Crypto.com, the pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform, seeks to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. The MCO Token Sale was conducted in May-June 2017 and raised US$26.7 million. MCO Card is a Visa-branded debit card that draws from a cryptocurrency-funded bank account. Since it’s a Visa card, you can use your MCO Visa card just like you would any other card. The card and bank account are free for holders of cryptocurrency. In order to open an account, you simply sign up, verify your identity, and transfer any of the various accepted cryptocurrencies to your account. At this time, the Visa card is available to customers in Asia. They also have a waitlist for European customers. Customers in the United States does not have access to it at the moment. However, there are plans to change that. Solving the problem of everyday payments has the potential to be huge for cryptocurrency. However, MCO Visa card is not the only project attempting to create crypto-backed debit (or prepaid) cards. Other projects, such as TenX, are working on the same issue. All of these projects run into challenges implementing such cards in a large scale, compliant manner. Crypto.com hopes to crack the code, ultimately getting cryptocurrencies and popular payment methods to play nicely together. Crypto.com was founded in June 2016 in Switzerland and rebranded from Monaco on 6th July 2018. Their first prototype was developed in October of that year. In February of 2017, they were accepted into a Hong Kong Government backed Cyberport incubation program, where they developed their platform until they were ready to launch their token sale in 2017. The sale closed in June with $26.7 million in funding. Their app became available to pre-registered users in August 2017, followed by the official partnership with Visa in October. The team consists of seasoned veterans in the fin-tech space, most of whom have experience in Asia, where Monaco Cards have first been made available. Since MCO Visa cards are backed by cryptocurrency, they don’t have border issues like fiat currencies. As a result, you can use your card anywhere you go. The card will automatically default to the local fiat currency when you make a purchase. The low fees and exchange rates also apply in other countries. Transactions take place at the exact exchange rate that Crypto.com receives as an institutional trader. In contrast, when you use your debit card across borders with most banks, they’ll add an additional percentage to the exchange rate or include a transaction fee. Crypto.com has connections with eight of the top ten international foreign exchange banks to facilitate currency conversion. The MCO Visa card is a compelling option for anyone looking to make everyday purchases with cryptocurrency. It also makes sense for cross-border travelers. However, we can expect the rollout to take a long time and hit a lot of bumps along the way. The financial industry is highly regulated and cryptocurrency-backed payments is a complex issue, even if Crypto.com's solution seems to make it simple and user-friendly.
Verge coin started its cryptocurrency journey in 2014, going by the name of DogecoinDark. The reason it was created was to create a truly private cryptocurrency. The founder of Verge felt that Bitcoin wasn’t anonymous, so he decided to build a new blockchain where transactions could not be traced. Verge uses multiple anonymity-centric networks such as TOR and I2P. The IP addresses of the users are fully obfuscated. The Core QT wallet has built-in TOR integration as well as SSL encryption which adds an extra level of security. Verge is an open source project with an active team of developers from all over the world. The development team is always in close contact with the community. Verge is not a private company funded through an ICO or premining. Wraith Protocol is a technology upgrade package that enables our users to be able to send and receive payments privately across our blockchain by enabling stealth addressing services. Additionally this update removes our QT wallet users off of clearnet and migrates everyone to SSL enabled Tor. Verge focuses on security and maintaining user anonymity just like Monero; so that is its latent upside. Many investors are also applauding its unique technology. Having been improved and integrated with the Wraith Protocol technology, verge users are now able to effortlessly switch between private and public ledgers on the Verge blockchain. Before this, private and public ledgers were mutually selected, meaning that they could not co-exist on a very similar blockchain. But investors are today free to use whatever ledger they want. A good example was when Wraith Protocol switched ON – one will not be able to view the transaction data, not even via the blockchain explorer. Additionally, Verge makes obscure the IP addresses in both instances. When coupled with Wraith Protocol Verge certainly becomes the only undetectable cryptocurrency. Furthermore, transaction speed on Verge is light speed at 5 seconds only, using Simple Payment Verification technology. Verge also maintains a community feel since it’s not a private company. Community members are responsible for the direction of its technology and where the coin heads next. It currently offers a number of secure mobile wallets, including the Tor Android Wallet, which offers mobile anonymity, another big plus over Bitcoin. Verges offers five different Proof-of-Work algorithms for mining. They include; Lyra2rev2, Scrypt, X17, blake2s and myr-groestl. Offering a choice of five different algorithms promotes inclusion, since a wider variety of users will now have an opportunity to not only mine but influence the network. Should one algorithm demand greater mining resources, users get an option of just switching to a different one.