Tuesday, February 13, 2018

What Is DigitalNote?

TheMerkle DigitalNote XDN

There is no shortage of cryptocurrency projects in the marketplace right now, even though most altcoins have no clear use cases or purposes. DigitalNote is an exception in this regard, as it focuses on providing untraceable encrypted messages, ASIC-resistant mining, and blockchain deposits with interest. Although some of these concepts can be found in other cryptocurrencies as well, it is evident DigitalNote may become rather valuable in the future.

What is DigitalNote Exactly?

DigitalNote, known as XDN across cryptocurrency trading platforms, wants to be an open currency that everyone benefits from. With its strong focus on privacy, encryption, and interest-bearing blockchain deposits, there is a lot more to this altcoin than most people realize. It is also worth noting that DigitalNote was formerly known as DarkNote and DuckNote, although rebranding is nothing new in the world of cryptocurrency. Instant worldwide privacy-protected transactions are certainly of great appeal to a lot of people.

How Does it Work?

While any cryptocurrency developer can say their coin offers privacy and a degree of anonymity, doing so is something else entirely. In the case of DigitalNote, it makes use of the CryptoNote algorithm. This protocol focuses on anonymous technology, so the foundation for DigitalNote is rather solid. The developers also introduced some unique untraceable encrypted messaging solutions to ensure users get the best of both worlds. Privacy and anonymity are not the same by any means, even though they are closely entwined in this day and age of mass surveillance.

Furthermore, DigitalNote is one of the few remaining cryptocurrencies which prides itself on being ASIC-resistant. As we have seen with Bitcoin and most altcoins, ASIC hardware makes the mining process more efficient but also leads to even more centralization. It is a trade-off which the DigitalNote developers simply didn’t want to make, for obvious reasons. As such, they’ve kept the proof-of-work aspect of XDN fair for everyone, or at least as fair as humanly possible in the mining world.

Moreover, DigitalNote is all about instant worldwide privacy-protected transactions and untraceable encrypted messaging transfers. With low to no fees involved, this decentralized peer-to-peer network certainly packs a punch. There is also the blockchain deposits feature, which allows XDN users to earn 0.5-1% annual interest by locking their coins in a deposit account. Last but not least, DigitalNote claims to be blockchain analysis resistant, which is another major selling point for currencies focusing on privacy and anonymity.

Where can one Spend XDN?

At the time of writing, it was a bit unclear if any merchants accepted DigitalNote as a form of payment. Although this is not uncommon in the world of altcoins, it does highlight the fierce competition in the privacy and anonymity arena. It is very difficult for currencies to make a meaningful impact as of right now. For now, it seems the primary purpose of XDN is to be traded on exchanges and appreciate in value due to speculation first and foremost. This situation will hopefully change in the future, though. XDN is part of the CoinPayments platform, yet it is unclear how many merchants have enabled this feature.

The DigitalNote Roadmap

It is evident there is still a lot of work to be done behind the scenes. For now, the focus is on cooperation with the Freewallet team, ensuring the mobile wallets are production-ready, and database blockchain storage for memory efficiency and scalability. Although all of these features have been in development for some time now, it seems there is still some work to be done. Later this year, we should also see a new Proof-of-Activity layer of security added to XDN.



from The Merkle