoting their cryptocurrency in the Latin American region, specifically in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. The cryptocurrency has gained wide acceptance in these countries thanks to its ease of use, especially in Venezuela, due to the great popularity that cryptocurrencies have in this country.

Let’s take a closer look at the features of Dash that have made this cryptocurrency so attractive for many people.

InstantSend

InstantSend is a service that allows for super-fast transactions. For this, each transaction that uses this service is sent to be verified and validated by community consensus in the masternode network.

The transactions and blocks that present any conflict are rejected, and in case of not reaching an immediate consensus, the validation is then carried out through the standard system of validation.

PrivateSend

PrivateSend is an optional service that a user may select when it is necessary to keep one’s information private.

PrivateSend is a service that combines transactions in different currencies using the masternodes and the CoinJoin protocol. Each transaction that PrivateSend uses is the product of a combination of funds that come from a minimum of three different places.

In other words, the transactions of one user are combined or “crossed” with those of other users to make it much more difficult to trace transactions. This combination occurs within a masternode, without the need for information exchange that may reveal the identity of the involved users thus providing them security and anonymity.

Dash Platform

Dash Platform is a powerful set of cloud-based tools for developing decentralized applications (dApps) on the Dash blockchain.

Developers can use these tools and integrate them into their own applications quite quickly and easily through various SDKs (Software Development Kits) available on the platform and add different types of functions to their applications such as:

• A decentralized payments infrastructure
• Application data storage
• A user registration and identification system
• A robust cryptography system to secure user data and operations

The platform is designed in such a way that it makes the development and integration of applications in the Dash network much easier, while significantly reducing their development time.

DashPay Wallet

DashPay is a crypto wallet available for Android and iOS that has been developed using the tools available on the Dash Platform. DashPay is an application that brings interesting functions to the ecosystem. With DashPay wallet, normal users can:

• Create a unique user ID on the blockchain
• Create and customize a user profile
• Add a contact book to make payments
• Search contacts by username
• Make instant payments using only username

This new system allows the long cryptographic addresses that are typical of cryptocurrency wallets, to be exchanged for a simple username so that it is much easier to send money to other people using only the recipient’s username.

This form of identity within the blockchain is not limited to just the wallet address, as this system also allows you to add a profile photo, display name, and a short biography.

In addition, being based on contacts and not wallet addresses, once you have made a payment to other users, you can also add them as contacts for future payments, saving you from the long and tedious work of copying and pasting cryptographic addresses.

Once a username is registered, you’ll only have to pay a small fee to securely store your data on the network, including your profile photo, username, and contacts. Once the payment is confirmed, this user profile will be permanently recorded on the blockchain and you won’t be able to modify it.

FastPass

FastPass Network is an initiative that allows users to make deposits, transactions, and withdrawals almost instantly within a network of partner platforms.

The goal of FastPass is to provide a better trading experience for Dash users through a reputable partner network made up of a set of companies that offer different services related to the crypto ecosystem.

Some of the large organizations that are already part of this platform include:

• Coinbase
• CoinbasePro
• Liquid
• KuCoin
• Binance
• OKEx
• HitBTC
• WhiteBIT
• Indodax
• eToro
• Hummingbot
• Quadency
• Messari
• IntoTheBlock

Among many others.

This service operates through InstantSend or ChainLocks, which allow users of the associated platforms to perform operations with Dash with greater speed and security, and with much more competitive fees.

DashText

DashText is a special service that allows Dash users to create a wallet using just a phone and an SMS text message. This system was developed to make the use of Dash easier and more accessible in areas with very poor internet connection.

It is a solution designed especially for those who don’t have a smartphone to use Dash. This program started in Venezuela and has been spreading to other countries in the region. It is a free service with which it’s only necessary to send a text message to check your balance and the price in the market, but also for sending and receiving Dash.

Conclusion

Dash’s vision is pretty clear:

Provide a fast and efficient payment platform for as many users as possible around the world.

The Dash ecosystem already has partnered with almost 5,000 merchants and service providers around the world; they’re providing a quick and accessible payment system to hundreds of thousands of users in many countries. This vision is what has allowed it to gain wide acceptance among a large number of users, especially in certain regions of the world.

In general, the growth of Dash and its platform has been quite successful, even though the value of the cryptocurrency in the market does not reflect this great success.

Even so, it’s an asset with a very promising future, since the organizations behind the project continue to add improvements in their effort to obtain massive adoption of this cryptocurrency.

As always, even though Dash is a project worth keeping an eye on, you must also consider the risks involved when investing in any type of cryptocurrency. Never invest money you can’t afford to lose.

And in the end, Allah knows best.

Bitcoin created a new electronic version of cash to make it easier to send and receive payments in a quick, safe, and “private” way, without the need for intermediaries.

But note that I wrote “private” in quotes because, in reality, Bitcoin is not 100% private; in fact, anyone can see the public records of their transactions on the blockchain and therefore track them.

This has led many people to look for alternatives to preserve their privacy, and that is where Monero (XMR) enters the scene.

