Long time no see for our HODL THAT! series – the markets have been just too dangerous to get into any altcoins, but slowly we can see a bottom and stagger back into our Gem positions. One of them is a true rough diamond we kept secret until now. To some, it is well-known for their rewarding Masternodes, others – more tech-sided crypto enthusiasts -get a hard-on for the rock-solid robust and real democratic and decentralized network behind the project. Ladies and Gentlemen, we fill some bags – (and soon run even masternodes) with $XLQ – the coin of the ALQO project from Germany/Switzerland. Take a look at the awesome tech with us:

What the heck is ALQO?

The ALQO project is a highly decentralized ecosystem of networks designed to aggregate blockchain financial and commercial services into one hub. The ALQO network comprises four major components Bitfineon, Liberia, Janus, and Coinfollium. The ALQO network is a community-driven, open, and accessible peer-to-peer network used to store data and facilitate digital transactions.

The project is aimed at providing users with infinite scalability, hyper-fast transaction speeds, and near-zero transaction fees. The ALQO network is characterized by low-entry barriers, user-friendly interfaces, a fully decentralized system, and large-scale interconnection of masternodes. The network is secured using the Quark hashing algorithm.

The ALQO network is a relatively new project in the cryptocurrency formed in October of 2017 by a team of three German nationals, located in beautiful Heidelberg: Kevin Collmer, Jared Grey, and Mortiz Hemberg. The founders still remain active in the network activities and have assumed active leadership on the project as CTO, CEO, and COO respectively.

The ALQO project has been lauded far and wide for its uniqueness and robust functionalities. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts and reputable players have had raving reviews on the project's economic principles and technical implementation. The project was ranked among the top five masternode projects by Omni Analytics Group. Below we look at some of the features that set apart ALQO from other existing blockchain projects.

Absolute Decentralization and Democracy

Most of the major Blockchain projects today have adopted the Application-specific Integrated Circuit(ASIC) algorithm for mining. ASIC tools are fairly expensive for most people and therefore mining is only left to a select few. ASCI allows users an unfair advantage thus eroding the principle of democracy envisioned by initial cryptocurrency founders.

To counter this emerging trend ALQO uses the Quark hashing algorithm. Quark is fairly lightweight and can be mined even with modest hardware devices, thus almost everyone can participate in mining. Additionally, Quark utilizes algorithms like Blake, Groestl, and Skein to ensure that it is virtually impossible for ASCI dedicated machine to operate on the ALQO blockchain.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies whereby there is a dedicated fund set aside for developers, ALQO community possess the veto power to allow or deny funds to a development project. The current system is flawed since the developer's team already have access to the fund's private key hence they are not in any way bound to the community's interest. Conversely, for ALQO, the community has the ability to decide whether a project should be funded or not.

ALQO has developed carbon voting, whereby one XLQ (default network coin) is assigned one vote. With carbon voting, voting is done off-chain and transferred to the master nodes for verification via end-to-end encryption. Each user is assigned a weighted voting power. Over and above carbon voting and ad-hoc development funding offer XLQ users with decisions making powers that are conspicuously missing in other cryptocurrencies.

Enhanced scalability and transaction capacity.

ALQO network allows the transfer of 4MB blocks in 60 seconds, this is over 40 times the volume transferred in Bitcoin. Bitcoin transfer a block size 1MB in 10 minutes. Additionally, ALQO blockchain is set to switch to dynamic block sizes as the network's usage increases. In the case of network congestion, the blockchain can dynamically increase the size of the blocks in order to transact a larger volume.

ALQO network is divided into two tiers the masternodes and the blockchain. Masternodes which are a network of highly available and dedicated servers that belong to the users. The masternodes help in facilitating fast and anonymous transactions, voting validation and contain a full copy of the network.

ALQO utilizes the Minimum Viable Chain(MVC) to conduct transactions in the shortest time possible. An MVC refers to the chain which is closet to the performing node and is compatible with incoming blocks and is able to handle all the transactions therein. MVC is run on a thin client and therefore does not contain a full copy of the blockchain. MVCs are capable of providing the chain with continuity without sacrificing storage and computational resources. Each device is able to mine and create blocks hence everyone is able to participate in the network.

