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What Is PIVX?

PIVX is an advanced cryptocurrency focused on privacy and security for digital cash. As a community-led project that forked from the Dash blockchain, it uses the Zerocoin protocol to anonymize transactions through its onchain Zerocoin Decentralized Exchanged (zDEX) for untraceable transactions. The name is an acronym, which stands for Private Instant Verified Transaction (PIVX).

PIV is minted through a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and Zerocoin-Proof-of-Stake (ZPoS) hybrid consensus algorithm. This enables psuedonymous and anonymous transactions, which the PIVX Community labels as “extreme privacy.”

PIVX was launched January 31, 2016 by Dash community members who wanted to shift the reward system while focusing development on faster transactions times, privacy, and security. It’s focused on being a vanilla digital cash that enables fast value transfers. It’s more anonymous than other privacy coins like Zcash because the Zerocoin protocol is actually a custom version that also has a mechanism to auto-mint anonymous coins.

Anonymity is retained on PIVX using zPIV tokens on the zDEX, which are then processed by Masternodes using SwiftX technology.

We’ll dive a bit more into the nuts and bolts of this privacy coin in a minute. First, let’s review the market performance of PIV, the native cryptocurrency of PIVX, and its usage as a privacy coin for digital cash.

PIV Cryptocurrency Summary

As of December 24, 2018, the circulating supply of PIVX was 56,781,166 PIV. There is no maximum supply, although transaction and zPIV mining fees are burned to control the supply. The peak price of PIV so far was $14.24 on January 10, 2018.

Approximately 2.6 million PIV is minted each year. Of that supply, 90 percent goes to staking wallets and Masternodes, and 10 percent funds budget proposals voted on by the PIVX Community.

Becoming a PIVX Masternode require hodling a minimum of 10,000 PIV in the PIVX-Qt wallet. Balances under 10,000 PIV can still be staked for disbursements, which are distributed in proportion to holdings. A seesaw mechanism balances rewards between Masternodes and individual stakeholders, and a community-made PIVX returns calculator will show you exactly what the staking rewards are at currently.

PIVX is theoretically capable of transaction speeds of up to 173 TPS, with blocks processed approximately every 60 seconds. When the PIVX zDEX is used, a zPIV token is created to represent its value, similar to wrapped Ether. You can’t remove zPIV tokens from the PIVX network.

PIV is tradeable on a variety of cryptocurrency exchange markets, including Binance, Bithumb, Upbit, and Bittrex. Over $1.5 million is traded on a daily basis, and trading pairs include BTC, ETH, BNB, even fiat currencies like USD and EUR.

The PIVX wallet is surprisingly sophisticated for a community-developed project. Both Android and iOS wallets are available and use 2-factor authentication and even a hardware dongle. The wallet functions much more like a mobile payment solutions (i.e. Paypal or Apple Pay) than a traditional cryptocurrency wallet.

PIVX: Anatomy of a Privacy Coin

As you’ve probably figured out by now, PIVX is a community project, and it comes with a manifesto. According to the PIVX Community:

Privacy is a non-negotiable. It’s a basic human right. Technology is advancing, governance must also. Freedom is everything. The Daos are untouchable…

The community is active on Reddit, Discord, Telegram, and all the major cryptocurrency chat channels. Its ultimate aim is to become a mobile payment platform for cryptocurrencies. In that respect, it’s competing with projects like Dash, Wanchain, Monero, and Pundi X.

The key to competing is in creating a multifunctional wallet that acts as both a traditional cryptocurrency token wallet and a decentralized exchange. Consider all the functionality you have in a mobile app from Paypal or USAA. You can check balances, transfer money, make deposits and withdrawals, and spend your money. Much of this functionality isn’t readily available in cryptocurrency (although it’s very quickly coming).

To spend coins anonymously, users convert PIV tokens to zPIV, which wraps them in a zerocoin protocol, allowing them to be spent. SwiftX technology makes the coins spendable within seconds, even though the transactions aren’t technically verified until a minute or more later. The community is also hard at work reducing transaction fees and times to ensure PIVX remains as lean as competitors like Nano.

With the encryption and security measures put in place, PIVX retains much of the functionality of Dash and its DashPay system, albeit somewhat behind in adoption development. It’s arguably (and the community will certainly argue) a much safer and more secure payment option though.

While the PIVX Community pushes toward privacy, however, government regulators are pushing against it. Even though privacy coins have the ability to be traded anonymously, regulated exchanges require it turned off. Privacy and anonymity are only available for OTC trades.

One can only wonder how this community-led project will fare against .govs without specialized professional assistance.

PIVX Summary

PIVX is a community-led project that forked from Dash to focus on anonymity in mobile cryptocurrency payments. In this respect, it’s very similar to Dash’s initial focus, and constant involvement from many hands is both a blessing and a curse to this project. The success of PIVX hinges on these key factors:

PIVX uses a proprietary Zerocoin protocol to completely anonymize transactions using zPIV tokens. zPIV tokens are wrapped versions of PIV tokens that allow for anonymity.

The PIVX-qT wallet includes a zDEX that allows for OTC token trades. The project is mobile-first, and its wallet will likely be the flagship development projects of PIVX.

PIVX uses SwiftX technology to enable transactions faster than they’re verified, making it a fast currency transfer solution. The ultimate security of this system over others is yet to be tested.

With these pieces in place, PIVX stands to remain a popular mobile payment solution for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. If it’s expanded to interact with more tokens, it could become a powerful financial tool. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, and it won’t be long before governments around the world try to crack down on privacy coins again.