Monero is a private cryptocurrency that surpasses Bitcoin in many aspects: privacy, security, and scalability. This cryptocurrency has special cryptography that guarantees that all transactions are untraceable.

Monero certainly doesn’t have the degree of popularity that Bitcoin has, but even so, it hasn’t stopped growing since its creation in 2014, and today, you’ll learn why Monero is better than Bitcoin at privacy.

What is Monero?

On the official Monero website, you can find an interesting definition of this cryptocurrency:

“Monero is the leading cryptocurrency focused on private and censorship-resistant transactions.”

This also means that Monero is a secure, private, and untraceable cryptocurrency.

And indeed, it is; this cryptocurrency has special cryptography that guarantees that all transactions remain unrelated to their authors, making it impossible to trace them.

The word Monero means “currency” in the Esperanto language, and it has its origins as the first practical implementation of the Cryptonote protocol. Cryptonote is the technology behind many decentralized cryptocurrencies and although it has many similarities with the Bitcoin protocol, it also has important differences.

One aspect to highlight is that since its creation, Monero has been a digital currency focused on constantly improving security and privacy aspects, leaving efficiency and ease of use in the background.

The origins of Monero

Monero was born from a Bytecoin hard fork, one of the first cryptocurrencies focused on privacy that made use of the Cryptonote protocol, but which had several important flaws.

This hard fork occurred in April 2014, after an announcement on the well-known Bitcointalk forum by the user “thankful_for_today,” which proposed a series of changes to Bytecoin that was initially called “BitMonero.”

After passing the first stage of the project, it changed its name to what is now popularly known as, Monero, and since then, it hasn’t stopped growing.

Monero is a cryptocurrency that practically lives in anonymity, as even most of its main development team are unknown people.

At present time, we know the identities of Francisco Cabañas – doctor in physics – and Riccardo Spagni – developer – while the rest still retain their anonymity under the pseudonyms of Smooth, Othe, binaryFate, luigi1111, and NoodleDoodle, among others.

The project has had the participation of a large number of developers, although, at present, its main team consists of approximately 30 people.

How is Monero different from Bitcoin?

As with Bitcoin, Monero is a cryptocurrency that serves to transfer value in a secure, private, and decentralized way.

However, early on and like most cryptocurrencies, Monero sought to improve some aspects of Bitcoin, especially the ability to conduct private and censorship-resistant transactions.

Another aspect in which Monero differs from Bitcoin is in the maximum number of coins to be issued; Bitcoin has a limit of 21 million units, while Monero has an infinite supply of coins, in addition to a shorter time for block generation, being just 2 minutes, compared to 10 for Bitcoin.

It’s also worth highlighting the block size, which in the case of Bitcoin is 1 MB – one of its main problems – while in Monero the block size is dynamic, changing according to the volume of transactions on the network.

But with no doubt, the aspect in which Monero stands out the most is in privacy, something that allows us to avoid the violations of this right that many governments and corporations are perpetrating today.

While with some cryptocurrencies like Dash and Zcash users have the option to choose anonymity when making transactions; Monero includes this feature by default, making each transaction private, hiding the sending and receiving addresses, as well as the amount of the transaction.

In the next section, we’ll see how this particular Monero feature works.

Monero privacy features

Before taking a full look at the privacy aspects of Monero, it’s important to also understand the core values on which this cryptocurrency is based. According to what we can find on their website, they are the following:

Safety

Since users should be able to trust Monero without fear of errors or attacks from third parties. To guarantee this, Monero delivers the entire block reward to miners, since they are responsible for providing this security. Transactions are cryptographically secured using the most modern and efficient encryption tools.

Privacy

Monero wants to offer a layer of protection to its users against possible legal issues that could land them in jail or even cost them their lives. This level of privacy must be available to any user quickly and easily.

Decentralization

Thanks to decentralization, Monero doesn’t need a trusted third party or anyone to control it in order to be used. This decentralization is guaranteed by an accessible consensus algorithm that makes mining easy on common computers, preventing a single person or organization from centralizing mining power.

Now let’s explore what are the most important privacy features of Monero.

RandomX – The new Monero mining algorithm

In the past, the mining algorithm used by Monero was known as CryptoNight. This algorithm offered a certain degree of resistance to mining with expensive ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) equipment, something necessary to prevent that only companies with sufficient economic power have access to Monero mining. However, CryptoNight had its flaws.

Recently, these flaws have been corrected thanks to the implementation of a new mining algorithm known as RandomX, which not only offers the highest possible level of resistance against ASIC equipment but also improves some security and privacy features as well.

The operation of RandomX is based on the use of a mining core that works within a virtual machine. This is a great defense against ASIC, as ASIC hardware is not designed to run virtual machines, especially due to its low RAM.

RandomX also offers high-level cryptography by making heavy use of the Blake2b hash functions, the Argon2d password generator, and AES symmetric cryptography, resulting in truly exceptional cryptographic quality.

Ring Signatures

The Ring Signatures protocol is responsible for ensuring that the results of the transactions on the Monero network cannot be traced.

