BitcoinDark

Unlike BCH and BTG, this is a relatively old currency. It appeared in the times when BTC was faithful to Satoshi’s principles in 2008, had no particular problems with speed and was criticized by few people. The appearance of BTCD, in contrast to the appearance of BCH and BTG, did not cause a lot of scandal and passed relatively unnoticed. So far, its popularity is orders of magnitude below the popularity of the aforementioned forks. Nevertheless, BTCD has two useful features.

The first difference between BTCD and BTC, BCH and BTG is transaction anonymity. All transactions of the original BTC and most of its forks are publicly available online, albeit without the names of the owners. BTCD does not have that. In this sense, it is closer to such popular currencies as Dash, ZCash, Monero.

The second difference is publicly available mining (like BTG), and simultaneously using PoW and PoS methods (which none of the listed forks has). BTC and most well-known altcoins use PoW (Proof of Work) method, which leads to miners’ competition and huge power consumption – orders of magnitude higher than a transaction potentially requires. The more computing power a miner has, the greater his reward. The PoS (Proof of Stake) method is an energy-efficient alternative to PoW, where the reward depends not on computing power, but on the number of coins in the miner’s wallet. However, this method also has its own disadvantage, inclining users to passive capital accumulation. The hybrid PoW-PoS system is designed to avoid the extremes of each method.

BTCD’s exchange rate and capitalization were relatively constant in 2015, and have been rising steadily since 2016. Of course, the January fall touched this cryptocurrency, but overall its growth was noticeably smoother and more stable than that of the market’s flagships.