Bitcoin Diamond (BCD) is a fork of Bitcoin that occurs at the predetermined height of block 495,866 and therewith a new chain will be generated as the BCD. Bitcoin Diamond miners will begin creating blocks with a new proof-of-work algorithm, and will consecutively develop and enhance the protection for account transfer and privacy based on original features of BTC. This will cause a bifurcation of the Bitcoin blockchain. The original Bitcoin blockchain will continue unaltered, but a new branch of the blockchain will split off from the original chain. It shares the same transaction history with Bitcoin until it starts branching and coming into a unique block from which it diverges. As a result of this process, a new cryptocurrency was created which we call “Bitcoin Diamond”. Bitcoin Diamond coin could win over a lot of Bitcoin users with its faster transaction times, lower fees and easier access to new users. Bitcoin is a hugely popular coin but it can be quite difficult to use! Many critics of Bitcoin argue that the coin won’t be a valid replacement for normal money until users can make small purchases; quickly and easily. A network offering these features will also appeal to small businesses dealing in low priced, high-volume goods like coffee or fast food. However, in my opinion the price of Bitcoin Diamond will have to be more stable before it attracts any big-brand clients like Starbucks or McDonalds. One of the main safety features of blockchain technology is encryption. Private personal information is hidden using computer code. Some critics of Bitcoin think that not enough user information is encrypted. For example, all transactions and their amounts can be seen by anyone using the Bitcoin network. This can make tracing the real identities of users fairly easy for governments and other organizations. The team behind Bitcoin Diamond wanted to encrypt more user information. However, they have recently decided not to add more privacy features to BCD. They feel that governments will soon start passing laws that stop cryptocurrencies from hiding user data. In a statement published on Medium, the team noted Japan and Russia as examples of this trend. Bitcoin Diamond is processing much larger blocks than Bitcoin in the same amount of time. Larger blocks mean more transactions and a quicker average transaction time. Bitcoin Diamond makes it easy to mine BCD with less powerful computers. GPU mining allows more users to get involved in supporting the network and this can only be a good thing. Bitcoin is the world’s top cryptocurrency but it’s still quite difficult to use. Diamond coin’s high transaction speeds and low price could make it perfect for buying and selling small and inexpensive products like coffee or bus tickets.
Vertcoin is a decentralized currency owned by its users, a P2P cryptocurrency in the same vein as Bitcoin and Litecoin. Like its two predecessors, Vertcoin exists solely as a currency, and it uses proof of work to reach distributed consensus. Unlike its two predecessors, however, Vertcoin is dedicated to keeping its mining functions decentralized, so contrary to most PoW coins, it’s ASIC resistant. Branding their project as “The people’s coin,” Vertcoin’s team believes that ASIC resistance invites a fairer, more democratized currency for both users and miners. Along these lines, Vertcoin sports its very own 1-click miner, a program meant to make mining more accessible to the general public. The motivation of Vertcoin was the fact that Scrypt-based ASIC mining chip that is used to mine Scrypt derivative coins such as Litecoin and Dogecoin is entering the mass market. That coupled with strong mining pool causes the strength of a cryptocoin to drop as it becomes easier for a specific party to pull a 51% attack and even monopolize the network. Scrypt-Adaptive-Nfactor was created to address that issue. Vertcoin is zero premined and as of the current design, only 84 million coins would ever be created. Vertcoin is said to be the next generation of coins due to its unique hashing algorithm. There may be more altcoins created based on this hashing algorithm in order to defend their network against ASIC miners. Like most all pre-2015 coins, Vertcoin took a deathblow after Mt. Gox was hacked, throwing the entire market into a crypto winter. As such, it was relatively inactive until the revival last spring/summer. Since then, it has had steady climb up the market cap ladder. A 2014 International Business Times article mentions Vertcoin as a potential Bitcoin successor. The article notes that it ''hopes to offer an alternative. By taking the foundations of Bitcoin and making some adjustments, Vertcoin punishes miners who use powerful machines and work together in 'pools' to monopolise the mining market.'' On July 1, 2014, Vertcoin released a wallet supporting Stealth Address transactions. On December 13, 2014 (block 208301), Vertcoin forked from Scrypt-Adaptive-N proof-of-work function to Lyra2RE as a proactive defense against emerging Scrypt-Adaptive-N capable ASICs. On August 10, 2015 (block 347000), Vertcoin forked from Lyra2RE to Lyra2REv2 because a botnet was controlling more than 50% of the hashing power of Vertcoin network. On May 7, 2017, Segregated Witness (SegWit) feature was activated in the main network. SegWit update includes the Lightning Network technology that was also demonstrated in action during the same day.'