What is Groestlcoin And is it a Good Investment?

There are currently over 1,500 crypto assets cryptocurrencies that investors can choose from to construct their digital asset portfolios. While the bulk of a portfolio should ideally be composed of the market-leading coins and tokens such as bitcoin, ether, litecoin, monero, and ripple there is always space for a few smaller coins that have the potential to multiply in value faster than their large-cap counterparts.

While there are a select few cryptocurrencies that are able to compete with the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of public attention, there are some digital currencies that have some noteworthy characteristics that may lend them to widespread use, which could result in a substantial increase in price. A good example of this would be groestlcoin.

What is Groestlcoin?

A competition was organized by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), called the NIST hash function competition, which attempted to develop an algorithm that would work in tandem with older SHA algorithms and mitigate any challenges therein.

While the Keccak group eventually won the competition and was subsequently used to formulate the SHA-3 algorithm by NIST, Groestl was declared to be a finalist in this competition. Its cryptographic design, known as Groestl-0, became the basis for the technology upon which Groestlcoin is now built upon.

Groestlcoin (GRS) features an algorithm that is unique to the digital currency, created during the competition. The algorithm is defined as “an iterated hash function, where the compression function is built from two fixed, large, different permutations. The design of Grøstl is transparent and based on principles very different from those used in the SHA-family.”

The algorithm utilizes a cryptographic tool known as wide pipe design, which is based on a cryptographic architecture named the Merkle-Damgard construction. The whitepaper explains further:

“The Grøstl hash function iterates an underlying compression function in a variant of the Merkle-Damg˚ard construction where the size of the state (or chaining value) passed on from one iteration to the next is at least twice as large as the final hash value. The final hash value is computed from the last chaining value using an output transformation. Hence, Grøstl is known as a wide pipe design.”

The algorithm is designed to provide a high level of security with regards to attacks to the blockchain. “The two permutations used are constructed using the wide trail design strategy, which makes it possible to give strong statements about the resistance of Grøstl against large classes of cryptanalytic attacks. Moreover, if these permutations are assumed to be ideal, there is a proof for the security of the hash function.”

Moreover, Groestl’s algorithm borrows heavily on the AES block cipher design, which carries the distinction of being named as the standard set by the United States federal government. That is because AES is flexible enough to support a good level of performance on a wide variety of platforms, largely due to a wide range of implementation methods. “Grøstl is a byte-oriented SP-network which borrows components from the AES. The S-box used is identical to the one used in the block cipher AES, and the diffusion layers are constructed in a similar manner to those of the AES.”

The cryptocurrency was eventually launched on March 22, 2014. The team behind the coin is focused on ensuring the token stays at par with current standards within the crypto space, releasing updates every three months. The digital currency was the first to implement SegWit in January 2017. As a result, the transaction speeds within its network are very fast.

Moreover, Groestlcoin has enabled the Lightning Network, which facilitates transactions with near-zero fees. “The fee for transferring 10,000 GRS will be 0.000045 GRS.” In addition, instant payments, scalability as well as Atomic Swaps are made possible by the addition of the Lightning Network to Groestlcoin’s blockchain.

Another important feature of note is the privacy-centric nature of the coin. Using a wallet developed and provided by the team as a result of the implementation of BIP147, it is possible to have complete privacy with regard to transactions on Groestlcoin. The team explains:

“The Samourai wallet, boasts its anonymity and security, as it allows for private stealth addresses with both TOR and VPN support, as well as onboard AES-256 encryption.”

Groestlcoin is one of the coins designed for GPU mining. Due to its algorithm, no ASICs have been developed suitable for its mining. Also, the algorithm provides it with a level of resistance to mining multipools which gives the individual with a GPU the opportunity to compete on an equal level, which makes it popular with miners. While block rewards started out as 512 coins, it is currently at the fixed minimum of five GRS per block.

The cryptocurrency also claims to be the only currency that can be sent over the phone as an SMS.

The Price Activity Of Groestlcoin

Groestlcoin (GRS) has a market capitalization of around $37 million. It is currently trading at $0.53 and is ranked at 222 on CoinMarketCap and 136 on CoinGecko. The altcoin’s total supply is 105 million. Following constant performance within a price range of low values, Groestlcoin saw it’s all-time-high on December 2017, during the cryptomarket rally, reaching a value of $2.25.

It is possible to acquire the digital currency through a number of exchanges such as Bittrex, Cryptopia, Coinexchange, Ccex, and Bitpanda, among others.

The chart below shows the weekly price action for GRS-BTC over the past 12 months. THe market has retreated away from the fractal support at 0.00005506 and now looks to attempt the resistance at 0.00007075. Notice that if the market manages to regain 0.00007075 (open of the large bullish candle from mid-December), we should see bulls reinvigorated. Resistances lie at 0.00011146 and 0.00016708, with the latter resistance approximately triple the current value of the coin.

GRS-BTC: Weekly, Bittrex

On March 22, Groestlcoin’s fourth anniversary, there will be new community and development releases, the introduction of a third-party wallet, and listings on new exchanges.

Should You Add GroestlCoin To Your Portfolio?

If you believe in the future value of privacy-centric digital currencies, then adding some Groestlcoin exposure to your cryptoasset portfolio would make sense. This coin is relatively unknown but has an active team working on it that aims to add innovative features to the coin on an ongoing basis. Hence, it may be an opportunity to get in at a price level now that we will not see again in the future.

Having said that, Groestlcoin is by no means a staple holding in a digital asset investment portfolio as it is a small privacy-focused coin that has heavyweight competitors in its market segment that are much more popular and established.