By Robert Tiger,
Navcoin, a digital currency based on Satoshi Nakamoto’s open source Bitcoin Core, has launched NavTech — an anonymous, fully decentralized network.
Navcoin, also known as NAV, initially launched in July of 2014 and previously ran a dual-blockchain based anonymous system for a few months from May 2015. However it decided to temporarily remove the service in order to upgrade its blockchain.
When the anonymous system’s first iteration was running, the developers were so confident of its ability to disconnect the link between sender and receiver that they offered a bounty to anyone who could trace a transaction.
The system was never cracked and so the bounty remains unclaimed.
NavTech’s Quest for True Anonymity
Navcoin recently brought back the anonymous send system called NavTech in an official launch on November 1, 2016. However, there is still 5 weeks of testing to go before the anon network is fully decentralized, the open source code is released and the public can add their own servers to the network.
On September 26, developers released the NavTech White Paper which explains the technology in detail. The NavTech system boasts what developers said is a groundbreaking dual-blockchain architecture that removes any link between coins the sender sends, to those that are received.
The Navcoin team believes they have found a way to create a digital currency as private as real cash. However, they openly admit that up until now, this doesn’t mean much until the platform is fully decentralized.
The new NavTech Decentralization White Paper 2016 labeled The Unbreakable Code lays out why decentralization is so important — while banks would say otherwise.
In the ever-increasing interest and demand for anonymous digital currencies, a few have risen to the top and attained community acceptance. Anonymous currencies such as Monero, DASH, Zcash and ShadowCash SDC are at the top of the list. Now Navcoin looks to join these currencies in the quest to offer users a way to financially conduct anonymous transactions with 100% privacy.
Transparency Key to Navcoin Philosophy
Some still have reservations about accepting Navcoin, as it has been through four iterations since its inception. When we reached out to Navcoin community members about this, here was the response;
Navcoin had a delay on the launch of anonymous features due to them being part of the plan to enhance the usability of the platform. Developers included some features in the code like bip38 allowing Navcoin to have ”thin” wallets, Android wallet etc., in order to do that we had to hardfork…
When hard fork took place, it was done through Bittrex, price started to increase, then at Poloniex since people moved coins to Bittrex which created a large unrealistic spike in price, at that time it peaked at 16k satoshi, Poloniex then took a while to update to the new version, subsequently the price went down, eventually they updated their network.
Additionally there was a large spike in price when Monero XMR was ”accepted” into “Darkmarkets”, peaking at around 11k satoshi, since then price has corrected.
Navcoin was never PRE-MINED, it never needed an ICO to attract venture capital and supporters have never dumped, if you look at the rich list it remains unchanged.
Navcoin Goes Where No Coin Has Gone Before
As with many digital currencies before it, Navcoin has faced some challenges. However, it now seems developers finally have things ironed out, and are making progress. The are detailing the step-by-step actions required to transform Navcoin into what they claim is one of the best privacy-focused digital currencies and technologies to date. It will have many new dynamic features including NavTech Anonymous Send, Subchain as a Service, a GUI wallet, an Ambassador Program, and much more.
The plan is for Navcoin to perform almost instant transactions at a rate of up to 13,000 per-second, with blocks scalable to 20MB and 30 seconds between blocks.
Navcoin developers, along with dedicated community members, believe privacy in any financial transaction is an individual’s democratic right. The NavTech White Paper contains a complete technical breakdown of how this works, for interested readers.
Navcoin has also been added to Coin Payments merchant gateway system, allowing online and offline merchants to accept Navcoin. Its integration into the merchant gateway with NavTech System allows anonymous purchasing of products and services.
Navcoin plans to release its “Subchain as a Service” feature. The team is currently in talks with other project developers regarding “NavTech” and “Subchain as a Service” integration.
Much Progress So Far, but More to Come
To sum it all up, Navcoin aims to blaze a new trail in the world of anonymous digital currencies and have come a long way since its beginning. The Navcoin team has faced some challenges along the way but have remained steadfast. The result is a seemingly impressive anonymous, decentralized currency — as well as resources for users to create a completely private and secure network environment.