It is evident a lot of the top 50 cryptocurrencies and ICO tokens derive their value from speculation first and foremost. Most of these projects have no working product, and their developers announce features which may or may not be delivered on time. In the case of Verge – a coin recently hyped by John McAfee – it seems the launch of its Wraith protocol has triggered a massive sell-off. That’s not entirely surprising, considering this new feature is not that big of a deal upon closer inspection.
Verge’s Wraith Protocol Implementation is Live
A lot of Verge supporters have been looking forward to the launch of the so-called Wraith protocol. Any privacy-centric cryptocurrency or digital token needs to keep evolving at the protocol level. Although it seems the Verge team has done a pretty good job so far, there was still a need for the Wraith protocol. However, whereas some people thought this was the Holy Grail of privacy, it remains to be seen if that is the case.
Although Wraith is still a valuable addition to the project, a Tor-based connection is not without its security or privacy flaws either. Moreover, anyone who genuinely values their privacy can simply use Tor independently of Verge and achieve a very similar goal. Whether or not this feature warranted all of the price hype it’s received over the past few weeks will always remain a big mystery. However, it seems the market hasn’t responded to the new feature all that well.
That is quite surprising, as the Wraith protocol seemingly allows users to be both public and private at the same time. No other cryptocurrency offers this functionality, although Monero certainly provides an option to be as transparent – or anonymous – as one likes at all times. This will not automatically turn Verge into the most anonymous and secure cryptocurrency by any means, although its community will gladly tell you otherwise. So far, the market seems to disagree with them in this regard.
There was some initial price movement right before the Wraith protocol was launched to the public. Unfortunately, its client release didn’t go off without a hitch, as only the MacOS version was available from the start. It took some time to add both Linux and Windows clients to the list, but the developers pulled it off eventually. It is still unclear why all three clients were not ready for the launch at the correct time, considering that Wraith was announced several weeks if not months ago. Missing deadlines is frowned upon in the cryptocurrency world, which is only understandable.
So far, it seems the Verge price will recover eventually, but the bearish sentiment is still in effect as we speak. Ever since Wraith was launched on all operating systems, the Verge price has been sliding down. It is evident that competition in the world of privacy and anonymity-oriented cryptocurrencies can only be considered a good thing. However, it is difficult to publicly state that one is better than the other unless you know exactly how these features work from a developer’s point of view. People tend to get swept up in the hype rather than do their own research these days.
The year 2018 will be critical for all cryptocurrencies offering privacy and anonymity features. Governments all over the world are cracking down on the usage of Bitcoin and other public currencies. With Verge, Monero, Dash, and a few others offering ways to hide one’s tracks, it seems only a matter of time until more people switch to these currencies. Then again, it remains difficult to predict the cryptocurrency industry, as there is a clear absence of logic on most days.
