The "dark" alternative to the now-famous online currency Bitcoin, Darkcoin , saw its value increase tenfold in one month, reaching from 75 cents to seven dollars.
On the occasion of this particular "explosion", Wired hosts an article about this "cousin" of Bitcoin, which is promoted as a means of online transactions that provides much greater anonymity than Bitcoin, "mixing" users' transactions so that it is very difficult to determine the recipient of a payment.
As reported in the publication, it seems that the promise of further anonymity has brought a “mini boom” to this online currency, which is considered one of the fastest growing cryptocurrencies currently in existence, in the “post-Bitcoin” era. The total value of Darkcoins in circulation is estimated at around $30 million.
Darkcoin was launched by Evan Duffield, a 32-year-old software developer in Arizona, in January. Its proponents say the “dark coin” serves a real and existing need for anonymity, which the Bitcoin network cannot guarantee, as transactions can be observed on the publicly available record known as the “blockchain.” This forces users who want to hide their transactions to use special “laundering” methods.
Darkcoin adds an extra layer of anonymity by automatically combining every transaction a user makes with those of two others (a feature called Darksend) so that anyone analyzing the corresponding blockchain has difficulty determining where the money ends up.
Although, according to the report, its unusually rapid growth may be fueled by observers hoping for a new “gold mine,” its price increase may be a sign that Darkcoin is here to stay. According to Christophe Atlas, a Bitcoin consultant and ardent supporter of Darkcoin, its value stems from its characteristics as a payment system, not as an “investment.” “This is not a clear-cut ʽbubbleʼ resulting from expectations. There is strong evidence that the market price is based on the fundamental value of the currency,” he says. Allen Price, a trader specializing in “atlcoins” (alternatives to Bitcoin), also shares the same view. Also, according to Duffield, there may be another, more specific reason: the mining process for it, like Bitcoin, is "lighter" and more "manageable" than a regular CPU, while GPU chips, which generate higher temperatures, are recommended for bitcoins. This has the result that as the weather improves and temperatures rise, more and more users are turning to Darkcoin as summer approaches.
Of course, the easiest explanation for its success is clearly more "dark", as Darkcoin has likely become extremely popular on the "black market": the extra anonymity it entails obviously makes it attractive on websites such as the infamous "Silk Road", on which, after all, the preferred means of transaction was Bitcoin.
Source: naftemporiki.gr