The Liberio Framework & Wallet

Built on top of the ALQO network is a semi-thin client framework known as Liberio. This framework is designed to run an array of devices ranging from small mobile devices to heavy-duty dedicated services. The framework is designed to offer seamless functionalism and a user-friendly interface.

Some of the key features of the liberio framework include; ALQO hyper send, ALQO shroud, ALQO hosting framework, wallet to wallet chats, master node connectivity, cold staking, and a built-in Palacio framework. Over and above the liberio framework offers the ALQO project with infinite and robust functionalities that most other projects can only dream of. The liberio framework places a significant premium on the ALQO project thus setting the stage for its widespread adoption in the coming future.

The hot thing is, that you can use this wallet (already now!) to cold stake your XLQ and earn – often as much or even more than with the masternode, independent from the amount of XLQ you stake.

Atomic Swaps

To counter the challenges of dealing with cryptocurrency exchange platforms, the ALQO network has developed atomic swaps. Atomic swaps allow users to change a coin for another directly from their wallets without a third-party intermediary. To achieve the vision of full cryptocurrency economy blockchains must incorporate interconnections amongst each other.

Being hash encrypted and time locked, Atomic swaps act as escrow services and complete transactions ones all the set conditions are met and validated. Initially, the ALQO projects aim at implementing on chain atomic swaps but later transit to off-chain swaps. To complete the swaps, however, the network will require branched transactions scripts, identical hash algorithm, signatures checks, and verification.

The XLQ Coin

The XLQ coin was launched in October '17. Currently, the XLQ is priced at $ 0.17 with over 57.24 million coins in circulation. According to CoinMarketCap, XLQ is ranked at 351 with a market cap of $9.54 million. While the coin has not managed to replicate its record prices of $2.2 witnessed in January 2018, there is hope that the coin is now poised for the much-anticipated growth in the coming months. The bear market left a huge upside technically for XLQ and the assumption you hardly won't get a cheaper opportunity to start your ALQO masternode if you wish to.

You need to stack 10,000 XLQ for one Masternode, which equals ~$1,786.72. You can expect an annual reward of 55.92% which is quite interesting for the long term hodl. Also, the amount of coins locked in Masternode seems to stabilize the price. Currently, it has still retraced 88.3% from its All-Time-High, so there is plenty of room to get in and hold. We expect much to come, as the work by the restless DEVs is outstanding and the marketing of ALQO hasn't even started yet.

Below we look at some of the reasons why we think ALQO(XLQ) is going to be a major gem for investors going into the future.

Our Buy Orders for XLQ

We spread staggered buy orders in the support zone, marked with a blue box in the image below. We don't want to miss the chance to shoot us full masternode for only 0.25 BTC. We buy even more, as we want to make sure to get at least 10k XLQ even if not all orders are hit, plus you have to consider the exchange/transaction fees, you want to have 10k XLQ arriving.

Use case of XLQ and ownership benefits

The XLQ coin is mostly used for conducting payments on ALQ’s cloud services. The coin will also be used for issuing smart digital assets and executing smart contracts. The coin can also be used as collateral for operating and creating masternodes as well as service nodes.

XLQ coin holders will be able to participate in governance and decision making on the ALQO network. Through carbon voting, users can vote on development proposals and future asset listing on Bitfineon. The coin will be the native base market on the Bitfineon exchange and holders will receive 50% share of the Bitfineon revenue.

We see the price increasing long-term for the following reasons/fundamentals:

Bitfineon will launch soon and will have XLQ has base currency for their trading instruments

Whilst 55% p.a. / masternode seem not to be much at the current moment, it should increase with the launch of Bitfineon as the difficulty rate will increase again. We can see much more rewards than this.

Liberio is almost ready to launch – and it is revolutionary! Already now you can import your private key and stake your XLQ on Liberio and become rewarded for staking your coins. This is is amazing as you earn just for keeping your XLQ in the wallet – on autopilot, you have nothing else to do. Recently the staking rewards even topped the Masternode rewards (this is dynamic and can switch anytime). What we do? We hold a masternode and another portion of our coins on Liberio, this way we hedge both against each other and earn either way. You see, reasons to hold XLQ are very obvious and this will decrease the circulating supply, while the demand might rise with all the news upcoming.

