Privacy coin PIVX recently announced that it has achieved the first-ever Zerocoin mint on a mobile wallet. The move marks an important first step towards a functional mobile client.
The company delivered the news on Twitter, writing: “Core mobile & light wallet developer Furszy has achieved the first ever mainnet #Zerocoin mint from a mobile wallet. Transaction privacy coming soon to the mobile wallet. Stay tuned.”
So, How Does This All Work?
PIVX leverages a customized Zerocoin protocol to give customers quick, privatized transactions via a proof-of-stake (Pos) consensus mechanism. This creates a stronger and more stable system of governance amongst the currency’s network, which is something most cryptocurrency investors now say they look for prior to placing their hard-earned dollars into a crypto venture.
Read: Our Guide to PIVX
Larger digital currencies like bitcoin, for example, have long suffered from lagging governance, thereby giving smaller currencies like Ethereum and EOS the chance to step in and take over in some instances.
Out with the Old, In with the New
The Zerocoin protocol offers the PIVX network a coin-mixing service that utilizes zero-knowledge proofs, thereby creating transactions that are both completely anonymous and untraceable. Viewable PIV is transferred into an anonymous version of PIV called “zPIV,” and every time a user mints this currency, the original PIV is burned. Whenever the currency is sent, the receiving wallet shows it as regular PIV without history, making it completely interchangeable while still retaining the customer’s privacy.
Read: What is ZK-Snarks?
Users will soon be able to better leverage their holdings via their mobile phones. In addition, the announcement has seemingly boosted the currency’s market cap to roughly $108 million. Unlike bitcoin – which has exploded by over $2,000 and jumped from the $5,800 mark to roughly $8,200 at press time – PIVX has been trapped in the doldrums as of late and dropped from approximately $2.02 per coin to $1.90 in just a matter of days.
Power to the People
The primary goal of cryptocurrency has been to take financial power away from banks and traditional institutions and place it back in the hands of normal, everyday people. However, as cryptocurrency has stretched further into mainstream territory, it has also become the victim of malicious activity and cyberattacks.
Amongst the biggest examples are Mt. Gox in Japan in 2014, where over $400 million worth of bitcoin practically disappeared overnight, and the Coincheck hack last January. Also headquartered in Japan, the exchange lost more than half-a-billion in NEM coins to cyberthieves.
Consumers Want to Stay Protected
With the cryptocurrency space still largely unregulated and unmonitored, many investors and game-players are looking for new ways to protect themselves and their assets from online criminals, which is why so many are suddenly turning to private coins. The idea of anonymous transactions that leave little to no trace is appealing to many hardcore investors who are now looking to stay out of the limelight and avoid losing money.
Read: Our Guide to Privacy Coins
Other currencies similar with PIVX include Monero, which offers anonymization and untraceable transactions to its users by using ring signatures and stealth addresses; Dash, which arrived through a bitcoin fork and utilizes a strategy called “PrivateSend” to anonymize transactions; and Verge, which banks on the Onion Router (TOR) and the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) to protect its customer’s identities. Another example is ZCash, which utilizes a cryptographic tool called Zero-Knowledge Proof that allows users to shield their transactions.
Conclusion
What makes PIVX’s proof-of-stake protocol attractive is the fact that it utilizes an entire of network of master nodes built for governing its ecosystem. Thus, traders can expect an entirely anonymous system while avoiding software bugs and other hurdles.
While it is still early on, it will be interesting to see if other coin’s follow PIVX’s lead.