Smaller PoW coins are in constant danger of 51% attacks – Decred (DCR) governance model is the solution
DCR aims to serve three purposes of an ideal currency: being a store of value, being a medium of exchange and being a unit of accounting. Bitcoin is kinda capable of performing these three functions, but currently possesses inferior technology that isn’t suited to make it commercial grade money. A hybrid POS/POW system used by Decred combined with upcoming privacy solutions looks to eliminate these limitations and launch the DCR token into worldwide adoption.
Decred developers decided that a Bitcoin with some form of governance is required to avoid similar problems in the future and thus their current project was created.
Managing partner of a cryptocurrency fund MultiCoin Capital, Tushar Jain pointed out a latent danger of smaller PoW coins in the times of receding prices and miner hash rates. He wrongly included DCR in the list of coins that are in danger of a 51% attack. He should have, instead emphasize the DCR model as a solution for small hash rate coins that can save their networks from malicious attackers and provide a much better, decentralized governance.
As these prices get lower, it opens up lower market cap proof of work coins to 51% attacks. For example, the total hash power securing ETC costs only $12,500 per hour. An attacker with $25,000 of hashpower could cause a 480 block reorg… XMR, DCR in similar situations.
— Tushar Jain (@TusharJain_) November 20, 2018
Politeia will let Decred users and stakeholders propose, discuss, collaborate on and fund new projects, initiatives and consensus changes on the project’s blockchain. The project’s community will fund these activities with money from the mentioned subsidy/treasury, one that Decred’s development organization so far spent $2.8 million/130 thousand DCR from.
Mobile wallet in the works, Trezor support
The team is also almost finished their mobile wallets for both Android and iOS – https://github.com/decred/dcrandroid
Trezor, the cryptocurrency hardware wallet brand from Satoshi Labs, has recently launched a firmware update for their Model One and Model T cryptocurrency wallet which has added support for Decred.
Decred as long-term investment
So, why is Decred a good long-term investment in our opinion:
- The team behind are the creators of Bitcoin suite.
- Devs are very active and updating the github on daily basis since the project started and they are focusing on development instead of hype and marketing.
- It already supports Lightning Network and will soon have privacy feature, mobile wallet and DEX (The tools for atomic swaps everyone is using are created by Decred team).
- Lightning network creators are working together with Decred team for LN implementation on top of their blockchain
- They have a hybrid consensus mechanism – POS (Proof of stake) + POW. And Decred’s POS pays investors a good share (around 20% a year) and it’s very different from Dash and other POS coins where you need to be rich to participate.
- Looking at other governance and forking horror shows. Look at the GINI coefficient that aims to measure decentralization (Decred already has a better distribution than almost any other crypto and there is still time for anyone that wants to pick up a nice stake).
We believe the Decred team and overall project is undervalued in the crypto community. The coin has not gained as much media presence and coverage as Litecoin (LTC) or Bitcoin Cash (BCH), but it has managed to stay alive and grow for years with a rabid community behind it. Decred is also one of the few coins with enabled atomic swaps with the Bitcoin and Litecoin networks.