The algorithm achieves this by creating a signature for the sender’s address and sending it together with another group of user addresses with their own keys, that is, a packet or ring of signatures.

The main feature of this system is that it’s extremely difficult to determine which of the group member addresses was used to produce the signature for a particular transaction.

Stealth addresses

This protocol takes care of the privacy of the recipient of a specified transaction by hiding the public addresses in the blockchain registry at all times. It achieves this by making use of multiple keys and false public addresses that link to authentic public addresses to mask them so that the original addresses are never exposed.

For example, a public key is used to generate a unique public address where the funds will be sent, while a private key is given to the recipient so that he/she can unlock those funds. This allows real addresses to be hidden at all times so that only the users involved in the transaction have authentic, true, and accurate information about the transaction.

Fungibility

Fungibility is another cool feature of Monero. Basically, it means that each Monero unit can be freely exchanged for any other Monero unit. Since Monero allows you to hide the use you make of each unit, there is no way that a person can determine if a certain Monero unit was used in some type of illicit activity, for example.

This makes all Monero units equal and contributes to giving enormous flexibility and freedom to the use of Monero and is also one of the features of why Monero is often called – “the cryptocurrency of criminals” – but they say nothing about the US dollar?

Mining Monero

In the competitive cryptocurrency market, Monero has managed to create its own space and is currently one of the largest cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization that exceeds US $4 billion.

In addition, due to the good performance that it began to have since 2017, delivering returns close to 4K%, it’s not surprising that more and more people are interested in mining Monero.

Fortunately, and unlike Bitcoin, to mine Monero you don’t need to buy expensive ASIC equipment, which can cost more than $1,000 per unit. Instead, you can mine Monero using your own computer’s CPU or GPU, the more powerful it is, the better.

Also take into account that for mining to be profitable, you should keep your equipment – if you have several, much better – running 24 hours a day, so one key question must be answered:

Is the cost of electricity consumption for mining a unit of Monero, less than the current price of this coin in the market?

The profitability of Monero mining will depend on this factor. Take into account that in some countries, electricity is almost free, while in others it is very expensive, so you’ll have to calculate this cost in order to see if mining Monero is worthwhile for you.

Before you start mining, you’ll also need to decide if you want to mine Monero on your own or with the help of a mining pool. This last option would give you some advantage over solo mining – not recommended for beginners.

Once you have everything ready, starting to mine is just a matter of clicking a button and waiting for the profits insha’Allah.

Benefits of Monero

Although Monero has received many negative commentaries from the media, it is undeniable that this cryptocurrency has many possibilities and brings interesting benefits to its users. Those benefits are the following:

• Monero is one of the most private cryptocurrencies in the industry, and few can compare to it.

• Monero transactions cannot be tracked

• The dynamic block size gives Monero greater scalability compare to many other cryptocurrencies

• Monero will have a fixed infinite continuous emission of 0.3 XMR per minute so that miners will always have incentives to work

• It has had constant growth since its inception in 2014, which gives investors great confidence

• It can be totally transparent since if you wish, you can share your viewing keys and make your account auditable

• The fact that Monero can be auditable, gives it some legal guarantees, so it turns out that it should not be labeled as “illegal” currency after all

Disadvantages of Monero

Since nothing is 100% perfect, now it’s time to see the disadvantages of this cryptocurrency.

• Today, more than 40% of mining is carried out by 3 mining groups, so the decentralization factor is in doubt

• The size of Monero transactions is very large due to the amount of encryption in them to ensure privacy

• The compatibility of wallets for Monero is very limited and there are very few supported hardware wallets

• It’s not the most user-friendly cryptocurrency, as its main focus is on security and privacy – although the developers are improving this step by step

Is Monero halal?

Is Monero halal? Yes. Monero is halal. There is a growing number of scholars who rule cryptocurrency as halal and classify cryptocurrency tokens as either a currency or an asset. Scholars would most likely classify Monero as a currency since its primary function is to serve as an anonymous and fungible medium of exchange similar to anonymous and fungible cash and if Monero is classified as a currency, then the rules of riba al buyu would apply.

However, even though Monero is halal, it may still be ruled illegal to use by some governments as there are a number of governments that are against the proliferation of truly anonymous cryptocurrencies, so please be mindful of the laws of where you live if you chose to own, spend, or mine Monero.

Conclusion

Initially, Bitcoin promised privacy and anonymity, but sadly, this feature was relegated to the background when the cryptocurrency gained widespread popularity worldwide. This put it in the eye of the hurricane, for better and for worse.

Monero is an alternative cryptocurrency to Bitcoin with unique features in the aspect of privacy. It’s especially attractive to those who want to keep their cryptocurrency operations anonymous, and in this and other respects, it certainly outperforms Bitcoin.

It’s also true that these characteristics have earned it a bad reputation among some groups in the industry, especially in certain news media, but even so, the cryptocurrency has not stopped growing and gaining followers, remaining as an excellent and very profitable option to keep our eyes on in the competitive crypto ecosystem.