Importance of Private Cryptocurrencies
Most people are not aware the majority of cryptocurrencies are not private. The majority of cryptocurrencies in existence (99%) use an open ledger for their transactions, which reveal the sender address, receiver address and transaction amount.
These 'open ledger' cryptocurrencies are often referred to as surveillance coins and blockchain analytics companies are now able to identify important characteristics of address holders.
For example, the company Chainalysis offers KYT (Know Your Transaction) and in alliance with many government entities and centralized exchanges, many of these blockchain analytics companies are able to identify the sender, receiver and transaction value for many cryptocurrency transactions.
Why Privacy Coins are now Important
Richard Knight
For those looking for better privacy, privacy coins are the answer. Privacy coins create anonymous transactions by obfuscating the origin, destination, and transaction amount.
There are many methods used by privacy coins, but the most popular are those methods include that hide a user's real wallet balance, mix multiple transactions and even delayed sending to elude chain analysis.
Privacy coins should be a part of every cryptocurrency investor's portfolio, even if it is only 5% of the portfolio amount.
Top Privacy Coins to HODL in 2022.
Here is our list of the best privacy coins to hold on to in 2022. If you are looking at including a privacy coin in your portfolio, you may want to consider one of these privacy coins.
Monero (XMR) #27
Website | Coinmarketcap On 310,778 watchlists
Monero (XMR) is also one of the most popular private cryptocurrencies on the planet and by default, all its transactions are private. It was the first privacy coin in the world with a focus on being untraceable and private. Monero is a fork of Bytecoin and is currently one of the highest-ranked private cryptocurrencies and the most widely used cryptocurrency used in darknet marketplaces.
Launched in 2014, Monero is a solid privacy cryptocurrency with an active development team. Over the last few years, many exchanges have been delisting Monero as it's not favored by many governmental bodies (due to its private nature). While it's an excellent choice for privacy, this coin is mostly used transactionally and is not expected to offer high returns. Yet, it's an important staple within the privacy coin space.
PIVX (PIVX) #146
Website | Coinmarketcap On 17,921 watchlists
The acronym, PIVX stands for Protected Instant Verified Transaction (or eXchange) (PIVX) and was first launched on January, 30th, 2016.
PIVX is a decentralized, MIT-licensed open-source, fair-launch blockchain/cryptocurrency project managed, developed, governed, and stewarded by a community-driven decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
PIVX is also fully compliant with the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) requirements governed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). These regulatory bodies maintain regulation and laws concerning the use, transmission, and legality of digital assets and the associated data required to use them.
Beam (BEAM) #573
Website | Coinmarketcap On 31,391 watchlists
BEAM is a confidential decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that runs on a combination of two blockchain protocols (LelantusMW and Mimblewimble). Beam transactions are automatically private, meaning the risk of the sender’s or receiver’s data being compromised is not a factor. The project is run as a non-profit organization and there was no pre-mine or ICO when it launched.
Secret Network (SCRT) #146
Website | Coinmarketcap On 125,921 watchlists
A newcomer to the scene and less than a year old, the Secret Network lets decentralized apps create privacy-focused smart contracts for handling sensitive data.
Deemed the data privacy platform for web 3, Secret Network is a blockchain platform that enables encrypted smart contracts. It improves on 'traditional smart contracts' by encrypting inputs and outputs at a protocol level and is a project focused on the privacy of information collected and stored in decentralized apps (DApps).
If Monero and Zcash are the privacy-centric evolution of Bitcoin then Secret Network’s smart contracts are the evolution of Ethereum’s smart contracts.
Secret Network is actively working towards future development that embraces interoperability with other blockchains. At the present, the lack of cross-chain compatibility is a limit to the Secret Network and keeps it from being as widespread or useful as the community developers intend it to be.
Secret Network has the potential to unlock hundreds of new and powerful use cases for Web3 and a private I am watching with a keen eye.
Dero (DERO) #356
Website | Coinmarketcap On 15,391 watchlists
Dero is a privacy cryptocurrency project with the goal of combing the security and decentralization of a proof-of-work blockchain with the scalability and transaction speed of DAG technology.