With an improved reward for the masternode, XLQ owners won't sell which decreases the amount XLQ in circulation, on top of the of the fact it is already a small cap coin.

Do yourself a favor and check the roadmap – this guys have insane things to come, we just highlighted a few of the things they have in the pipeline, but there is so much more to come!

Low inflation monetary policy

Having seen and experienced the risk of high inflation and currency devaluation with the current national currencies, ALQO(XLQ) has attempted to solve this problem by offering an ever decreasing emission rate. In the recent past, we have also witnessed massive price spikes and catastrophic dips on cryptocurrencies. ALQO(XLQ) aims at retaining its nature as disinflationary currency.

ALQO(XLQ) aims at creating a maximum of 62 million coins after which the coins will be decreased at an annual deflation rate of 4%. These measures will essentially protect the coins value from excessive volatility. Could XLQ even become a safe haven coin?

Hybrid Proof of Work and Proof of Stakes

Initially, the ALQO network plans to allow mining through Proof of Work (PoW) and later move on to a Proof of Stake (PoS) system. The PoW algorithm rewards users with new coins after performing complex mathematical problems. Conversely, in a PoS system users are rewarded with a pre-determinate amount of coins according to the number of coins they have stored undisturbed “staked” on the network’s chain. The main purpose of these two algorithms is to verify transaction legitimacy and create new coins.

ALQO (XLQ) use of the two algorithms (albeit separately) aims at providing users with the best of the two worlds. In the initial stages of the coin, development will benefit from a trustless and distributed environment using PoW. After the coin has grown substantially and the cost of PoW mining increases users will be cushioned by the transition to PoS. A Proof of Stakes network will also be more secure since attacks will be more expensive in a PoS system.

Cold staking

Most PoS systems available today require users to maintain a hot (online) wallet and have a mature balance in order to be considered for rewards by the network. Users without the inclination or ability to maintain a hot wallet throughout are therefore disadvantaged. Consequently, the exclusion from the network diminishes its overall security and rewards are distributed to a few participants.

With cold staking, XLQ coin holders can stake their coins even when they don't have an active connection to the network. The network is now able to benefit from staking resources from offline users and the users are able to enjoy rewards. This system enables for increases decentralization and fairness as every stakeholder is able to grow their value with time.

Fast, private and low-cost transactions

The XLQ coin is quite attractive for investors and traders courtesy of it its enhanced transaction speeds, increased privacy and low cost. At a speed of 4mb per minutes, XLQ offers 40 times the speed offered by market leader Bitcoin. XLQ can also be transferred in dynamic sizes hence it is virtually impossible for the coins underlying network to become congested.

Additionally, using the ALQO hyper-send and shroud services users can choose how whether the coins are transacted with an emphasis on speed or privacy. Once sent, funds are received and spendable by the recipient almost instantly and with minimal fees. HyperSend supports a network throughput 20x greater than is possible on the Bitcoin network, for less than a cent.

A Final Note

The ALQO project is a quite robust and extensive network with immense ambitions and potential. The network has incorporated vital and futuristic features that if implemented to the end will place the network as a leader in the blockchain industry. Despite being in its initial stages the project is developing massive interest, going into the future is only going to grow even further.

Cryptocurrency investors and trader looks to invest in a coin that is unique, reliable, scalable, fungible and with a vibrant community behind it. XLQ encapsulates all these attributes in totality. XLQ is a gem that has yet to be discovered by most. Its robust and dynamic functionalities and design are irresistible for the purist looking for completely decentralized and democratic coin. While the coin has not generated much up due to its subdued marketing strategies, looking at its powerful functionalities you can tell its only a matter of time before it comes to the limelight. See what will happen with the anticipated Bitfineon launch, see what will happen with the Masternode rewards – and see what might ultimately happen with the price of XLQ. In our opinion, this is the time for shrewd investors to wake up and smell the coffee.