Those of you who have been involved in the cryptic world since 2014 may remember a particular cryptographic project called ViaCoin. Considered at the time the fastest digital currency on the market, ViaCoin is still actively developed today.
What is ViaCoin and how does it work?
ViaCoin is an open source cryptocurrency that shares its paths with Bitcoin protocol, from which it is derived. The first thing worth noting on ViaCoin is the interesting set of underlying technologies. The cryptocurrency boasts a 120 byte OP-RETURN protocol.
In fact, it is worth noting that ViaCoin was developed in response to an update of the Bitcoin protocol that reduced the capacity of the OP-RETURN script from 80 bytes to 40 bytes. ViaCoin was created to complement this shortcoming and to address some of Bitcoin's fundamental problems such as network delays.
According to CoinMarketCap, the circulating supply is 23.087.627 VIA on a maximum supply for 23.176.392 VIA, and the mining prizes take place at regular intervals, every six months to be more precise.
One of the main features of ViaCoin is the fact that it uses the Vialectrum and Viacoin Core wallets to allow users to connect to Tor nodes. The blocking time is 24 seconds and the network boasts 175 transactions per second, cross-chain atomic exchanges, technologies like Seqwit, Lightning Network and an AuxPoW extraction network with 93 TH / s hashing power on the network.
The use of the SegWit technology has enhanced cryptocurrency, which is now much faster than most other cryptocurrencies.
Characteristics of ViaCoin
ViaCoin uses a modernized code (if compared to Bitcoin, at least) that uses C ++ and Python 3. One of the most noteworthy developments is the fact that the team behind the project has created a hierarchical deterministic key generation technology that makes it easier for currency users to restore and protect their portfolios.
The coin is now compatible with the B19P program, a feature that miners will surely enjoy. Another positive aspect is the blocking of the hash time in the smart money contract. This feature allows you to make secure payments from one party to another without intermediaries or external parties. In short, it means that any other transaction will be prevented until a certain time change occurs.
ViaCoin also uses Sicache, a UTXO cache that accelerates and optimizes transactions, as well as an algorithm specifically designed to increase output from mining. The algorithm is designed in such a way as to favor low-cost transactions compared to transactions with higher fees. As mentioned above, anonymity is one of the main objectives of the project. Thus, by offering TOPR support, the development team ensures that the identity of the platform users is secure.
Returning to the UTXO cache, this has been optimized for faster transaction times. The blockchain is also optimized to save disk space and memory thanks to a technology called mempool transaction filtering.
Roadmap
The platform has seen its fair share of innovations and changes in recent years. However, there is still a lot of work to be done and, according to the official roadmap, the team has recently finished working on fine-tuning all the details regarding support for Trezor. The next step involves working on the implementation of the Lightning Network daemon in order to bring the Network Wallet to the masses. For more details on this topic, you can consult the updated project white paper.
Future plans include support for VIA currency by ATMs generated by generic Bytes and various new exchange lists. The company also hopes to expand its team and introduce the Zap Viacoin portfolio, a Lightning Network portfolio based on Jack Mallers' Zap portfolio. The team is also working on the development of the Vialectrum iOS Wallet (the Android version is already available).
Last but not least, the team plans to include Schnorr and MAST signatures, but both features still require a lot of work until it is ready.
How to buy VIA
The purchase of VIA is not complicated, even if it is not what you would call a very popular cryptocurrency. According to the CoinMarketCap market section, some of the most popular exchanges from which VIA can be purchased are Binance, Bittrex, Poloniex, Coinroom and Upbit for BTC, ETH and BNB.
Conclusion
To conclude, ViaCoin is an innovative project that has a lot of things to do, such as super-fast transactions, greater versatility and security, as well as a great team behind it. ViaCoin seems to be very profitable for both users and miners. If ViaCoin is a good investment opportunity, we can not say. However, it may be worth investing now in the currency while prices are low. As the Lightning network will inevitably become more mainstream, so will the popularity of the currency. Some of the best things about this project are its clear policy towards the technologies it uses and its solid roadmap that, at least from an investor's point of view, should be an advantage.