Decred review: A look at the DCR Coin

Decred Review: Beginners guide

Decred (DCR): Decentralised credit.

What is Decred ? Decred is a decentralised cryptocurrency that is similar to Bitcoin but has community governance and a hybrid consensus protocol.

What gives it value?

It is decentralised.
Community members can vote on future Decred developments.
It has a capped supply of 21 million coins.

Interesting Technology:

The hybrid dual proof of stake (POS) and proof of work mining (POW) protocols for building the network is a notable difference. Through POW, transactions are processed through raw computation power with expensive mining equipment that is prone to corporatisation. Whilst POS gives DCR holders the ability to stake their tokens to process transactions and earn more DCR as a reward. POS also gives stakeholders the right to vote on important developmental decisions.
Politeia is a censorship-resistant public proposal platform where users can submit their own Decred project proposals to be voted on and admitted to self-funding from DCR’s block subsidy.
Atomic Swaps is a function that allows users to conduct trustless cross-chain coin swaps without an intermediary exchange.

Notable team:

Rather than having an in-house team, Decred uses a novel contractor model that remunerates proven contributors for their work.

Notable partnerships:

VC, a private capital investment firm has invested in Decred due to the brilliance of its hybrid POW and POS protocol.
YBF ventures partnered with Decred to help build the world’s first decentralised dedicated Web 3.0 hub.

Decred Review: The Good

Its hybrid POW and POS helps to stop the network from becoming corporatised with only those who can afford expensive mining equipment.
It is easy to mine and transactions.
Community members can vote on important development decisions.
Its team are hard working and transparent.
It focuses first on building working technology rather than running marketing campaigns that make the project seem further ahead than it is.

Decred Review: The Not So Good

It could be argued that it is just another cryptocurrency in a sea of similar cryptocurrencies. It is a good project, but it is not the only one of its kind.

Future Roadmap:

Lightning Network functionality will be finished and implemented by the end of 2018.
Privacy features to be implemented at an unknown date.

CONCLUSION:

Decred is very similar to Bitcoin; an autonomous decentralised cryptocurrency that is made to service customers and merchants with a digital capped currency that isn’t controlled by a central authority. Its hybrid POW and POS protocol that gives the community a say in how it develops is what sets it apart. In my opinion, it seems to have good intentions in providing a secure technology that provides a good service rather than making a large profit. However, it is another cryptocurrency amongst many, and although in the future there might be a need for many different cryptocurrencies, there is just as much chance that only one will gain mass adoption and long-term use. Whether or not Decred will be the chosen coin is not easily foreseeable.

Decred Price:

The current Decred price, market cap and charts.

Local exchanges:

Coinspot: www.coinspot.com.au

Cointree: www.cointree.com

Overseas exchanges:

Poloniex: https://poloniex.com/

Bitfinex: www.bitfinex.com

Bittrex: www.bittrex.com

Changelly: https://changelly.com/

Where to store this crypto:

Desktop wallet: https://www.decred.org/downloads/