In this installment we're going to take a look at privacy coins. There are a large number of 'privacy coins' on the market right now, most seem to be using the cryptonight algorithm, but we're seeing a new breed of privacy coins that are looking to change the game. The trade mags and blogs are still talking about the big guns, Monero, Dash, ZCash, Verge, and of course some favorites like PIVX, and Horizen

a lot of coins from all over the crypto-sphere are toting one kind of privacy feature or another-

RingCT, Stealth Addresses, Private Send(Dark Send), Zero Knowledge Proofs, Tor, etc. What are these new generations of coins bringing to the table? Because there are quite a few, and I've been getting more suggestions along the way, this is going to a multi-part installment, starting with 4.1, and moving up in point installments (4.2, 4.3, etc.)

So far the list includes: Beam, Grim, Pirate, Veil, Komodo, TELE, Apollo. Of course, if anyone in the community has any suggestions, feel free to add them.

BEAM

Beam(and Grin) were both very hyped at the beginning of 2019 and saw exponential increases in mining in a very short period of time. Both coins seem to want to solve the same problem but with different roads to get there. Beam was founded in March of 2018 by a team of Israeli crypto-geeks who didn't waste time with 'community' development, nor the pace it usually moves at, they sought out venture capitalists, and hired a dedicated team and got to it. This approach is the inverse of the Grin approach.

The algorithm behind both Beam and Grin is Mimblewimble. If the name sounds like something out of a Harry Potter movie, that's because it is. In the books and movies, Mimblewimble is the name of a spell that stops you from speaking on certain topics, which works well if you happen to be a privacy focused cryptocurrency. Clever.... First envisioned in 2016 by a mysterious cryptographer whose is also loosely based on a Harry Potter character. Tom Elvis Jesudor, one of the many silly names for Voldemort.

GRIN

Grin was the first to start an implementation of Mimblewimble back in 2016, but they were beaten to the punch out of the starting gate by Beam. It doesn't appear to have deterred them though. Grin is still working hard at improving their blockchain, but as a small, volunteer only team, progress is not as fast as with Beam.

Grin does, however, have a large community fan base, and plans to keep the community aesthetic, with the direction of the coin left to the community, and the devs. If you are tech savvy, and don't mind dealing with cli wallets, opening ports on your router, etc, then Grin is a good choice for people looking for community based, decentralized currencies. Beam has a lot of institutional investors, and money for a full-time dev team, so there's been talk that they may already be a centralized coin.

As with any coin, do your research before diving into the rather new, and slightly rough, uncharted waters.

Mimblewimble's aim is to solve the issues of privacy and scalability, a big complaint among the crypto community with coins like Bitcoin. Mimblewimble removes pesky things like multiple inputs and outputs, instead relying on a single multisignature to send and receive coins. Only the two people involved in the transaction are aware of the exchange, and there are no addresses to use to track transactions. Beam uses addresses for send/receive, whereas, currently, Grin only allows transfers through an ip address and port on your computer. Beam has a slick looking logo, and nice GUI wallet, things Grin is sorely lacking. They appear to be looking to differentiate themselves from Grin with a fast development cycle and polished site and wallets. With institutional money, and paid developers they may very well succeed in being the top of the pack of any new batch of Mimblewimble based coins.

VEIL

Veil is an always-on privacy coin that is POW/POS, and utilizes RingCT, Zerocoin's Zero-knowledge proofs, and like PIVX, has a basecoin, that can then be 'minted' into zerocoin, with the leftovers going to the mintable CT balance. Veil also utilizes bulletproofs, and has support for the dandelion protocol.

Veil is mineable( for about the next year) and is using X16RT, an improved version of the ASIC resistant Ravencoin algo X16R. So far mining has been smooth, and transactions seem to come through quickly. Hashrate is growing on this coin fast, as is the price. The value was around 21 cents, took a dip earlier this month, and made a quick recover back up to the 21 cent mark, with spikes to just shy of 24 cents.

I have never mined an X16R coin before, but I like the way this project is setup, so I got right into it, I took 4 cards( 2 8gb RX480, and 2 8GB RX 470) and with mostly stock settings, and setting the power limit at -25, I was able to mine around 6 Veil a day. Now, because this coin cycles through so many algorithms, the power usage and amount mined varies wildly. Power ranges from around 500 watts to around 730 watts. It does seems to stay more on the low side(at least the times I checked) so between 550-600, which is great if your trying to save money on your electric bill. I only pay around 0.08 per kw/h, but it still adds up.

Veil has a functional, and clean GUI wallet, that should allow you to do everything you need with your Veil.

Veil is also Proof of Stake, with staking being exclusive to Zercoin only.

Of the three coins I've reviewed so far, I think overall, Veil has been the smoothest experience. (With both grin and beam there were issues with the wallets(syncing issues, and router port settings issues)

So in addition to the other coins I mine, I'm adding Veil to that list. I also have traded in some coin to buy more Veil now before the inevitable rise in price I forsee coming in the near future.

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