The Monero ecosystem attracts a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts who seek more anonymity. Although the XMR technology itself does a great job at this, some users feel there is room for more services to provide additional functionality. This is why there is a new service known as VUALIFI. The goal is to provide truly anonymous payments in different currencies. It is an interesting concept and one that is seemingly an extension of another popular service for XMR users.
VUALIFI is a valuable Project for the Monero Community
The concept of VUALIFI seems pretty similar to XMR.to, although there are some key differences between the two. Whereas XMR.to provides a convenient XMR payment gateway to Monero users who wish to spend their favorite currency, VUALIFI is taking an entirely different route. The project is all about creating a truly anonymous and secure solution to provide payments using altcoins or non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies. The name comes from the Esperanto word “value,” which means “to conceal.” It can be quite a valuable service to Monero and other cryptocurrency users around the world.
VUALIFI is mainly focusing on providing a convenient user experience. It does not require any personal information from users other than a destination currency and address. For example, if one wants to experiment with Bitcoin Cash, they can do so. It is a service seemingly similar to how ShapeShift works, although the list of supported cryptocurrencies is a lot shorter for the time being. Right now, supported currencies include Bitcoin Cash, Dash, ZCash, and Ethereum. Additional coins and perhaps even digital tokens will be added in the future.
There is no support for Bitcoin itself, which should not come as a big surprise to anyone. There are no plans to do so in the future either, since XMR.to will largely serve its purpose in the foreseeable future. The service is designed to let Monero users spend XMR to make Bitcoin payments, rather than use an exchange service such as ShapeShift. It is good to see such complementary services on offer for the Monero community, as they both seemingly remove the need to rely on exchanges to convert from one currency to the next. It allows for a higher degree of anonymity at the same time, which is always a positive development.
The VUALIFI service was thoroughly tested before the big reveal took place. An alpha version of the platform has been kept under private testing rules for several weeks now. The current release is a public beta and there may still be some small issues along the way. The chances of such an issue occurring is pretty small, but it is still a possibility. If this occurs, notify the VUALIFI team and they will take care of the problem as quickly as possible.
Additionally, the team will monitor the new service to avoid any major issues. Actively monitoring the state of transactions is a good idea and shows the developers are committed to this venture. It will be interesting to see how this venture plays out for XMR users, as it certainly brings a lot of extra functionality to the ecosystem in the near term. Whether or not there will be a demand for this service remains unknown, but it certainly has its merit. Not having to go through exchanges to convert XMR to other currencies is a big step in the right direction.
Providing secure and anonymous payments to other supported cryptocurrencies will have some interesting impacts in the coming months. Most altcoins do not provide any privacy or anonymity. Implementing anonymity technology is very difficult, especially if developers want to do it properly. The Monero team is looking to improve in this area, indicating it is an ever-changing landscape as well. For the currencies that do not provide anonymity right now, a service such as VUALIFI can be quite beneficial.
