Verge (XVG): Overview and Examples of Cryptocurrency

What Is Verge (XVG)?

Verge (XVG) is an open-source, decentralized cryptocurrency that claims to offer completely anonymous transactions by obfuscating the location and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the transacting participants. Verge trades on leading cryptocurrency exchanges with the symbol XVG.

Verge uses proof-of-work consensus that supports five different algorithms: Scrypt, X17, Lyra2rev2, myr-groestl, and blake2s. This allows users to choose from different mining devices.

History of Verge (XVG)

Verge was announced in 2014 under the name DogeCoinDark in the BitcoinTalk forum, where many cryptocurrencies were announced in the past. It was created by Justin "Sunerok" Valo, a software engineer and developer, who felt there was not enough anonymity in the existing blockchains. DogeCoinDark is rumored to be a fork of Dogecoin, but some in the community believe it to be a Bitcoin fork. In 2016, DogeCoinDark was rebranded to Verge to prevent affiliation with DogeCoin.

The Verge (XVG) network apparently suffered a 51% attack in April 2018, with the attacker reportedly taking about $1.1 million in XVG. Another attack on the blockchain occurred in May 2018, resulting in the attacker taking about $800,000 in XVG. This was followed in February 2021 by a third attack on the network.

Verge has a storied past, but the team continues developing and growing its footprint in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. It is listed on several decentralized exchanges, and in 2023, an ERC-20 token (XVGETH) was released, allowing users to swap XVG and XVGETH.

The total number of XVG is 16.55 million, and about 16.51 million were in circulation as of June 27, 2028.

Concerns About Verge

Verge focuses on anonymity by obscuring users' IP addresses. An IP address is an identifying number associated with a connected device. Using an IP address, it is possible to trace the user and the online activities they performed on the connected device; obfuscating IP addresses makes transactions completely untraceable.

Verge ensures anonymity through the use of multiple anonymity-centric networks such as The Onion Router (TOR) and Invisible Internet Project (I2P). TOR protects users' identities by bouncing their communications over a distributed network of relays and tunnels. This network is run by volunteers spread across the globe. I2P encrypts user data and sends it through a volunteer-run anonymous peer-to-peer globally distributed network.

While anyone can view the various transactions occurring on the Verge public ledger, the use of TOR and I2P network layers hide the location—as well as the IP addresses—of the transacting participants.

Because Verge provides its users with this level of anonymity, it is subject to emerging regulations for privacy coins in some jurisdictions. Centralized and regulated exchanges have removed privacy coins from their listings to avoid clashing with regulators, making it more difficult for users in certain areas to access these coins or convert them to fiat currencies.

Verge vs. Bitcoin

Both Verge and Bitcoin are decentralized digital currencies. However, Verge was created with a special emphasis on privacy. As a virtual currency, Verge has a significantly smaller market capitalization than Bitcoin.

While the supply of Bitcoin is limited to 21,000,000, the total number of Verge tokens is greater—it is limited to a total supply of 16,555,000,000. Both Verge and Bitcoin use a proof-of-work (PoW) system to verify transactions on the blockchain, but Verge is altered to accept five different mining algorithms, which is believed to have been how the blockchain was attacked in the past.

Verge also has a halving schedule, where the mining rewards are cut in half at specific intervals. The Bitcoin block reward halves every 210,000 blocks, but Verge uses a 500,000-block schedule.

The Bottom Line

Verge (XVG) is a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency that uses proof-of-work and five different algorithms. It also uses the TOR network and I2P to hide users' addresses.

The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info. As of the date this article was written, the author does not own XVG.