Verge is a cryptocurrency and blockchain focused on privacy, designed to offer a fast, efficient, and decentralized payments network, enhancing the original Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. It includes additional privacy features by integrating the anonymity network Tor into its wallet, known as vergePay, and provides the option of sending transactions to stealth addresses. The project describes itself as community-driven, relying on volunteers and taking pride in being open source. Verge was initially launched in October 2014 as DogeCoinDark, a fork of Peercoin (PPC). In February 2016, it was rebranded as Verge to facilitate easier mass-market adoption and to distinguish itself from Dogecoin (DOGE), with which it shares no direct connection. The project is now based on the Bitcoin source code.

Verge was launched in 2016 by Justin Valo, also known as "Justin Vendetta" or "Sunerok," a developer with over 20 years of experience in network security and nearly a decade in blockchain technology. Valo initiated the cryptocurrency as a passion project aimed at providing individuals worldwide with enhanced privacy. Valo has mentioned that he started programming at the age of 8 and pursued a career in network administration after high school, working for a Fortune 500 company. A few years later, he founded his own network security company. Valo developed an interest in Bitcoin in 2011 and became involved with Dogecoin following its launch in late 2013. He embarked on creating Verge because he felt that existing altcoins were not sufficiently functional as digital currencies and that other privacy-focused projects like Bytecoin (BCN) and Monero (XMR) were inadequate. In 2017, Valo was appointed to the advisory board of TokenPay (TPAY), a cryptocurrency with a focus on privacy.

According to its "blackpaper," Verge was developed to realize Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto's vision of a decentralized, trustless electronic payment system, while offering enhanced privacy compared to Bitcoin. To achieve this objective, Verge incorporates several critical privacy features. It automatically channels all traffic to and from its vergePay wallet through the Tor network, which anonymizes the traffic and conceals IP addresses. Additionally, it provides dual-key stealth addressing, enabling senders to create single-use wallet addresses on behalf of recipients to safeguard the recipients' privacy. It also employs atomic swaps to facilitate trustless peer-to-peer cross-blockchain transactions. Verge aims for widespread adoption, and in pursuit of this, the Verge Core team engages in strategic partnerships to boost its visibility and utilization. It sponsors professional athletes and has collaborated with various platforms, including the payments and rewards ecosystem MobiePay, the crypto payments platform and ATM provider MeconCash, and the blockchain-based online gambling platform Crazy8Token, among others. The Verge Core team frequently depends on crowdfunding and community backing to scale operations, market the project, and secure partnerships. In April 2018, the project raised 75 million XVG (approximately $7 million at that time) to finance integration with a major payments processor.

The total maximum supply of Verge is set at 16.5 billion XVG. Verge indicates that this high supply cap is deliberately designed to keep the value of each token low, allowing users to avoid fractional payments. Additionally, it helps prevent any individual from acquiring a substantial amount of XVG, which could be used to manipulate the market. Verge did not conduct an initial coin offering, nor was there any premining of tokens. As a result, the Verge development team maintains that it does not hold a significant portion of XVG. All currently circulating XVG has been introduced through the Verge blockchain's proof-of-work mining process, which employs a multi-algorithm approach and supports Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, Myr-groestl, and Blake2s. Verge undergoes regular halving events that decrease the block reward for miners by 50%. According to the current emission schedule, these rewards are halved every 500,000 blocks.

The Verge network utilizes a proof-of-work consensus algorithm akin to that of Bitcoin, upon which Verge's code is based. For a transaction to be added to the blockchain, at least 51% of all full nodes in the network must concur on its validity. New blocks are generated through a mining process, where users compete to solve complex, energy-intensive problems. Unlike Bitcoin, Verge supports five distinct mining algorithms. According to the development team, this enhances network security by allowing a broader range of participants in the mining process. In April 2018, Verge experienced an attack exploiting the Scrypt mining algorithm to instamine approximately 20 million XVG. The project responded by initiating a hard fork to resolve the issue. Although often described as a 51% attack, founder and lead developer Valo refuted this characterization, clarifying that it was actually a timewarp attack, which involves manipulating block timestamps to lower mining difficulty.

XVG is available for purchase on numerous exchanges, including Binance, HitBTC, Bittrex, and Huobi Global. It can be traded against fiat currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the euro, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), as well as the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Are you interested in buying XVG or other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin? Eulerpool offers a straightforward, step-by-step guide to teach you all about crypto and how to purchase your first coins.