Quality governance and transaction privacy are two major features that cryptocurrency users are beginning to look for when choosing a digital asset. It comes as no surprise that these are two areas in which Bitcoin is currently struggling, opening the door for smaller projects to quickly grab a significant market share as mainstream adoption accelerates.

While there are a number of projects focused on either governance or privacy, there are a few that have prioritized both features. One such project is PIVX, which leverages a customized Zerocoin Protocol for instantaneous, private transactions and a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism with a network of masternodes to create a better system of governance.

Interested in PIVX? Here’s a quick rundown of the project:

Platform & Development

In short, PIVX achieves truly anonymous transactions, community-driven development and easy usage through a number of key features:

Zerocoin Protocol: Provides the PIVX network with protocol-level coin mixing service using zero-knowledge proofs to create untraceable and anonymous transactions. Zerocoin works to convert publicly viewable PIV into an anonymous PIV, coined ‘zPIV’. Each time a user mints zPIV, the original PIV is burned. When a user sends zPIV, it appears in the receivers wallet as regular PIV without history. This makes PIV completely fungible.

SwiftTX: Transactions are confirmed and spendable within seconds, guaranteed by the network of masternodes. This eliminates the long wait times associated with network confirmations and seriously increases the usability of PIV.

See-Saw Rewards Mechanism: A variable reward system to keep a proper balance between masternodes, which are charged with network services, and staking wallets, which are charged with the security of the network. You can read more on this algorithm in a dedicated technical paper.

Masternodes: These are incentivized nodes that receive rewards based on their availability and their ability to offer network services in a decentralized and trust-less manner.

In order to run a PIVX masternode, you must dedicate 10,000 PIV to the network, which costs tens-to-hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on market conditions. Like with other masternode systems, the PIV coins never leave the possession of the node holder. It’s interesting to note that the PIVX community, which initially only allowed masternode holders to vote, voted to include a more expansive portion of the staking community.

PIVX has a detailed roadmap, with a number of intriguing features soon to roll out, including:

Ledger Hardware Wallet Masternode Collateral Support: This feature will allow masternode collateral to be secured in a Ledger device, while simultaneously running masternodes, earning rewards, zDEX transaction fees, and voting.

This feature will allow masternode collateral to be secured in a Ledger device, while simultaneously running masternodes, earning rewards, zDEX transaction fees, and voting. In Wallet Voting Tab: Users will be able to easily vote for all PIVX proposals from within the QT wallet’s graphic user interface.

Users will be able to easily vote for all PIVX proposals from within the QT wallet’s graphic user interface. zPIV Decentralized Exchange (zDEX): Trade for zPIV and BTC on the PIVX network. zDEX is hosted on zDEXNodes (Masternodes). MN owners get rewards from the trading.

Team

PIVX boasts an impressive team that is comprised of experts in multiple areas, ranging from governance to system architecture and community management. Given the nature of PIVX’s governance system, the project’s community is very active and growing.

Token Financials

PIVX (PIV) currently has a market cap of ~$235 million with a circulating supply of 55,961,213 PIVX.

Final Take

PIVX’s focus on privacy and governance has positioned the project to make significant moves in 2018. With a continuously evolving masternode incentive system and a number of exciting upcoming milestones, PIVX aims to surpass all other privacy-centric projects.

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Disclaimer: The author(s) of this article may have a position in one or more of the cryptocurrencies mentioned above. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.