We have all heard of Bitcoin. Maybe even Ethereum or Litecoin. But, today, I am here to show you the three most underrated cryptocurrencies in the industry right now. These digital assets have clearly defined goals and the potential to break the stratosphere. Let’s see the contestants. Tronix (TRX) Launched by the TRON Foundation to create an effective cost reduction in digital content sharing, Tronix is one of the three most underrated cryptocurrencies in the industry right now. TRON is a decentralised, blockchain-based platform. The foundation introduced a global digital content entertainment platform that encourages sharing of digital contents by banning intermediaries in 2017. TRON was launched to connect content consumers and content producers, reducing cost on the consumer side. Users pay using Tronix, and this exchange is received by the producer. Because of this, the producer can decide to withdraw by exchanging to another currency. Established in September 2017 by Justin Sun, the aim of TRON is ‘the construction of a global and free entertainment content ecosystem, in which creators have the power to freely publish, store, and own their content, interacting directly with consumers thanks to the decentralised issuance, circulation, and trading of digital assets,’ which can be found on their landing page. Also on their website, the TRON Protocol offers ‘scalable, high-availability and high-throughput support that underlies all the decentralised applications in the TRON ecosystem.’ TRON network has built consensus mechanisms, which use minimal cost to solve personal credit issues and identification in online transactions. Using point-to-point transactions, TRON avoids a traditional centralised settlement structure. TRON network can play the host role between users and developers, to ensure authenticity and compliance of info credit. TRON is currently trading at $0.023324 (as of March 29, 2019) with an available supply of 65 billion. Zcash (ZEC) Zcash is an open-source, decentralised cryptocurrency. One of the most underrated in the industry, Zcash offers maximum security for users and provides transparency of transaction. Zcash surprised many in October 2016 when it traded above $4000. It is expected Zcash will surprise once again when the market resuscitates from recession. Aimed at using cryptography, Zcash provides enhanced user privacy to other cryptocurrencies on the market. Transactions are able to be ‘transparent’ and similar to Bitcoin transactions where they are controlled by a t-addr, or can be a zero-knowledge proof called zk-SNARKs. The transactions are then ‘shielded’ and controlled by a z-addr. Coins are in either a transparent or shielded pool. As of December 2017, 4% of Zcash coins were in the shielded pool. Zcash offers private transactors the option of ‘selective disclosure,’ which allows a user to prove payment for auditing purposes. One reason is to allow private transactors choice of compliance on anti-money laundering or tax regulations. ‘Transactions are auditable but disclosure is under the participant’s control.’ The company has hosted various meetings with law enforcement agencies around the US to explain these and has gone on to state ‘they did not develop the currency to facilitate illegal activity.’ Zcash is trading at $57.46 (as of March 29, 2019) with an available supply of 5 million. Monero (XMR) Authored by Nicolas van Saberhagen, Monero is an open-source cryptocurrency created in April 2014. Previously named BitMonero, the coin focuses on fungibility, privacy and decentralisation. Monero uses an obfuscated public ledger, so that anybody can broadcast or send transactions, but no one outside of the transaction can know the source, amount or destination. The untraceable asset’s strength lies in the community it’s built for itself. Monero is a community-driven currency, fully developed through donation. Monero uses a Proof-of-Work mechanism to issue new coins and incentivise users to validate transactions and secure the network. The privacy afforded by Monero has attracted use by people interested in evading law enforcement during events such as the WannaCry Ransomware Attack, or on the dark web buying illegal substances. Despite this infamy, Monero is encouraged to those seeking financial privacy, as payments and account balances remain hidden, unlike many cryptocurrencies. Unlike many derivatives of Bitcoin, Monero is based on the CryptoNight proof-of-work hash algorithm, which comes from the CryptoNote protocol. CryptoNote has significant algorithmic differences to blockchain obfuscation. The ring signatures mix the spender’s input with a group of others, making it exponentially more difficult to establish a link between each subsequent transaction. The ‘stealth addresses’ generated for transactions impossibly complicate discovery of the address of a transaction by anyone other than the sender and the receiver. The ‘ring confidential transactions’ mechanism conceals the amount transferred. Monero is designed to be resistant to application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining, which is commonly used to mine other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The coin can be mined on consumer grade hardware such as x86, x86–64, ARM and GPUs. Monero has an available supply of 16 million XMR and is trading at $53.82 (as of March 29, 2019).
